The more music training children receive, the better their brains become at distinguishing between similar speech sounds.

Nina Kraus at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, and her colleagues studied children aged six to nine years from low-income neighbourhoods in Los Angeles, California, who took part in an after-school programme of musical instruction. The authors found that children who were in the programme for two years had faster and more-sensitive brainwave responses to syllables such as 'ba' and 'ga' than those who had been enrolled in the class for only a year.

This kind of speech processing is important for reading and language skills, the authors say, adding that music training could improve brain function in children.

J. Neuro. 34, 11913–11918 (2014)