Music Influencing Brain Development

The average American has increased the amount of music that they listen to on a daily basis. The Mayo clinic has reported that the listening to music has promoted relaxation and reduces the feeling of pain. It was once said that children that listened to classical music at a very young age would develop cognitively and have all of these benefits for the child. Now, we see that there is a a very thin line of evidence supporting this fact. However, a recent study from the Journal of Neuroscience has showed a correlation between music lessons before the age of 7 and improved auditory and visual sensorimotor synchronization tasks. 

Researchers from Concordia University, the Montreal Neurological Institute and the Hospital at McGill suggested that these children that practiced music at this young age develop more white matter in the corpus callosum, the area that serves as the connecting region between the motor regions. It showed that the earlier the musician started, the greater the connectivity. What was most surprising is the finding that there was no difference between the musicians that started later in life and non-musicians. Dr. Zatorre, one of the directors of the International Laboratory for Brain Music and Sound Research stated ""This study is significant in showing that training is more effective at early ages because certain aspects of brain anatomy are more sensitive to changes at those time points."

Nina Kraus, a professor at the Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory of Northwestern University has conducted studied on the effects of learning music and the effect that it has as compared to those that do not play music. Her results show that there is a change in the brain of musicians that result in enhanced cognitive and language skills, improved working memory, and had stronger listening ability. She talked about children who have music lessons at a younger age having much better neural development compared to those that do not have these lessons. Surprisingly, according to Kraus, the effects of playing an instrument continues on after the initial point when the instrument is learned. She says that the brain holds on to the benefits of the playing an instrument even when the children stop. She is currently working with other schools to continue her research and promoting the continued musical education programs at schools. 

References:

Concordia University. "Early music lessons boost brain development." ScienceDaily, 12 Feb. 2013. Web. 12 Dec. 2013. <http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/02/130212112017.htm>.