Playing music = better brains

That’s my takeaway from an article by Janice Neumann which appeared in the Wednesday, October 2^nd edition of the Chicago Tribune: http://www.chicagotribune.com/site/ct-x-1002-music-reading-link-20130930,0,5831505

 

Her article starts rather boldly, I thought, for a summary of a proper scientific article saying, “Playing a musical instrument can have extraordinary cognitive and motor benefits, possibly opening the door to improved reading and language ability, according to a recent Northwestern University study.” (i.e. from the Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory at Northwestern)

“Extraordinary cognitive and motor benefits”? “Possible opening the door to improved reading and language ability”? What happened to all the posturing, e.g. “this is only one study,” and other caveats that usually positions an article like this?

The article says reports that “Nina Kraus, who co-wrote the study with postdoctoral fellow Adam Tierney, said past research showed a link between reading and rhythmic abilities but focused more on the motor skills than auditory skills involved. Kraus said the current study shows there is a link between how consistently the nervous system responds to sound and rhythmic skill.”

Interested? Here’s a link to a presentation by Kraus: http://www.soc.northwestern.edu/brainvolts/projects/music/music_video.html

And for those of you who've played a lot of music, here’s a link to the dense scientific tome published in The Journal of Neuroscience: http://www.soc.northwestern.edu/brainvolts/documents/Tierney_Kraus_2013_JNeurosci_RC_Rythm.pdf

Image credit: <a href='http://www.123rf.com/photo_22031789_human-brain-with-arms-and-legs-playing-a-guitar-learning-music-concepts.html'>fberti / 123RF Stock Photo</a>

Practicing the trombone improves your ability to hear

Actually, that statement is a little misleading.  According to a new study from nearby Northwestern University in Evanston indicates that “Lifelong playing of musical instruments has a positive impact on the brain”. What impact?  It helps you better hear somebody speaking in a noisy place, like a restaurant or bar.

Now it is true that there is nothing in the article that attributes the improvement solely to trombone playing. At the same time, I feel that I need to point out that the Chicago Tribune article does show a picture of a trombone player.  And, in case you’re wondering, yes, I did play trombone in the Michigan State University Spartan Marching Band.

According to Nina Kraus, a neuroscientist at Northwestern University, and the principal investigator of its Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory, clarifies the results of the study saying, “Hearing what your spouse says when you’re in a noisy restaurant, for example, is harder when you’re older. But this study shows that musicians are faster at processing noise than non-musicians are. This shows us there is a biological impact of musical training.”

I find this both fun and interesting.  So I went to the Northwestern University’s Neuroscience Laboratory’s site and listened to Dr. Kraus talk about how the brain “hears” music. I loved hearing talking about the similarity between the sound wave and corresponding brain waves. 

Here’s a link to a video of her talking about that:  http://www.soc.northwestern.edu/brainvolts/fys_kraus/kraus.html

But wait, there’s more!  According to Kraus, “We’ve been pleased to hear from educators who have used our website to argue for funding for continuation of musical education. We’re giving them biological evidence that, yes, continued musical education matters.” Here’s the link to the PPT slides recapping their research projects including the evidence to which she refers: http://www.soc.northwestern.edu/brainvolts/slideshows/music/index.php

 
And here’s a link to the article in the Chicago Tribune: http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-03-28/news/ct-x-music-training-study-20120328_1_musical-instruments-musical-training-musical-education