25th February 2017 1:00
By Blue Tutors
Several studies on adults have previously shown that there are differences between the brains of musically trained and non-musical adults. Now, at the Brain and Creativity Institute (BCI), USC, a five-year study on 6-7 year olds from disadvantaged backgrounds followed the difference in brain development between three groups of children: a control group, a group enrolled in a local football (soccer) team, and a group of students taught by a youth orchestra program. The later spent up to seven hours a week practicing music.
The children enrolled in the music program showed significantly more development of the key areas of the brain need for processing language and communication, that is to say, the centres for language development, sound, speech perception and reading skill. This was measured using a combination of brain scans, electrical conductivity data and behavioural testing. This is thought to be as the same system that is used to process music is also used for processing other sounds and is therefore crucial in the development of language and communication.
This result is significant as the accelerated development of the central auditory system through any means will have a benefit to verbal learning: reading, listening and speaking. Musicians also show increased memory performance in short term memory sequence tests like number recall, and verbal working memory tasks in general. The effect is more pronounced on tasks of increasing complexity or sensory input. Moreover, the most recent study found that the musical test group also improved their emotional and social development beyond simple cognitive benefits.