Music training may be more important for enhancing verbal communication skills than phonics, a U.S. study found.

   Researchers at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., say musicians use all of their senses to practice and perform a musical piece. The brain's alteration from the multi-sensory process of music training enhances the same communication skills needed for speaking and reading, explains researcher Nina Kraus. 

   "Audiovisual processing was much enhanced in musicians' brains compared to non-musician counterparts, and musicians also were more sensitive to subtle changes in both speech and music sounds," Nina Kraus said in a statement. "Our study indicates that the high-level cognitive processing of music affects automatic processing that occurs early in the processing stream and fundamentally shapes sensory circuitry."

   The nervous system's multi-sensory processing begins in the brainstem, a part of the brain previously thought to be relatively unmalleable, the study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reported. 

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