Skip to main content

Your Child's Brain

From Newsweek, 2/19/96:

Music: Last October researchers at the University of Konstanz in Germany reported that exposure to music rewires neural circuits. In the brains of nine string players examined with magnetic resonance imaging, the amount of somatosensory cortex dedicated to the thumb and fifth finger of the left hand -- the fingering digits -- was significantly larger than in nonplayers. How long the players practiced each day did not affect the cortical map. But the age at which they had been introduced to their muse did: the younger the child when she took up an instrument, the more cortex she devoted to playing it.

Like other circuits formed early in life, the ones for music endure. Wayne State's Chugani played the guitar as a child, then gave it up. A few years ago he started taking piano lessons with his young daughter. She learned easily, but he couldn't get his fingers to follow his wishes. Yet when Chugani recently picked up a guitar, he found to his delight that "the songs are still there," much like the muscle memory for riding a bicycle.

Math and logic: At UC Irvine, Gordon Shaw suspected that all higher-order thinking is characterized by similar patterns of neuron firing. "If you're working with little kids," says Shaw, "you're not going to teach them higher mathematics or chess. But they are interested in and can process music." So Shaw and Frances Rauscher gave 19 preschoolers piano or singing lessons. After eight months, the researchers found, the children "dramatically improved in spatial reasoning," compared with children given no music lessons, as shown in their ability to work mazes, draw geometric figures and copy patterns of two-color blocks. The mechanism behind the "Mozart effect" remains murky, but Shaw suspects that when children exercise cortical neurons by listening to classical music, they are also strengthening circuits used for mathematics. Music, says the UC team, "excites the inherent brain patterns and enhances their use in complex reasoning tasks."

Read the full article here.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

CM Ear Training Evaluation mp3's

Beethoven practicing ear training (circa 1820 ) 2004 Theory Test Ear Training Links: Prep Level Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5 Level 6 Level 7 Level 8 Level 9 Advanced Level 2007 Theory Test Ear Training Links: Prep Level Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5 Level 6 Level 7 Level 8 Level 9 Advanced Level 2008 Theory Test Ear Training Links: Prep Level Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5 Level 6 Level 7 Level 8 Level 9 Advanced Level 2013 Theory Test Ear Training Links: Prep Level Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5 Level 6 Level 7 Level 8 Level 9 Advanced Leve l Beethoven after upgrading his headphones. Note the happier expression!
Read more

2013 CM Theory Practice Test Answer Key

Happy puppy says: " You can find the answers to your CM 2013 Practice Test here. "
2 comments
Read more

CM Theory Test Correcting @ Chabot College

This is an all-day endeavor. And I do get tired. And I am usually the only male in the room. If you answered these clues Jeopardy-style with, "What is Jesse correcting Certificate of Merit theory tests at Chabot College", then you are a perceptive soul. The Music Teachers Association of CA (MTAC) requires all of its active members to work a minimum of one full day each year to help run the Certificate of Merit program. The jobs range widely from studio host to theory room monitor to registration desk, and sundry others. This year is my 3rd year as an active MTAC member. My first year I helped run the registration desk. Both this year and last I worked among the theory test correcting ranks. The theory test correcting room is set up with a row of long tables. Teachers sit on each side of these tables all day long, rubbing elbows. Here's what we do: we have red pencils. We hold the red pencils in our hands. We mark answers if they are wrong. Fatigue sets in after a couple ...
1 comment
Read more