Why your neurons love a good beat. How music rewires aging minds.
Disclaimer: Equal to my love of science is my love of music. In fact, I was already undecided about what career path to take when I started playing the drums at the age of 13. I chose science but continued playing the drums, timpani, along with other percussion instruments until my early 30s. Today, as a scientist, I'm discovering how beneficial the pursuit of a musical instrument is for the mind. For decades, scientists suspected that music helped the brain, but now randomized controlled trials, brain scan studies & meta-analyses show measurable improvements in memory, attention, processing speed & mood while reducing stress by reducing cortisol (stress hormone) & increasing dopamine (reward chemical). It also helps with the brain's "executive function," which is your brain's management system—the "CEO" of your thinking. This includes planning, decision-making, task switching, working memory & helps resist impulses (self-control).
Drumming is a physical workout (take my word on it). It's a full-body workout that, when done vigorously, elevates heart rate & breathing & makes you sweat. It raises heart rate to 90-140 beats/min (normal exercise range). That's 1.5-2.3x resting heart rate. This releases brain-derived neurotrophic factor, which is like fertilizer for brain cells. It helps neurons grow stronger connections, it protects them from damage, & it supports neuroplasticity (the brain's ability to rewire itself). Fast drumming can burn 200-400 calories/hour (about 840-1,680 kJ/hr) depending on intensity. Drumming involves the arms, legs & core body.
It requires rhythm, timing, memory, coordination (having to move hands & feet in separate rhythms & sequences), & it requires attention. In a small randomized study of 40 adults over age 55, participants did 4 weeks of drumming & memory exercises. They all got faster & more accurate on cognitive tests, and they had increased hemoglobin (Hgb) in the left orbitofrontal cortex.
This was crucial because the left orbitofrontal cortex received more oxygenated blood, which improved decision-making & increased motivation. This region declines with age & is affected by some forms of dementia, so seeing increased oxygenation there suggests drumming may help keep it more active & healthier. Cognitive reserve is the brain's ability to stay functional even when aging or disease causes physical changes. Music—especially playing an instrument—doesn't have to be drums; it helps build this reserve by strengthening neural networks, improving blood flow, enhancing memory pathways & encouraging neuroplasticity. This is why musicians often show slower cognitive decline in older age.
It turns out that many famous scientists were also musicians. Here's the list: Albert Einstein—violin & piano. He practiced violin every day & said it helped him think. He often worked through physics problems by improvising & famously once said, "If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician." He often solved problems by imagining patterns as musical structures. The famous Russian composer Alexander Borodin was also a scientist & chemist whose work on aldehydes, a volatile organic chemical, led to the modern development of the cholesterol-lowering drug Lipitor. He divided his time with dashes between the lab & the piano, producing symphonies, chamber music, & songs, some of which became a Tony Award winner for Kismet.
Then there was the "father of quantum mechanics," Werner Heisenberg, who was also a concert-level pianist. Richard Feynman was a physicist & a passionate bongoist & drummer performing in samba bands. Perhaps many of you remember the song "We Will Rock You" performed by Queen & Bohemian Rhapsody. Well, the guitarist & songwriter Brian May of Queen was also an astrophysicist.
One of the greatest mathematicians of all time, Henri Poincaré, laid the foundations of modern chaos theory. Chaos theory is the study of systems governed by rules & patterns, yet small differences in starting patterns can lead to vastly different outcomes over time—a phenomenon called the "butterfly effect"—for example, a butterfly flapping its wings could theoretically influence the weather somewhere else. Poincaré was also a pianist who used musical structure to think about patterns. Santiago Ramón y Cajal, the "father of modern neuroscience," played the violin & wrote about the mental clarity it gave him. He received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for establishing the neuron as the basic unit of the nervous system.
Max Planck, founder of quantum theory, nearly pursued music professionally, playing the organ & piano. Niels Bohr, a Danish physicist, was the first to apply quantum concepts to atomic & molecular structure, earning him a Nobel Prize in Physics in 1922 through his model of the atom with electrons occupying specific orbits around its nucleus. He was an accomplished pianist who believed music helped him understand abstract concepts. Charles Darwin played the flute, & even though he had a self-confessed lack of musicality, that did not prevent music from influencing his work, including playing the piano & the flute to attract worms.
Darwin discovered that earthworms cannot hear music the way humans can (duh), but they can feel vibrations, helping earthworms to know what is happening around them. The worms reacted, moved, changed posture & retreated or emerged, perhaps sliding away from his dreadful playing. The experiment showed that worms use vibrations to avoid predators & find food. After his flute experiment, he said, "It may be doubted whether there are many other animals other than earthworms that have played so important a part in the history of the world."
The last scientist that comes to mind is Marie Curie, the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, the first person to win a Nobel Prize twice, the only person to win a Nobel Prize in two scientific fields, and the first woman to become a professor at the University of Paris. Curie discovered polonium & radium (two elements), & she developed the theory of "radioactivity," a term she actually coined. But she was also an accomplished pianist who could play Chopin waltzes & Bach preludes & fugues at 10. She was not a virtuoso but played competently throughout her life.
Music helped all of these scientists to become great—not because music magically creates genius, but because music trains the brain in ways that directly support scientific thinking. And that is the promise of drum lessons in later life: a way to keep the brain active, challenged, & alive to new experiences. The value in drumming may not be in keeping perfect time (nor is it in giving your parents a good headache), but in refusing to let time end the possibility of learning.
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