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Music Training Changes Children's Brain Structure and Boosts Decision Making Network 

By, Collin Morley

Link: http://neurosciencenews.com/kids-music-brain-structure-7941/

Summary:

Three studies were conducted at The University of Southern California to examine how music training for children can improve their brain networks. The first study involved neuroscientists monitoring the brain development and behavior of children from under served neighborhoods in Los Angeles. Some of the children were learning to play music with the Youth Orchestra Los Angeles at HOLA. Scientists used behavioral testing, structural and functional MRI scans, and EEG to examine the impact of music training on the children's brains. Results showed that music training improves maturity areas in the brain responsible for sound processing, language development, speech perception, and reading skills.

In the second study, 20 children, aged 6 or 7, who had started learning to play or read music Los Angeles Philharmonic Youth Orchestra were tracked and monitored. In this study, those in the LAPYO learned to play instruments such as the violin, and they practiced up to 7 hours a week. Those children were compared to two other groups; 19 children in a community sports program, and 21 children who were not involved in either, as the control group. Results showed that those with music training showed changes in thickness and volume of brain regions that are engaged in processing sound. This suggests that music training impacts ones brain structure. Also, children learning to play and read music showed, stronger robustness of white matter, which indicates stronger connectivity in the corpus callosum. 

The third study neuroscientists found that when young musicians were performing an intellectual task, they demonstrated greater engagement of decision making. Children were presented with a Stroop Test while undergoing an MRI scan which tracked the differences in brain responses between children learning music and those who were not. The findings suggested that musical training can help children mature emotionally and intellectually. 

Connection:

Reading this article, it reminded me of the Brain Rules assignment that we did for this class a few weeks ago. The Brain Rules book discussed how formal music training improves peoples math and reading abilities. This suggests that musical training and reading, improves your critical thinking abilities. This article also suggests that music training improves peoples intellect (i.e. better readers, and better math skills). Another point that the Brain Rules makes is that music training makes people better listeners. People who play instruments can hear different pitches and notes unrelated to music. An example of this is being able to hear the tone in peoples voice while they are talking. When people begin talking, their pitch is louder and when they finish talking, their pitch is softer. This article discusses how musical training improves peoples sound processing (i.e. the pitch of peoples' voices), language development, (i.e. the language people use when talking to others), and speech perception (i.e. the tone of peoples' voices). Together, the Brain Rules book and this article, both suggest that music training has a positive impact on our audition abilities, our language abilities and our critical thinking abilities.