Music Lessons Good For Children’s Brains
After comparing children who had music lessons with those who didn’t, scientists from McMaster University, Canada, found that those who took music lessons had different patterns of brain development.
The children with music lessons had better memories as well as higher literacy and math levels. All the kids in the study were aged 4-6 years.You will be able to read about this study in the October issue of Brain.
Professor Laurel Trainor, team leader, said “This is the first study to show that brain responses in young, musically trained and untrained children change differently over the course of a year.”
While all the children listened to two sounds, a violin tone, and a white noise burst – the scientists used magnetoencephalography to measure their brain activity. All the kids responded more to the violin tone than the white noise burst.
This indicates that the children’s brains are being used more when the sound is meaningful. During the year-long study the researchers also noticed that all the children’s brains gradually responded more rapidly to sounds – indicating brain maturity. Read more.