Here are some articles about music that I had in my browser tabs:
Musical training ‘can improve language and reading’
After a year of music lessons, the reading scores of nine and 10-year-olds held steady compared to a dip seen in those who were not taught any music.Another group of musically-trained children were found to be better at processing sounds and language.
Another interesting read:
Moving to the rhythm ‘can help language skills’
Moving in time to a steady beat is closely linked to better language skills, a study suggests.People who performed better on rhythmic tests also showed enhanced neural responses to speech sounds.
The researchers suggest that practising music could improve other skills, particularly reading.
I don’t do it for any particular reason other than enjoyment or habit, but I’m often tapping polyrhythms – especially when I hear a steady rhythm that I can tap across. It’s a little mental exercise that anyone could do. (Polyrhythm sound samples)
This is also interesting:
New music ‘rewarding for the brain’
Using MRI scans, a Canadian team of scientists found that areas in the reward centre of the brain became active when people heard a song for the first time.The more the listener enjoyed what they were hearing, the stronger the connections were in the region of the brain called the nucleus accumbens.
I’m interested in this topic, because I think that music functions as a system for transmitting cultural memory. If you play an instrument (or find yourself attracted to people who do) it can quickly become apparent that humans might be sexually selecting for musical ability (an enhanced ability to transmit culture/memory across generations). There were no books for most of our existence – people remembered and transmitted verbatim stories through music and rhyming/metered poetry.
Edit: there’s also a longer article on the topic here.