Brain Plasticity in Adulthood

“Are musicians born or made?”

Gary Marcus, cognitive psychologist at New York University, poses this question in his book about learning the guitar at age thirty-nine, “Guitar Zero”.  Conditioned to believe that he would never become musical due to his poor sense of tune, rhythm and pitch as well as a diagnosis of congenital arrhythmia, Marcus set out to see if it was too late for him to learn an instrument. While few studies regarding how adults understand music exist, Marcus made himself the subject in a case study devoted to understanding brain plasticity in adulthood.  He challenges the widely accepted idea that learning something as complex as playing the guitar must be executed in those “critical periods” of learning which at age forty he had long surpassed.

A key topic of “Guitar Zero” is brain plasticity, or the brain’s capacity to alter its structure and thus its function over time due to environmental changes.  Marcus admits that the child brain is able to rewire its neurons more subtly than the adult brain, however asserts that through a step-wise (perhaps slower) process, adults can learn complex skills (i.e. languages and in this case, musical instruments) just as extensively as children.  He states that the difficulties in learning come more from environmental interferences, such as inadequate time for practicing and less social support, rather than physiological differences in the brain.  This brain plasticity argument affirms that brain continues to develop well into adult-hood.

This theory holds steady in Daniel J. Wakin’s article for the New York Times “Reviving Musical Dreams in Middle Age”.  The article regards Cassandra Gordon, a now seventy-three year-old woman who began learning the cello eleven years prior. Like Marcus, Wakin asserts that while the process may be longer, more demanding and more frustrating, adults can reach an impressive level of efficiency in learning an instrument.

Brain plasticity is a key topic in neuroscience because it accounts for a variety of processes from learning to brain repair.  The ability of the brain to rewire its neurons and develop according to changes is largely responsible for how the environment changes a person's behavior. Gary Marcus' experiment stemmed from a love of music and a desire to produce his own, and produced results relevant to a multitude of aspects of neuroscience. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/01/education/in-middle-age-reviving-dreams-of-playing-music.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0