How playing an instrument benefits your brain

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Anita Collins |

TED-Ed

• July 2014

When you listen to music, multiple areas of your brain become engaged and active. But when you actually play an instrument, that activity becomes more like a full-body brain workout. What's going on? Educator Anita Collins explains the fireworks that go off in musicians' brains when they play and examines some of the long-term positive effects of this mental workout. (Directed by Sharon Colman Graham, narrated by Addison Anderson, music by Peter Gosling)