Playing a musical instrument may have the ability to improve a person's hearing abilities, according to a recent study.

The study, completed by Northwestern University researchers, shows that people who have more than six years of musical training are more sensitive to differences in tone and nuances in speech, said Nina Kraus, one of the study's researchers.

The experiment studied the brain activity of 20 people, half of whom had experience playing a musical instrument for at least six years.

The other half of the participants involved in the study had very little , if any, musical training, said Patrick Wong, another researcher of the study.

He said both sets of the volunteers involved in the study watched movies while Mandarin Chinese words were repeated softly in the background.

The volunteers did not speak Mandarin Chinese.

"The volunteers listened to Chinese words because they use pitch to signal meaning," Wong said.

For example, pronounced with different inflections, the Mandarin word "mi" can mean everything from rice to goat, Kraus said.

While watching the movie, Wong said subjects' brain activities were measured to see how well they could track the different tones of the words, with no prior knowledge of Mandarin.

"The musicians' brains were more sensitive for picking up the pitch patterns," Kraus said.

"The earlier the musicians began the training, the stronger the effect. The longer they had been playing, also, the greater the effect."

A result of the study was discovering that the part of the brain reacting to speech and music was the brain stem, an area Kraus said had been thought to be passive in terms of sensory experience.

"The brain stem showed greater sensitivity and fidelity in response to sounds that were linguistic," she said.

"Having musical training affects the fidelity with sounds that you hear. It will enable you to hear nuances in peoples' tones of voice."

Kraus said the study presents the importance of music in children's general education.

"Music training can help kids hear in a noisy classroom or kids with hearing problems. It could help children learn how to read," she said.

"It's not necessarily about becoming musicians, but about enhancing a part of their sensory systems."

Dennis Glocke, a band director at Penn State, added that there are other good effects of playing music such as "self-discipline, the ability to work with people and cooperation."

Glocke said people should want to study music not just to better their hearing, but for the art.

"The main reason you should study music is because it's a way to express ourselves, life and the world. That's the main goal," he said.