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[00:00.40] The physical and mental dexterity needed to master a musical instrument has long been associated with improved cognitive performance.

[00:08.10] But now, researchers at the University of Edinburgh have demonstrated it can also delay the mental decline associated with ageing.

[00:16.34] The team tested more than 400 people from the Lothian birth cohort, a long-term study group set up in 1936, and found significantly higher levels of performance in both mental processing speed and visuospatial reasoning for those in their seventies and early eighties, who'd learnt to play an instrument in their youth.

[00:36.79] The results held up even when educational attainment and economic status were taken into account, and begs the question, could learning to play an instrument in later life have a similarly positive impact on ageing?

[00:50.08] The researchers are now appealing for people who've only started to play an instrument as adults to take part in a new study.