In all the world's cultures, people sing, play instruments, and celebrate with music. It plays such an important role in our lives that people devote much time to its study. Experts (专家) are finding that because of the 1 our brains deal with music, learning to play an
instrument or just listening to music can have a large number of benefits (益处).
Music education has 2 a lot of attention. Learning to play an instrument can help children improve Maths, science, and language 3. One study in Canada followed children's IQ scores for nine months,4 that children who studied music had the biggest test score improvements. The secret may lie in the way reading music and playing notes (音符) uses several parts of the 5 ， raising our ability to learn school subjects.
Music is also used for 6 purposes, such as the treatment of diseases which influence memory. The secret lies in the way the brain deals with music. That's 7 an old song can remind you of something that happened years ago. For patients suffering from diseases like Alzheimer's, listening to music can help wake up hidden memories by building up musical pathways to memories.
Studies of the music and brain connection often centre on classical music, 8 it activates (激活) both the left and right sides of our brains. One study observed (观察) people's brain activity as they listened to music by 9 William Boyce. It found that the brain activity was highest during the short breaks (中断) between the movements of a piece. During each break, the person's brain expected what would come next, while organizing what he or she had just 10 . This process (进程) is similar to the way our brain organizes information. It may explain why classical music can help improve memory.
