If music makes you smarter, and exercise helps brain function, can exercising to music really boost brainpower? Some researchers said it can.

    Volunteers who listened to Vivaldi's "Four Seasons" while working out on a treadmill did much better on a test of verbal ability than when they exercised without music, a team at Ohio State University found.

    "Evidence suggests that exercise improves the cognitive performance of people with coronary artery disease," said psychologist Charles Emery, who led the study.

    "And listening to music is thought to enhance brainpower. We wanted to put the two results together," Emery added in a statement.

    Writing in the latest issue of the journal Heart & Lung, Emery and colleagues said they studied 33 men and women taking part in a cardiac rehabilitation program after having bypass surgery, angioplasty or other procedures to treat clogged arteries.

    The volunteers said they felt better emotionally and mentally after working out with or without the music. But their improvement on the verbal fluency test doubled after listening to music on the treadmills.

    "Exercise seems to cause positive changes in the nervous system, and these changes may have a direct effect on cognitive ability," Emery said.

    "Listening to music may influence cognitive function through different pathways in the brain. The combination of music and exercise may stimulate and increase cognitive arousal while helping to organize cognitive output."

    Emery said he now wanted to test people using music of their own choice.

    "We used 'The Four Seasons' because of its moderate tempo and positive effects on medical patients in previous research," Emery said. "But given the range of music preferences among patients, it's especially important to evaluate the influence of other types of music on cognitive outcomes."

    如果聽音樂能使人變得更聰明，鍛煉能增強大腦功能的話，那么邊鍛煉邊聽音樂真的能提高智力嗎？一些研究人員對此表示肯定。

    俄亥俄州立大學的研究人員發現，參加實驗的志愿者們一邊在腳踏車上鍛煉，一邊聽意大利作曲家維瓦爾第的《四季》時，他們在語言能力測試中的表現要比他們不聽音樂時更好。

    此項研究的負責人、心理學家查爾斯·埃莫里說：“有證據表明，身體鍛煉能夠提高冠心病患者的認知能力。”

    “而聽音樂被認為能夠提高智力。我們想把兩者的結果結合起來。”埃莫里補充說。

    在最新的一期《心肺》雜志中，埃莫里和他的同事們撰文稱，他們對33名正在接受心臟康復治療的患者進行了研究。這些患者接受過心臟搭橋手術、血管成形術或其它治療動脈阻塞手術。

    這些志愿者稱，無論聽不聽音樂，他們在進行身體鍛煉后，在情緒和心理上都感覺更好。但是他們邊聽音樂邊在腳踏車上鍛煉后，語言流利測試成績比不聽音樂時高出一倍。

    埃莫里說：“鍛煉看來能使神經系統發生積極的變化，而這些變化可能會對認知能力產生直接的影響。”

    “聽音樂可以通過大腦中的不同路徑影響認知功能。如果把聽音樂和鍛煉身體結合起來可以在組織認知輸出的同時增強對認知的刺激。”

    埃莫里說，他現在想要測試一下那些自己選擇音樂的人。

    “我們選擇《四季》是因為它的節拍適度，而且在以前的研究中對病人曾產生過積極的作用。但是倘若患者對音樂種類有自己的偏好，那么評價其他類型的音樂是否會影響認知結果也尤為重要。”埃莫里說。