We've long heard rumours that playing Mozart to your unborn child can boost his IQ before he's even entered the world.But now scientists say that music doesn't just work for the unborn. In fact, playing a musical instrument could make both children and adults brainier.
The latest research suggests that regularly tickling the ivories or blowing your own trumpet, can change the shape and power of the brain and could even increase IQ by seven points.
Areas of the brain that control motor skills, hearing, the storing of audio information and memory, were all found to become larger during the learning of a musical instrument and the result could be improved alertness, planning and emotional perception.
Lutz Jäncke, a psychologist at the University of Zurich, told the Telegraph: "Learning to play a musical instrument has definite benefits and can increase IQ by seven points, in both children and adults.
"We found that even in people over the age of 65 after four or five months of playing an instrument for an hour a week there were strong changes in the brain."
"For children especially, we found that learning to play the piano for instance teaches them to be more self-disciplined, more attentive and better at planning. All of these things are very important for academic performance, so can therefore make a child brighter."
Along with an improved ability to learn foreign languages and a greater perception of others' emotions, perhaps your first stop on the dreaded Christmas shop should be the music store.
shopping spree
