Did you know that every time musicians pick up their instruments, there are fireworks going off all over their brain?
知道每当音乐家弹奏他们的乐器时，他们脑里是到处在施放烟火吗？
On the outside, they may look calm and focused, reading the music and making the precise and practiced movements required.
由外表看来，他们很冷静、专注看着乐谱，做出所需的准确和熟练动作。
But inside their brains, there's a party going on.
但他们的脑里正开着一个派对。
How do we know this?
我们怎么会知道呢？
Well, in the last few decades, neuroscientists have made enormous breakthroughs in understanding how our brains work by monitoring them in real time with instruments like fMRI and PET scanners.
在过去的几十年中，神经科学家对理解脑功能有了巨大的突破，功归于能即时监测脑功能的仪器，例如功能性磁振造影(fMRI) 、正电子发射计算机断层扫描仪(PET)。
When people are hooked up to these machines, tasks, such as reading or doing math problems, each have corresponding areas of the brain where activity can be observed.
这些仪器扫描显示阅读、做数学题等行为引起脑内相应的活动区域。
But when researchers got the participants to listen to music, they saw fireworks.
但给研究参与者听音乐时神经学家看到了烟火。
Multiple areas of their brains were lighting up at once, as they processed the sound, took it apart to understand elements like melody and rhythm, and then put it all back together into unified musical experience.
处理声音的同时脑里多处同时亮起，将其分解成旋律、节奏等元素，而后再重新组合成一个完整的音乐体验。
And our brains do all this work in the split second between when we first hear the music and when our foot starts to tap along.
这些大脑运作发生在听到音乐和脚开始打节拍的一瞬间。
But when scientists turned from observing the brains of music listeners to those of musicians, the little backyard fireworks became a jubilee.
而当科学家由观察聆听者的大脑转至音乐家的大脑，后院的小烟火变成了喜年庆典烟火。
It turns out that while listening to music engages the brain in some pretty interesting activities, playing music is the brain's equivalent of a full-body workout.
事实证明，听音乐时大脑忙碌于一些很有趣的活动，而弹奏音乐是相当于大脑的全身锻炼。
The neuroscientists saw multiple areas of the brain light up, simultaneously processing different information in intricate, interrelated, and astonishingly fast sequences.
神经科学家看到了脑内多处亮起，同时以复杂、互相关联、惊人的快速序列处理不同的讯息。
But what is it about making music that sets the brain alight?
但究竟弹奏音乐是如何将大脑点亮的呢？
The research is still fairly new, but neuroscientists have a pretty good idea.
虽然该研究才刚起步，但神经科学家有不错的理念。
Playing a musical instrument engages practically every area of the brain at once, especially the visual, auditory, and motor cortices.
弹奏乐器同时动用到大脑几乎每区域，特别是视觉、听觉、运动皮质。
As with any other workout, disciplined, structured practice in playing music strengthens those brain functions, allowing us to apply that strength to other activities.
犹如其它锻炼，有纪律、组织性的弹奏练习能加强这些脑功能，因而应用到别的活动。
The most obvious difference between listening to music and playing it is that the latter requires fine motor skills, which are controlled in both hemispheres of the brain.
聆听和演奏音乐最明显的差异是在后者需要精确运动技巧，这是受大脑两边半球控制。
It also combines the linguistic and mathematical precision, in which the left hemisphere is more involved, with the novel and creative content that the right excels in.
这也结合了大多处理语言及数学精准度的左半脑，以及擅长处理新颖、创造性内容的右半脑。
For these reasons, playing music has been found to increase the volume and activity in the brain's corpus callosum, the bridge between the two hemispheres, allowing messages to get across the brain faster and through more diverse routes.
由于如此，演奏音乐被发现能增加大脑胼胝体的容量与活动，胼胝体是大脑两半球的桥梁，让讯息能以不同的路途更快速的通过大脑。
This may allow musicians to solve problems more effectively and creatively, in both academic and social settings.
这能使音乐家在学术和社会环境里更有效、有创意的解决问题。
Because making music also involves crafting and understanding its emotional content and message, musicians often have higher levels of executive function, a category of interlinked tasks that includes planning, strategizing, and attention to detail and requires simultaneous analysis of both cognitive and emotional aspects.
因为演奏音乐也触及塑造和了解其感情内容与讯息，音乐家通常具有较高水平的执行功能，类属有互相关联的计画、策略、细节关注等，以及需要同时分析认知和感情方面的任务。
This ability also has an impact on how our memory systems work.
这种能力也能影响记忆系统的运作。
And, indeed, musicians exhibit enhanced memory functions, creating, storing, and retrieving memories more quickly and efficiently.
的确，音乐家有提高的记忆力功能，能更快、有效创造、储存、重拾记忆。
Studies have found that musicians appear to use their highly connected brains to give each memory multiple tags, such as a conceptual tag, an emotional tag, an audio tag, and a contextual tag, like a good Internet search engine.
研究发现，音乐家似乎用他们高度连接的大脑给予每个记忆多个标签，例如，概念性标签、情感标签、声音标签、语境标签等，犹如一个好的网络搜寻引擎。
How do we know that all these benefits are unique to music, as opposed to, say, sports or painting?
那如何得知这些是音乐特有的益处而不是运动或绘画等会有的益处？
Or could it be that people who go into music were already smarter to begin with?
或者接触音乐的人会不会一开始就比较聪明？
Neuroscientists have explored these issues, but so far, they have found that the artistic and aesthetic aspects of learning to play a musical instrument are different from any other activity studied, including other arts.
神经科学家已探索这些问题，但目前为止，发现了在学习演奏乐器的艺术、审美方面不同于其它研究过的活动，包括其它艺术。
And several randomized studies of participants, who showed the same levels of cognitive function and neural processing at the start, found that those who were exposed to a period of music learning showed enhancement in multiple brain areas, compared to the others.
一些随机研究在开始时，认知功能和神经处理有相同水平的参与者，其中有受过一段音乐学习的人相对于其他人显示多个增强的脑区域。
This recent research about the mental benefits of playing music has advanced our understanding of mental function, revealing the inner rhythms and complex interplay that make up the amazing orchestra of our brain.
这有关演奏音乐对脑有益处的近期研究提升了我们对脑功能的理解，显示出构成脑内精彩管弦乐团内在的节奏以及复杂的互动。
