少時學樂器可防聽力衰退
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.
或許世界上最著名的音樂家路德維希·凡·貝多芬已完全聽不見了，但新的研究表示，實際上學習演奏樂器可以防治聽力衰退。
Researchers have found the first evidence that lifelong musicians can experience less age-related hearing problems than those who never practiced a tune.
研究人員已經發現了第一個證據。比起那些從不接觸音樂的人來說，終身音樂家很少遭受由於年齡增長而帶來的聽力衰退問題。
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.
這類消息會讓數百萬的人後悔爲什麼小時沒有聽從父母的嘮叨，堅持練習鋼琴。
Previously it had only been known that highly trained musicians have highly developed auditory abilities compared to non-musicians.
以前，我們只知道，比起沒有受過正規音樂訓練的人們，受過高等音樂訓練的音樂傢俱有高度發達的聽覺能力。
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.
這項新研究首次通過年齡譜檢測了音樂家和未接受過音樂訓練人的聽力，受測人的年齡從18歲到91歲。研究中,74名音樂家(年齡19-91歲)和89名未受過音樂訓練的普通人(年齡18-86)參與了一系列的聽覺評估。
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.
音樂家是那些從16歲開始學習音樂、持續練習直到測試的當天、並且有至少有6年正規音樂課訓練的那類人。未受過正規音樂訓練的人則從未演奏過任何樂器。
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.
被測試者在隔音室裏完成4個聽力測試，結果顯示音樂家的聽力清晰程度要好於普通人，而且年齡越大，優勢就越明顯。一般來說，70歲的音樂家可以跟50歲的普通人一樣在喧鬧的環境下聽講演，這也就是說，終身音樂才能使人的耳朵推遲衰退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.
但也有一個警告要說。其他有些著名音樂家有聽力問題，比如誰人樂隊的皮特·湯森有半聾且耳鳴的問題，人們相信這是因爲太經常聽吵鬧的音樂。
