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Music lessons as a child could improve your brainpower for life, researchers have revealed.

Researchers found that children who undertook early musical training were better at quickly processing and retaining information and problem solving.

Musically trained children had to have played an instrument for at least two years in regular private music lessons.

Researchers found that children who undertook early musical training were better at quickly processing and retain information and problem solving: This image shows functional MRI imaging during mental task switching: Panels A and B shows brain activation in musically trained and untrained children, respectively. Panel C shows brain areas that are more active in musically trained than musically untrained children.

The controlled study using functional MRI brain imaging was undertaken by researchers at Boston Children's Hospital.

'Since executive functioning is a strong predictor of academic achievement, even more than IQ, we think our findings have strong educational implications,' said Nadine Gaab, who led the research.

'While many schools are cutting music programs and spending more and more time on test preparation, our findings suggest that musical training may actually help to set up children for a better academic future.'

Executive functions are the high-level cognitive processes that enable people to quickly process and retain information, regulate their behaviors, make good choices, solve problems, plan and adjust to changing mental demands.

Gaab and colleagues compared 15 musically trained children, 9 to 12, with a control group of 12 untrained children of the same age.

Musically trained children had to have played an instrument for at least two years in regular private music lessons. (On average, the children had played for 5.2 years and practiced 3.7 hours per week, starting at the age of 5.9.)

The researchers say 'our findings suggest that musical training may actually help to set up children for a better academic future'

The researchers similarly compared 15 adults who were active professional musicians with 15 non-musicians.

Both control groups had no musical training beyond general school requirements.

Since family demographic factors can influence whether a child gets private music lessons, the researchers matched the musician/non-musician groups for parental education, job status (parental or their own) and family income.

The groups, also matched for IQ, underwent a battery of cognitive tests, and the children also had functional MRI imaging (fMRI) of their brains during testing.

On cognitive testing, adult musicians and musically trained children showed enhanced performance on several aspects of executive functioning.

On fMRI, the children with musical training showed enhanced activation of specific areas of the prefrontal cortex during a test that made them switch between mental tasks.

These areas, the supplementary motor area, the pre-supplementary area and the right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, are known to be linked to executive function.

'Our results may also have implications for children and adults who are struggling with executive functioning, such as children with ADHD or [the] elderly,' says Gaab.

'Future studies have to determine whether music may be utilized as a therapeutic intervention tools for these children and adults."