The Sydney Morning Herald – Bridie Smith 
The results showed that children exposed to at least a year and a half of private music lessons have an edge when it comes to detecting patterns in the world around us, with musical instrument training making their brains better at statistical learning. “This is a key building block of learning a language, learning to read and also learning a second language,” Dr Mandikal-Vasuki said. “It’s a fundamental ability.” The results outlined in the journal Clinical Neurophysiology suggests that music-based therapies could potentially be used to treat specific learning impairments.(more)