Childhood music learning, … “has strong linguistic benefits and improves performance on everyday listening tasks.”

http://musiced.nafme.org/news/a-little-music-training-goes-a-long-way/ about this recent study:

“A Little Goes a Long Way: How the Adult Brain Is Shaped by Musical Training in Childhood,” Journal of Neuroscience, vol. 32, no. 34 (August 22 2012).