REPOST: New Evidence of Mental Benefits From Music Training

Music helps by mentally stimulating the brain. This post from Psmag.com features a study that proves how learning music helps children achieve academic excellence.

Image Source: psmag.com

 
As we’ve reported, a large body of research has noted a link between music education and higher test scores. But precisely why learning an instrument would have a positive impact on academic achievement has never been clear.

A new study from Boston Children’s Hospital provides a possible answer. It reports musical training may promote the development and maintenance of a key set of mental skills.

These executive functions, which are coordinated in the brain’s frontal lobe, “allow for planned, controlled behavior,” writes a research team led by Harvard University scholar Nadine Gaab. They enable us to manage our time and attention, organize our thoughts, and regulate our behavior—abilities that are crucial to success in school, as well as later life.

In an experiment featuring two separate groups of test subjects—one consisting of children, the other of adults—Gaab and her colleagues discovered a link between early musical training and heightened executive functioning. This, they argue, could explain “the previously reported links between musical training and enhanced cognitive skills.”

In the online journal PLoS One, they describe a study featuring 30 adults between the ages of 18 and 35 (15 working musicians, and 15 non-musicians), and 27 children between the ages of nine and 12 (15 of whom had at least two years of musical training).

All performed a series of tasks to measure various facets of cognitive ability, including verbal fluency, mental processing speed, and working memory—the crucial ability to hold several ideas in your mind at the same time. In addition, the children performed a separate mental task while their brains were scanned using fMRI technology.

The key result: “Children and adults with extensive musical training show enhanced performance on a number of executive-function constructs compared to non-musicians,” the researchers write, “especially for cognitive flexibility, working memory, and processing speed.”

The musically trained children showed “heightened activation in traditional executive-function regions” of the brain during a task-switching exercise, they report, along with “enhanced performance on measures of verbal fluency.”

Gaab and her colleagues caution that more research will be needed to show causation. The chicken-and-egg question has been raised in the past in regard to music and the brain, and these results don’t definitively answer it: It’s possible that kids with higher levels of executive functioning are more likely to be drawn to studying music.

Longitudinal studies, measuring executive functioning before music training begins, will presumably be required to definitively answer that question. But the very real possibility that music training boosts executive functioning provides another argument for the importance of music education.

“Replacing music programs with reading or math instruction in our nation’s school curricula in order to boost standardized test scores,” the researchers warn, “may actually lead to deficient skills in other cognitive areas.”

To learn more about the benefits of music, follow Mark Begelman on Twitter.

Nurturing young talent

It is often a great thing to meet other people who share the same interests. Being among the likeminded gives the feeling of belonging to something greater than oneself – a sense of community or familiarity that produces empathy and the drive to give other people better experiences in life. This is perhaps the motivation of artists who have developed mastery to nurture those who just started their own journey in their craft.

Image Source: sciencedaily.com

However, talented individuals who know their craft wholly don’t always find it easy to teach others. It takes some time before teachers see improvements among their students’ skills. Those who are grappling with instruction may find these few reminders useful in nurturing young talents:

First, one must remember what one went through before being exceptional at their chosen craft. It takes a lot of practice to master the basics of any art. Finding out how one can motivate students to take on the drills without fail is the first step to getting them to improve.

Image Source: npr.org

Second, making lessons doable yet challenging is vital to learning. Students do well from being challenged and from being given the opportunity to make mistakes. The right balance is important in keeping them interested and focused on their goal.

Third, taking note of the student’s emotional state also influences the learning pace. The teacher must remain encouraging at all times yet firm in correcting any mistakes. It is also important to send a message that frustration is a normal part of the process. The teacher’s duty is to keep reminding students that their hard work will soon pay off if they stick to what they need to do.

Image Source: babble.com

Finally, making every lesson enjoyable lightens the rough patches in the learning process. It is hard to stick to dull yet important routines, but an experienced teacher should be inventive enough to key in novelties during repetitive practice.

Mark Begelman seeks to nurture young musical talents by providing them with a great facility where they could practice and play. For more information on Markee’s Florida music facility, visit this Facebook page.