A little music training in childhood goes a long way
in improving how the brain functions in adulthood when it comes to
listening and the complex processing of sound, according to a new
Northwestern University study.
The impact of
music on the brain has been a hot topic in science in the past decade.
Now Northwestern researchers for the first time have directly examined
what happens after children stop playing a musical instrument after only
a few years -- a common childhood experience.
Compared to
peers with no musical training, adults with one to five years of musical
training as children had enhanced brain responses to complex sounds,
making them more effective at pulling out the fundamental frequency of
the sound signal.
The fundamental
frequency, which is the lowest frequency in sound, is crucial for
speech and music perception, allowing recognition of sounds in complex
and noisy auditory environments.
"Thus, musical
training as children makes better listeners later in life," said Nina
Kraus, the Hugh Knowles Professor of Neurobiology, Physiology and
Communication Sciences at Northwestern.
"Based on what
we already know about the ways that music helps shape the brain," she
said, "the study suggests that short-term music lessons may enhance
lifelong listening and learning."
"A Little Goes a
Long Way: How the Adult Brain is Shaped by Musical Training in
Childhood" will be published in the Aug. 22 edition of the Journal of
Neuroscience.
"We help
address a question on every parent's mind: 'Will my child benefit if she
plays music for a short while but then quits training?'" Kraus said.
Many children
engage in group or private music instruction, yet, few continue with
formal music classes beyond middle or high school.
But most
neuroscientific research has focused on the rare and exceptional music
student who has continued an active music practice during college or on
the rarer case of a professional musician who has spent a lifetime
immersed in music.
"Our research
captures a much larger section of the population with implications for
educational policy makers and the development of auditory training
programs that can generate long-lasting positive outcomes," Kraus said.
For the study,
young adults with varying amounts of past musical training were tested
by measuring electrical signals from the auditory brainstem in response
to eight complex sounds ranging in pitch. Because the brain signal is a
faithful representation of the sound signal, researchers are able to
observe how key elements of the sound are captured by the nervous system
and how these elements might be weakened or strengthened in different
people with different experiences and abilities.
Forty-five
adults were grouped into three age- and IQ- matched groups based on
histories of musical instruction. One group had no musical instruction;
another had 1 to 5 years; and the other had to 6 to 11 years. Both
musically trained groups began instrumental practice around age 9 years,
a common age for in-school musical instruction to begin. As predicted,
musical training during childhood led to more robust neural processing
of sounds later in life.
Prior research
on highly trained musicians and early bilinguals revealed that enhanced
brainstem responses to sound are associated with heightened auditory
perception, executive function and auditory communication skills.
"From this
earlier research, we infer that a few years of music lessons also confer
advantages in how one perceives and attends to sounds in everyday
communication situations, such as noisy restaurants or rides on the "L,"
Kraus said.
A running theme in Kraus' research is "your past shapes your present."
"The way you
hear sound today is dictated by the experiences with sound you've had up
until today," she said. "This new finding is a clear embodiment of this
theme."
In past
research, Kraus and her team examined how bilingual upbringing and
long-term music lessons affect the auditory brain and how the brain
changes after a few weeks of intensive auditory experiences, such as
computerized training. Their current research is investigating the
impact of socioeconomic hardships on adolescent brain function.
"We hope to use
this new finding, in combination with past discoveries, to understand
the type of education and remediation strategies, such as music classes
and auditory-based training that might be most effective in combating
the negative impact of poverty," she said.
By
understanding the brain's capacity to change and then maintain these
changes, the research can inform the development of effective and
long-lasting auditory-based educational and rehabilitative programs.
Provided by Northwestern University
"Practicing
music for only few years in childhood helps improve adult brain:
research." August 21st, 2012.
http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-music-years-childhood-adult-brain.html
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