[dansimau]

From TFA:

> "To play an instrument means that you can understand music, which is a high cognitive function. It means you can interact with the instrument, you can coordinate both hands, you can exercise memory, you can count — because music is mathematics — you can test vision because the patient has to see the instrument, and you can test the way the patient interacts with the rest of the team," he said.

I take that to mean that playing the instrument uses many brain functions and so they're able to monitor many things at once.

[abhorrence]

The vision but seems plainly wrong to me, many (and I’d posit most) musicians who have been playing their instruments for years can play with their eyes closed. Definitely would test proprioception though!

[soulofmischief]

Well, those musicians likely have highly developed internal visualization skills, but of course I'm not keen on how transferable that is to real vision.