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EFFECTS OF INSTRUMENTAL MUSICAL TRAINING ON CHILDREN'S BRAIN AND COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
Dr. Winner is a Professor of Psychology at Boston College and Senior Researcher at Project Zero at Harvard University. Her research focuses on understanding the relationship (or lack of relationship) between thinking in and out of the arts and the effects of music training on children's brain growth and their cognitive and motor development.
There are claims that learning to play an instrument makes you better at other skills: math, verbal, spatial, attention, memory but are these based on evidence? Numerous studies have searched for evidence of cognitive transfer from music making. REAP (Reviewing Education in the Arts Project) looked at 10 such studies. The correlation studies showed that those who studied the arts did better at academics and scored higher on SATs but these studies did not show the cause. Experimental studies had 2 groups, one that studied the arts and another that didn't. Both measured the same at baseline and when they were retested, no significant difference was found between the two groups academically.
Ms. Winner explained the "Mozart Effect" study. College students were divided into 3 groups who either listened to a relaxation tape, Mozart or silence for ten minutes. Each group was given a pencil and paper spatial test. The group that listened to Mozart scored better but the effect only lasted 10-15 minutes. It could be that listening to music primes the brain to do well on other tasks. This study created a media frenzy that "listening to music improves the brain."
The Longitudinal, Quasi-Experimental Study (Co-Investigators: Ellen Winner, Gottfried Schlaug and Andrea Norton) wanted to investigate structural brain changes correlated with musically related behavioral changes and transference to extra-musical abilities. The rational: structural brain differences are seen in adult musicians as follows:
- Corpus callosum: Anterior portion of the CC is larger in musicians, particularly in those who began training before age 7.
- Primary motor cortex: Greater ILPG* symmetry in keyboard players due to larger size of ILPG in the right-hemisphere (controlling the left-hand); greater ILPG symmetry associated with earlier initiation of music training. (Intrasulcal length of precentral gyrus)
- Cerebellum: 5% higher relative cerebellar volume in musicians vs. non-musicians (male); relation between intensity of practice and relative volume.
- Planum temporale: Greater leftward asymmetry of PT in absolute pitch musicians (smaller right side)
- Superior parietal region: Greater gray matter volume in musicians (Hence, as you practice, your brain grows)
This study involved looking at the MRI brain images of children, ages 5-6. There were no differences in the baseline MRIs. 39 children had 15 months of keyboard instruction and 32 had no music instruction. After 15 months, the MRIs showed the brain was larger in the 39 children who had keyboard instruction in the following areas:
- Motor -related areas (right precentral gyrus, corpus callosum) correlated with left-hand motor test change scores. This was measured by how fast they could do the finger sequence for each hand: 25342
- Right auditory area correlated with melody/rhythm discrimination. Testing involved telling whether two melodies were the same or different and whether two rhythmic patterns were the same or different with 8 pairs of each in the test.
There was one only one area that was larger in the nonmusic group: left middle occipital gyrus.
The conclusion of the study was that these areas could plausibly be affected by instrumental music training since they contain fibers projecting to sensory and motor cortical regions. This was the first study to demonstrate brain plasticity in young children as a function of music instruction.
The structural brain changes were correlated with musically related behavioral changes but can they be transfer to extra-musical abilities?
- Why look for cognitive transfer? It can be used as an basis to counter the marginal position of the music in our schools
But such claims still marginalize music as a means to a greater end
The study found that both 15 months and 30 months later, both groups improved at the same rate in spatial, verbal, math and other skills. Questions this study could not answer:
- Are there pre-existing neural, cognitive, or motoric markers for musical ability?
- Are there markers of giftedness prior to training?
- Nurture hypothesis: does intensive practice alter the brain?
- Nature hypothesis: is there an atypical brain that seeks music training?
- Why was the study unable to show transference to non-music skills?
- Were the wrong measures used, are other measures more plausibly related?
- Random assignments into groups was not possible; children were recruited when they were about to start lessons or when they decided they weren't going to start lessons.
Music Training Grows the Brain: But So What?
The evidence for brain plasticity was demonstrated from a very small amount of intervention (minimal daily practice). Is that important enough to justify music education?
Everything changes the brain e.g. The brain of the motorcycle rider is stimulated while riding. Differences in brain use and level of brain stimulation can be observed in motorcyclists who ride regularly and in motorcyclists who have not ridden for extended periods. However, that's not a justification for teaching motorcycling riding in our schools.
Ms. Winner summed up her talk with the following thoughts:
- Education choices are value choices
- Beware of sweeping claims about how arts transform learning, raise SAT scores, IQs, grades.
- It is better to seek transfer to domains plausibly related to music such as other arts
- Unless you believe in magic, don't look for transfer unless you can explain it if you do find it
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