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WASHINGTON, April 20 (Xinhua) -- Those childhood music lessons could pay off decades later -- even for those who no longer play an instrument -- by keeping the mind sharper as people age, according to a preliminary study published by the American Psychological Association (APA).The study recruited 70 healthy adults age 60 to 83 who were divided into groups based on their levels of musical experience. The musicians performed better on several cognitive tests than individuals who had never studied an instrument or learned how to read music, according to the research findings published Wednesday online in the APA journal Neuropsychology."Musical activity throughout life may serve as a challenging cognitive exercise, making your brain fitter and more capable of accommodating the challenges of aging," said lead researcher Brenda Hanna-Pladdy, a clinical neuropsychologist at the University of Kansas Medical Center. "Since studying an instrument requires years of practice and learning, it may create alternate connections in the brain that could compensate for cognitive declines as we get older."The three groups of study participants included individuals with no musical training; with one to nine years of musical study; or with at least 10 years of musical training. All of the participants had similar levels of education and fitness and didn' t show any evidence of Alzheimer's disease.All of the musicians were amateurs who began playing an instrument at about 10 years of age. More than half played the piano while approximately a quarter had studied woodwind instruments such as the flute or clarinet. Smaller numbers performed with stringed instruments, percussion or brass instruments.The high-level musicians who had studied the longest performed the best on the cognitive tests, followed by the low-level musicians and non-musicians, revealing a trend relating to years of musical practice. The high-level musicians had statistically significant higher scores than the non-musicians on cognitive tests relating to visuospatial memory, naming objects and cognitive flexibility, or the brain's ability to adapt to new information.The brain functions measured by the tests typically decline as the body ages and more dramatically deteriorate in neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer's disease. The results "suggest a strong predictive effect of high musical activity throughout the lifespan on preserved cognitive functioning in advanced age," the study stated.Half of the high-level musicians still played an instrument at the time of the study, but they didn't perform better on the cognitive tests than the other advanced musicians who had stopped playing years earlier. This suggests that the duration of musical study was more important than whether musicians continued playing at an advanced age, Hanna-Pladdy says."Based on previous research and our study results, we believe that both the years of musical participation and the age of acquisition are critical," Hanna-Pladdy says. "There are crucial periods in brain plasticity that enhance learning, which may make it easier to learn a musical instrument before a certain age and thus may have a larger impact on brain development."The preliminary study was correlational, meaning that the higher cognitive performance of the musicians couldn't be conclusively linked to their years of musical study. More research is needed to explore that possible link.

BEIJING, Feb. 5 (Xinhua) -- China's railways transported about 77.34 million passengers during the fifteen days (Jan. 19 to Feb. 2) before the Spring Festival, the Ministry of Railways said.The figure was about 9.5 percent higher than the same period last year and set a new record, according to a report posted on the ministry's website.There were an average of 5.16 million passengers per day, up 448,000 from the same period last year. On Jan. 29, passengers topped 5.78 million, setting a new record for daily transportation before the Spring Festival, the report said.In the fifteen days before the festival, about 4.80 million passengers left Beijing, 8.39 million left Guangzhou and 5.69 million left Shanghai, while year-on-year growth and those leaving Guangzhou rose the most, up 15 percent year on year, said the report.The ministry said challenges still exist as more snow and rain will hit southern China after the Spring Festival, when passengers are returning.China's busy Spring Festival transportation season runs for 40 days and is calculated in two phases: 15 days before the Spring Festival and 25 days after the Spring Festival, the report explained.

BEIJING, Jan. 26 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese government Wednesday raised the minimum down payment requirement for the purchase of second home to 60 percent of the property's value from 50 percent, to curb property market speculation.The decision was announced in a statement released after an executive meeting of the State Council, China's cabinet, which was presided over by Premier Wen Jiabao.File photo taken on Nov. 14, 2010 shows a newly built residential community in east China's Shanghai Municipality.

BEIJING, March 7 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese currency Renminbi (RMB), or the yuan, on Monday strengthened to an all-time high of 6.5651 per U.S. dollar, according to the China Foreign Exchange Trading System.Monday's central parity rate of the RMB against U.S. dollar was 20 basis points lower than the previous record of 6.5671 set on last Friday.The yuan has appreciated 3.84 percent since June 19 last year when the People's Bank of China, the central bank, announced it would further reform the exchange rate formation mechanism to improve its flexibility.On China's foreign exchange spot market, the yuan can rise or fall 0.5 percent from the central parity rate each trading day.The central parity rate of the RMB against the U.S. dollar is based on a weighted average of prices before the opening of the market for each business day.

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