When it comes to learning an instrument, the piano is among the most popular. Now a new study sheds light on the process that takes place as seniors learn to play the piano, and reveals the extent to which this activity helps them maintain cognitive abilities and motor skills over the long term.

The authors of this study, published in the journal Brain Sciences, undertook research with 86 volunteers with an average age of 72.5. They were all in good health, with no significant neurological or motor problems. Some of them had played the piano in the past but were still beginners.

The researchers assessed the participants’ working memory and learning ability by asking them to perform several sequences of actions. The volunteers were asked to press piano keys in a precise sequence, displayed on a screen, and had to perform this task as quickly and accurately as possible without stopping.

The results surfaced two striking observations: participants would improve rapidly before plateauing, which suggests their skills were refined as they practised.

“The level of cognitive and motor demands depends on the learning phase. We have shown that the requirements increase exponentially during the learning process and approach a plateau,” cognitive neuroscience researcher Florian Worschech told Psypost.

The experts also noticed that the volunteers’ visual behaviour changed with their level of mastery: their eyes moved less and less as they trained, suggesting that they needed less visual information as they progressed.

“In the course of learning, movement sequences are increasingly consolidated in procedural memory and explicit information loses importance. After a certain time, the participants are often no longer capable of explicitly recalling the motor sequence,” the researchers outlined.

In general terms, this study shows just how much learning a motor skill like playing the piano demands of our brains. And this is true even when we’ve reached a certain level of mastery: tasks made automatic by learning stimulate us cognitively, even if we tend to think otherwise.

That’s why it’s so important to encourage piano playing in old age to delay the onset of cognitive decline. This activity requires not only paying attention to sounds, but also moving one’s eyes over a score and one’s fingers over precise keys. There’s no better way to keep your brain youthful.