Improved Brain Function
Laurel Trainor, director for the Institute for
Music and the Mind at McMaster University says
that even a year or two of music training leads to
enhanced levels of memory and attention. Harvard
University researcher Gottfried Schlaug also studied
the cognitive effects of music training and found a
correlation between early childhood music training
and enhanced motor and auditory skills.
A study in 2013 led by Concordia University
psychology professor Virginia Penhune and her team
found that people who had music training early in
life had stronger connections between motor regions
and enhanced white matter in the corpus callosum, a
bundle of nerve fibers that connect the left and right
motor regions of the brain.
Finally, a 2014 study from Boston Children’s
Hospital found a possible biological link between early
music training and improved executive function in
both children and adults. Executive functions are
the higher-level cognitive processes that allow us to
regulate our behavior, solve problems, and quickly
process and retain information. Senior investigator
Nadine Gaab, PhD, stated, “Since executive functioning
is a strong predictor of academic achievement, even more
than IQ, we think our findings have strong educational
implications. While many schools are cutting music
programs and spending more and more time on te st
preparation, our findings suggest that musical training
may actually help to set up children for a better academic
future.”
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