Title: The%20Effect%20of%20Music%20on%20Children
1The Effect of Music on ChildrensBrain and
Cognitive Development
- Gottfried Schlaug Ellen Winner
- Dept. of Neurology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical
Center and Harvard Medical School -
- Dept. of Psychology, Boston College
- and Harvard Graduate School of Education
HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL
BETH ISRAEL DEACONESS MEDICAL CENTER
23 Questions
- Does music learning cause structural changes in
childrens brains? - Does music learning lead to improvement in
- childrens spatial thinking and in
mathematics? - Is improvement in spatial and/or math reasoning
- related to brain changes?
3 Musicians brains are different
4Corpus Callosum
5Your Brain on Music
6Is it Nature, Nurture, or both? A longitudinal
study is the only way to find out.
- We need to study children before they begin and
while they are learning music. - We will compare groups of children learning music
at varying levels of time commitment.
7The Mozart Effect
- Previous studies have shown that after listening
to the music of Mozart, adults score higher on
spatial tasks like this paper folding test. - However, this effect is
- short lived.
8But other studies have shown that music
training has positive, long-term effects on
childrens cognition.This 3-year study will
measure those effects in three ways annual
cognitive, math music testing journal of
activities annual non-invasive MRI scan
9Wild claims have been made by the media but...
10Object Assembly Test
- ...it is true
- that children who study music solve puzzles of
this kind better than those who have not studied
music.
11Math
- Based on a small number of studies, there is also
some evidence that children who study music may
improve in math.
12Unanswered question
- When children improve in
- spatial reasoning and in math,
- are these improvements related to
- structural brain changes?
- ?
13Families who join our study agree to
- Annual cognitive, math and music testing at their
childs school, music school or at - Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
- Annual non-invasive MRI scans at
- Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
- Keep a weekly record of childs musical
activities or instrumental practice and/or other
extra-curricular activities
14What is an MRI?
- Magnetic Resonance Imaging
- MRI is non-invasive and completely safe.
- There is no radiation whatsoever.
- The MRI will take about 20-30 minutes to complete
both structural and functional scanning. - While they are in the scanner, children will
listen and respond to music in segments of
approximately 5 minutes each. - When they leave, children will be given a CD with
images of their brain.
15Why Participate?
- Find out how music learning affects
- your childs development
- Track your child brain growth and
- cognitive development
- Help gather scientific evidence to
- support music in our schools
- Receive pictures of your childs
- developing brain
- Receive a small stipend for your child
- each time s/he is scanned