"What we do with our time and how we engage our senses and our thinking seems to really shape the people we become..."

This ties in with a book I recently read on treatment for autistic children. The author stressed that the brain is malleable. What we put into it shapes its growth.

Before reading that, I thought of the brain as a sophisticated electronic device. It is a maze of neurons and sheathing, where neurotransmitters zip across synapses.

Now I have an additional metaphor. It is a mass of Play-doh, and when we punch it, it dips in.    and so forth

It seems reasonable that a musician who works with sound hours a week develops a brain which is more attuned to sounds in general.