少时学乐器可防听力衰退

The world’s most famous musician, Ludwig Van Beethoven, may have been totally deaf – but new research suggests learning to play an instrument can actually stop you from losing your hearing.

或许世界上最著名的音乐家路德维希·凡·贝多芬已完全听不见了，但新的研究表示，实际上学习演奏乐器可以防治听力衰退。

Researchers have found the first evidence that lifelong musicians can experience less age-related hearing problems than those who never practiced a tune.

研究人员已经发现了第一个证据。比起那些从不接触音乐的人来说，终身音乐家很少遭受由于年龄增长而带来的听力衰退问题。

It’s the type of news which will make millions of people wish they’d listened to their parents’ nagging about keeping up the piano lessons.

这类消息会让数百万的人后悔为什么小时没有听从父母的唠叨，坚持练习钢琴。

Previously it had only been known that highly trained musicians have highly developed auditory abilities compared to non-musicians.

以前，我们只知道，比起没有受过正规音乐训练的人们，受过高等音乐训练的音乐家具有高度发达的听觉能力。

This new study is the first to examine hearing abilities in musicians and non-musicians across the age spectrum – from 18 to 91 years of age. It found that lifelong musicianship can delay age-related decline by 20 years. In the study, 74 musicians (ages 19-91) and 89 non-musicians (ages 18-86) participated in a series of auditory assessments.

这项新研究首次通过年龄谱检测了音乐家和未接受过音乐训练人的听力，受测人的年龄从18岁到91岁。研究中,74名音乐家(年龄19-91岁)和89名未受过音乐训练的普通人(年龄18-86)参与了一系列的听觉评估。

A musician was defined as someone who started musical training by the age of 16, continued practicing music until the day of testing, and had at least six years of formal music lessons. Non-musicians in the study did not play any musical instrument.

音乐家是那些从16岁开始学习音乐、持续练习直到测试的当天、并且有至少有6年正规音乐课训练的那类人。未受过正规音乐训练的人则从未演奏过任何乐器。

The subjects sat in a soundproof room and completed four auditory tasks and results revealed musicians showed a clear advantage over non-musicians and this advantage gap widened as both groups got older. By age 70, the average musician was able to understand speech in a noisy environment as well as an average 50 year old non-musician, suggesting that lifelong musicianship can delay this decline by 20 years.

被测试者在隔音室里完成4个听力测试，结果显示音乐家的听力清晰程度要好于普通人，而且年龄越大，优势就越明显。一般来说，70岁的音乐家可以跟50岁的普通人一样在喧闹的环境下听讲演，这也就是说，终身音乐才能使人的耳朵推迟衰退20年。

But there's a word of warning. Other famous musicians who suffer from hearing problems such as The Who's Pete Townshend has partial deafness and tinnitus which is believed to be the result of extensive exposure to loud music.

但也有一个警告要说。其他有些著名音乐家有听力问题，比如谁人乐队的皮特·汤森有半聋且耳鸣的问题，人们相信这是因为太经常听吵闹的音乐。