Name of projectThe goal of this project is to improve the state of the Animas music program from the ground up. With a permanent space for instruments and music equipment to be set up, individual musicians and any music classes at Animas will have an easier time getting started everyday. This will also provide the ability for Animas to expand its music program when it is ready to.
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This project stems from my deep love of music, and the frustration I have felt when participating in music classes at Animas. Each class is shortened by the set-up and break-down of the equipment and instruments, leaving classes with little time to play and learn. I have wanted Animas to have a music program comparable to to tradition public schools, so I am doing what I can to move us towards that goal.
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Senior thesis paper
To what extent does music physiologically improve the brain?
IntroductionFor centuries, a common perception of human cognition has been that the brain is fixed in its potential and ability once matured. Neurologists and psychologists alike believed that how intelligent someone could or would be was entirely determined by genetics. Thanks to the groundbreaking research on brain development conducted by Marian Diamond, the accepted view now is that animal and human brains alike can improve with stimulation and will degrade in the absence of activity. Music has proven to be one of the best methods of brain enrichment through numerous studies, showing improved symmetry, connectivity, and learning capacity. My question: “To what extent does music physiologically improve the brain?”.
With the decline of funding and support for music programs in schools across the country, a vastly overlooked resource for students has been left behind. Schools continue to push for improvements in grades, test scores, and other metrics, but fail to notice a beneficial solution right in front of them. With musical training, the human brain becomes more proficient in areas from mathematics to reading. Increased connectivity and neuron density translates to faster and deeper learning, which would go far in the way of improving testable metrics at the school level. The issue that stands currently is that even well-funded music programs do not necessarily produce quantifiable results until many years after beginning training.
The conclusion of my research is musical training measurably improves almost all areas of the brain with consistent, intensive playing and needs to be required curriculum in all schools.
Background
With the discovery of brain “enrichment” in rat cerebral cortexes by Marian Diamond, her team proved that general stimulation; such as toys, multiple rooms, and other rats, increased the mass and complexity of the brain in as little as 12 weeks. This paved the way for research into brain improvement methods. While studying rats in their environment, she and her team also found the mass difference between the rats with the most improvement and the rats with the most degradation could have a difference of up to 6% in grey matter mass. The study also found that the visual cortex, the part of the brain responsible for sight and visual stimuli processing, saw the most change in relation to the other affected area, the somatosensory cortex (Diamond et al, 2018). The somatosensory cortex receives generalized sensory signals from every part of the body. With the basic foundation of brain improvement laid by this study, researchers have proven that many activities and environmental factors can lead to improvement in the brain with correlative significance. While music is certainly one of the most impactful, activities such as reading, memorizing, problem-solving, and improvising also benefits the brain to a certain extent.
At the end of this study, the research group had a basic understanding of how enrichment took place but did not fully know which stimuli had the greatest effect, or what other factors helped or hindered the process. It was through my research that I began to understand these nuances. With the already stated conclusion that, for humans, music is the most enriching stimuli that can be used to promote brain improvement.
Research and Analysis
Physiology
When discussing brain enhancement, the first topics that come up are structural and functional redesign. In multiple dissertations including; (Alluri, et al, 2012), (Burunat, et al, 2015), (Diamond, et al, 2018), (Suárez, et al, 2016), and (Tucker, et al, 2016). In (Burunat, et al, 2015) specifically, researchers concluded that consistent and intensive musical practice led to structural reorganization and adaptation in the brain. Physically, certain areas of the brain, such as the anterior corpus callosum, visual cortex and visual-spatial areas of the brain increased in size and complexity and showed greater connectivity between included neurons and surrounding brain regions. Another effect observed was increased symmetry between the two hemispheres, resulting in faster neural activity and deeper ingrained learning. The density of gray matter was also increased in participants and was measurable across all types of learning methods. Some methods proved to be more effective; however, such as sight reading and active improvisation. “Furthermore, this finding also supports our hypothesis of interhemispheric specialization in the auditory cortices with regard to the processing of timbral features, with the right temporal lobe displaying larger areas with significant correlations with these features. Negative correlations between timbral features of Activity and Fullness and brain activity were observed in cerebrocortical regions in the vicinity of the left superior frontal gyrus (BA 9), the left precuneus and surrounding parietal areas, and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex. These areas are known to be part of the default mode network (DMN). The DMN is a neural circuit constantly monitoring the sensory environment and displaying high activity during lack of focused attention on external events” (Alluri, et al, 2012). The results from this study were extremely precise and well documented. Each trial had a strong correlation between each metric, there is hardly any scrutiny to put forward for this research.
While observing scans of the participant’s brains as the participants actively listened to music, researchers found that areas of the brain associated with other cognitive abilities such as verbal and nonverbal processing connected with other parts of the brain. This directly ties into the concept of stimulation transfer discussed in (Suárez, et al, 2016). Transfer occurs in two forms in the brain, near and far transfer. Near transfer occurs when an activated part of the brain stimulates and encourages neural-path strengthening in adjacent parts of the brain. Far transfer, while observed less often, is hypothesized to occur when two seemingly unrelated brain regions influence and strengthen each other through activation of one region. Also mentioned was the effect of language skills and musical skills affected each other interchangeably. It was found that skills developed through music, such as tonal discrimination and pitch perception, influenced verbal skills such as phonemic awareness. Spatial processing, which is also associated with verbal processes, has shown to be a major factor in learning and processing music.
An important conclusion discussed was: most students did not show significant and lasting improvement in brain function until after approximately 4 years of consistent musical learning. This indicates that placing school-aged children in music classes earlier is more likely to show tangible improvement amongst the student populous. This conclusion, or something similar, was consistent across multiple studies with virtually no conflict. It can be said with great confidence that this conclusion is probably correct.
Learning and Memory
Improvement in musical abilities carries benefits not only physiological but psychological as well. Students with low socioeconomic status were observed at two schools in Australia, the group that participated in the relevant music program were found to have improved social cohesion, positive self-image, and purpose. This study also claims the students of lower socioeconomic backgrounds showed comparable physiological improvement to students of higher socioeconomic backgrounds, but saw more improvement in the psychological aspects (Osborne, et al, 2016). Researchers likened this increased psychological development to recouping progress which might have been slowed by poverty and other factors. Whereas students from moderately affluent and above families often had more positive interaction with family members, the low-income families saw a deficit in some student’s mental development, as well as other aspects, including vocabulary.
Functions and processes such a memory, learning capacity, and learning retention are also shown to be influenced and improved by these programs. While the physiological effects are easy to detect and have a clear beneficial influence on brain processes, the functional and psychological improvements are harder to verify. These functions must be demonstrated through rigorous testing and observation, not neuroimaging, to be confirmed. This creates the possibility for misinterpretations of the data and possible mistakes, but the data is consistent and seemingly accurate.
Working memory and ingrained memory of a repeated task have thus far proven to be the most probable functions that are affected, “Fine motor skill is crucially important in our daily lives, and recent research confirms that well-developed fine motor skills in children predict school readiness, academic achievement, and enhanced reading and math ability. On a physiological level, the skills acquired by learning how to play an instrument are related to enhanced brain plasticity and greater interconnectivity between a wide-ranging network of brain regions, including auditory, sensorimotor, and prefrontal cortices” (Tucker, et al, p. 7, 2016). This effect is also compounded by a seemingly unlikely variable: sleep. Researchers investigated sleep between training sessions, separated into groups of participants who had and had not slept in between each pair of training sessions. Within each rest controlled category, participants with musical background outperformed participants without. When all four groups (music and sleep, non-music and sleep, music and wake, non-music and wake) were compared, music proved to be a stronger influence on learning capability than sleep. Both sleep and music, as well as wake and music, scored higher in improvement than the non-music groups. Other less tangible skills have been observed to develop and improve in addition to the rest. Attention span, IQ, and working memory were all observed to improve alongside developing musical skills. While abilities associated with these processes include sight reading, improvisation, and memorization also improved (Tucker, et al, 2016).
Social Behavior Improvements
The final area of improvement is in social skills, interpersonal interactions, and cooperation. Also within the study of low socioeconomic schools, researchers found that music had the potential to promote growth in social skills of all students, most notably students from low-income families. When polled, students involved in music reported that they began to enjoy school more, and felt more comfortable learning and socializing. This was attributed to the cooperative and communal nature of group music classes. Music students rely on each other to stay in time and pitch. This promoted bonding within the classes and enhanced the social capabilities of the students. “These few studies specifically investigating music programs in lower SES students suggest improvements in verbal (language and reading skills), non-verbal (visuospatial and figural reasoning) skills, quantitative (arithmetic) skills and self-esteem. Group lessons, which require students to engage socially and function as a cohesive group, could strengthen social or emotional benefits through a sense of belonging and self-confidence”. (Osborne, et al, 2016) This aspect of musical improvement has much less credibility than the others. The sample sizes and methods offer much less quantifiable results and leave a fairly large amount of ambiguity to contend with. The results are plausible, but more research will need to be conducted to confirm these findings.
Discussion and Conclusions
With the continuous drive to increase literacy and mathematics scores, schools have placed emphasis on standard curriculum and brushed music and other arts programs aside. The desperate need to meet requirements for state and federal funding leaves students strained, and with limited outlets for self-expression within schools. Preliminary studies have hinted that the lack of support for the arts in schools could be contributing to the rise of mental health and behavioral problems faced by a staggering 20% of all young adults in the United States (Stockman, 2012). This issue is one that has been worsening over time and has not received the action that it necessitates.
Alongside the mental health problem, it is a regrettable oversight of schools not to take advantage of the positive benefits that music classes can provide. The ability to lower mental health rates, while simultaneously improving long-term literacy rates, logical thinking ability, and social cohesion is a very illogical decision. Comparative amounts of funding are put towards more rigorous curriculum, but state and federal powers seem to lack the patience and understanding to use music as a way of improving the success of schools nationwide.
Not only do the possibilities of this research apply to the public school system, they extend all the way into adult life as well. While children and adolescents improve faster, there is no point at which an individual can cease the ability to improve with musical training. Implications of this could go so far as to spark initiative for employers, universities, and other organizations to push for music-oriented training or incentives for patrons. Any institution that would benefit from improved mental capabilities of its members might take interest in such an available possibility.
From the perspective of all the gathered sources, there seems to be no consensus on any downsides to musical training. The only obstacles that might stand in the way of more widespread music programs, throughout the country and beyond, seem to be funding and initiative. It is in the best interest of the public to support and fund innovative new programs to enrich their lives and future opportunities.
Of course, more intensive research must be done to pinpoint which techniques and learning styles produce the most pronounced effect. Being able to generalize the process and results will favor the creation of music programs and provide assurance to public and private investors. Federal and State funding could very possibly be directed from programs that do not benefit the public or the majority of people, and instead go towards a benefit for all.
Perhaps music will not become a widespread public phenomenon though. Due to the intensity of the training, and the long period of time required to begin seeing results, the commitment may prove to be too much for those who have much to do in their everyday lives. However, this may be a stepping stone that leads researchers to a greater understanding of the human, and how we can improve it. Finding exactly which types of stimulation produces the desired results, and experimenting to find ways to recreate that stimulation could prove to be a very worthwhile endeavor. It may end up leading us to a new age in technology where improving the brain is as simple as using an interactive display, or with brain electrode stimulation.
Whatever may be the case for the future of this research, it is certain that great advancements are just ahead of us. For the present, what we can say now about music is this: music undeniably improves the structure, function, and efficiency of the brain with consistent results across numerous peer-reviewed studies. It should be of great priority for federal and state departments to give focus to mandatory and accessible music classes for all public schools. To answer my question that I used to guide me through my research; music profoundly alters the brain and improves it given ample time for the effects to be realized. Music can be helpful to all ages, but starting earlier, makes these benefits easier it is apprehended. In summation, music needs to be at the front of our attention when schools are concerned. Just as innovations from the past; print books, computers, the internet, have increased the learning power of schools, so too shall music. It is truly up to us to raise a new generation of musicians.
Works Cited
[1] Alluri, Vinoo, et al. “Large-Scale Brain Networks Emerge from Dynamic Processing of Musical Timbre, Key and Rhythm.” NeuroImage, vol. 59, no. 4, 2012, pp. 3677–3689., doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2011.11.019.
[2] Burunat, Iballa, et al. “Action in Perception: Prominent Visuo-Motor Functional Symmetry in Musicians during Music Listening.” Plos One, vol. 10, no. 9, 2015, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0138238.
[3] Diamond, Marian C., David Krech, and Mark R. Rosenzweig. "The Effects of an Enriched Environment on the Histology of the Rat Cerebral Cortex." The Journal of Comparative Neurology 123.1 (1964): 111-19. Web. 7 Feb. 2018.
[4] Forgeard, Marie, et al. "Practicing a Musical Instrument in Childhood Is Associated with Enhanced Verbal Ability and Nonverbal Reasoning." Plos ONE, vol. 3, no. 10, Oct. 2008, pp. 1-8. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0003566.
[5] Gaser, Christian, and Gottfried Schlaug. “Brain Structures Differ between Musicians and Non-Musicians.” NeuroImage, vol. 13, no. 6, 2001, p. 1168., doi:10.1016/s1053-8119(01)92488-7.
[6] Holmes, Sylwia and Susan Hallam. "The Impact of Participation in Music on Learning Mathematics." London Review of Education, vol. 15, no. 3, Nov. 2017, pp. 425-438. EBSCOhost, doi:10.18546/LRE.15.3.07.
[7] Osborne, Margaret S., et al. "Exploring the Academic and Psychosocial Impact of El Sistema-Inspired Music Programs within Two Low Socio-Economic Schools." Music Education Research, vol. 18, no. 2, June 2016, pp. 156-175. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1080/14613808.2015.1056130.
[8] Stockman, J.a. “Lifetime Prevalence of Mental Disorders in U.S. Adolescents: Results from the National Comorbidity Survey ReplicationâAdolescent Supplement (NCS-A).” Yearbook of Pediatrics, vol. 2012, 2012, pp. 385–387., doi:10.1016/j.yped.2011.04.014.
[9] Suárez, Lidia, et al. "Cross-Sectional Study on the Relationship between Music Training and Working Memory in Adults." Australian Journal of Psychology, vol. 68, no. 1, Mar. 2016, pp. 38-46. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1111/ajpy.12087.
[10] Tucker, Matthew A., et al. "Experience Playing a Musical Instrument and Overnight Sleep Enhance Performance on a Sequential Typing Task." Plos ONE, vol. 11, no. 7, 29 July 2016, pp. 1-10. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0159608
With the decline of funding and support for music programs in schools across the country, a vastly overlooked resource for students has been left behind. Schools continue to push for improvements in grades, test scores, and other metrics, but fail to notice a beneficial solution right in front of them. With musical training, the human brain becomes more proficient in areas from mathematics to reading. Increased connectivity and neuron density translates to faster and deeper learning, which would go far in the way of improving testable metrics at the school level. The issue that stands currently is that even well-funded music programs do not necessarily produce quantifiable results until many years after beginning training.
The conclusion of my research is musical training measurably improves almost all areas of the brain with consistent, intensive playing and needs to be required curriculum in all schools.
Background
With the discovery of brain “enrichment” in rat cerebral cortexes by Marian Diamond, her team proved that general stimulation; such as toys, multiple rooms, and other rats, increased the mass and complexity of the brain in as little as 12 weeks. This paved the way for research into brain improvement methods. While studying rats in their environment, she and her team also found the mass difference between the rats with the most improvement and the rats with the most degradation could have a difference of up to 6% in grey matter mass. The study also found that the visual cortex, the part of the brain responsible for sight and visual stimuli processing, saw the most change in relation to the other affected area, the somatosensory cortex (Diamond et al, 2018). The somatosensory cortex receives generalized sensory signals from every part of the body. With the basic foundation of brain improvement laid by this study, researchers have proven that many activities and environmental factors can lead to improvement in the brain with correlative significance. While music is certainly one of the most impactful, activities such as reading, memorizing, problem-solving, and improvising also benefits the brain to a certain extent.
At the end of this study, the research group had a basic understanding of how enrichment took place but did not fully know which stimuli had the greatest effect, or what other factors helped or hindered the process. It was through my research that I began to understand these nuances. With the already stated conclusion that, for humans, music is the most enriching stimuli that can be used to promote brain improvement.
Research and Analysis
Physiology
When discussing brain enhancement, the first topics that come up are structural and functional redesign. In multiple dissertations including; (Alluri, et al, 2012), (Burunat, et al, 2015), (Diamond, et al, 2018), (Suárez, et al, 2016), and (Tucker, et al, 2016). In (Burunat, et al, 2015) specifically, researchers concluded that consistent and intensive musical practice led to structural reorganization and adaptation in the brain. Physically, certain areas of the brain, such as the anterior corpus callosum, visual cortex and visual-spatial areas of the brain increased in size and complexity and showed greater connectivity between included neurons and surrounding brain regions. Another effect observed was increased symmetry between the two hemispheres, resulting in faster neural activity and deeper ingrained learning. The density of gray matter was also increased in participants and was measurable across all types of learning methods. Some methods proved to be more effective; however, such as sight reading and active improvisation. “Furthermore, this finding also supports our hypothesis of interhemispheric specialization in the auditory cortices with regard to the processing of timbral features, with the right temporal lobe displaying larger areas with significant correlations with these features. Negative correlations between timbral features of Activity and Fullness and brain activity were observed in cerebrocortical regions in the vicinity of the left superior frontal gyrus (BA 9), the left precuneus and surrounding parietal areas, and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex. These areas are known to be part of the default mode network (DMN). The DMN is a neural circuit constantly monitoring the sensory environment and displaying high activity during lack of focused attention on external events” (Alluri, et al, 2012). The results from this study were extremely precise and well documented. Each trial had a strong correlation between each metric, there is hardly any scrutiny to put forward for this research.
While observing scans of the participant’s brains as the participants actively listened to music, researchers found that areas of the brain associated with other cognitive abilities such as verbal and nonverbal processing connected with other parts of the brain. This directly ties into the concept of stimulation transfer discussed in (Suárez, et al, 2016). Transfer occurs in two forms in the brain, near and far transfer. Near transfer occurs when an activated part of the brain stimulates and encourages neural-path strengthening in adjacent parts of the brain. Far transfer, while observed less often, is hypothesized to occur when two seemingly unrelated brain regions influence and strengthen each other through activation of one region. Also mentioned was the effect of language skills and musical skills affected each other interchangeably. It was found that skills developed through music, such as tonal discrimination and pitch perception, influenced verbal skills such as phonemic awareness. Spatial processing, which is also associated with verbal processes, has shown to be a major factor in learning and processing music.
An important conclusion discussed was: most students did not show significant and lasting improvement in brain function until after approximately 4 years of consistent musical learning. This indicates that placing school-aged children in music classes earlier is more likely to show tangible improvement amongst the student populous. This conclusion, or something similar, was consistent across multiple studies with virtually no conflict. It can be said with great confidence that this conclusion is probably correct.
Learning and Memory
Improvement in musical abilities carries benefits not only physiological but psychological as well. Students with low socioeconomic status were observed at two schools in Australia, the group that participated in the relevant music program were found to have improved social cohesion, positive self-image, and purpose. This study also claims the students of lower socioeconomic backgrounds showed comparable physiological improvement to students of higher socioeconomic backgrounds, but saw more improvement in the psychological aspects (Osborne, et al, 2016). Researchers likened this increased psychological development to recouping progress which might have been slowed by poverty and other factors. Whereas students from moderately affluent and above families often had more positive interaction with family members, the low-income families saw a deficit in some student’s mental development, as well as other aspects, including vocabulary.
Functions and processes such a memory, learning capacity, and learning retention are also shown to be influenced and improved by these programs. While the physiological effects are easy to detect and have a clear beneficial influence on brain processes, the functional and psychological improvements are harder to verify. These functions must be demonstrated through rigorous testing and observation, not neuroimaging, to be confirmed. This creates the possibility for misinterpretations of the data and possible mistakes, but the data is consistent and seemingly accurate.
Working memory and ingrained memory of a repeated task have thus far proven to be the most probable functions that are affected, “Fine motor skill is crucially important in our daily lives, and recent research confirms that well-developed fine motor skills in children predict school readiness, academic achievement, and enhanced reading and math ability. On a physiological level, the skills acquired by learning how to play an instrument are related to enhanced brain plasticity and greater interconnectivity between a wide-ranging network of brain regions, including auditory, sensorimotor, and prefrontal cortices” (Tucker, et al, p. 7, 2016). This effect is also compounded by a seemingly unlikely variable: sleep. Researchers investigated sleep between training sessions, separated into groups of participants who had and had not slept in between each pair of training sessions. Within each rest controlled category, participants with musical background outperformed participants without. When all four groups (music and sleep, non-music and sleep, music and wake, non-music and wake) were compared, music proved to be a stronger influence on learning capability than sleep. Both sleep and music, as well as wake and music, scored higher in improvement than the non-music groups. Other less tangible skills have been observed to develop and improve in addition to the rest. Attention span, IQ, and working memory were all observed to improve alongside developing musical skills. While abilities associated with these processes include sight reading, improvisation, and memorization also improved (Tucker, et al, 2016).
Social Behavior Improvements
The final area of improvement is in social skills, interpersonal interactions, and cooperation. Also within the study of low socioeconomic schools, researchers found that music had the potential to promote growth in social skills of all students, most notably students from low-income families. When polled, students involved in music reported that they began to enjoy school more, and felt more comfortable learning and socializing. This was attributed to the cooperative and communal nature of group music classes. Music students rely on each other to stay in time and pitch. This promoted bonding within the classes and enhanced the social capabilities of the students. “These few studies specifically investigating music programs in lower SES students suggest improvements in verbal (language and reading skills), non-verbal (visuospatial and figural reasoning) skills, quantitative (arithmetic) skills and self-esteem. Group lessons, which require students to engage socially and function as a cohesive group, could strengthen social or emotional benefits through a sense of belonging and self-confidence”. (Osborne, et al, 2016) This aspect of musical improvement has much less credibility than the others. The sample sizes and methods offer much less quantifiable results and leave a fairly large amount of ambiguity to contend with. The results are plausible, but more research will need to be conducted to confirm these findings.
Discussion and Conclusions
With the continuous drive to increase literacy and mathematics scores, schools have placed emphasis on standard curriculum and brushed music and other arts programs aside. The desperate need to meet requirements for state and federal funding leaves students strained, and with limited outlets for self-expression within schools. Preliminary studies have hinted that the lack of support for the arts in schools could be contributing to the rise of mental health and behavioral problems faced by a staggering 20% of all young adults in the United States (Stockman, 2012). This issue is one that has been worsening over time and has not received the action that it necessitates.
Alongside the mental health problem, it is a regrettable oversight of schools not to take advantage of the positive benefits that music classes can provide. The ability to lower mental health rates, while simultaneously improving long-term literacy rates, logical thinking ability, and social cohesion is a very illogical decision. Comparative amounts of funding are put towards more rigorous curriculum, but state and federal powers seem to lack the patience and understanding to use music as a way of improving the success of schools nationwide.
Not only do the possibilities of this research apply to the public school system, they extend all the way into adult life as well. While children and adolescents improve faster, there is no point at which an individual can cease the ability to improve with musical training. Implications of this could go so far as to spark initiative for employers, universities, and other organizations to push for music-oriented training or incentives for patrons. Any institution that would benefit from improved mental capabilities of its members might take interest in such an available possibility.
From the perspective of all the gathered sources, there seems to be no consensus on any downsides to musical training. The only obstacles that might stand in the way of more widespread music programs, throughout the country and beyond, seem to be funding and initiative. It is in the best interest of the public to support and fund innovative new programs to enrich their lives and future opportunities.
Of course, more intensive research must be done to pinpoint which techniques and learning styles produce the most pronounced effect. Being able to generalize the process and results will favor the creation of music programs and provide assurance to public and private investors. Federal and State funding could very possibly be directed from programs that do not benefit the public or the majority of people, and instead go towards a benefit for all.
Perhaps music will not become a widespread public phenomenon though. Due to the intensity of the training, and the long period of time required to begin seeing results, the commitment may prove to be too much for those who have much to do in their everyday lives. However, this may be a stepping stone that leads researchers to a greater understanding of the human, and how we can improve it. Finding exactly which types of stimulation produces the desired results, and experimenting to find ways to recreate that stimulation could prove to be a very worthwhile endeavor. It may end up leading us to a new age in technology where improving the brain is as simple as using an interactive display, or with brain electrode stimulation.
Whatever may be the case for the future of this research, it is certain that great advancements are just ahead of us. For the present, what we can say now about music is this: music undeniably improves the structure, function, and efficiency of the brain with consistent results across numerous peer-reviewed studies. It should be of great priority for federal and state departments to give focus to mandatory and accessible music classes for all public schools. To answer my question that I used to guide me through my research; music profoundly alters the brain and improves it given ample time for the effects to be realized. Music can be helpful to all ages, but starting earlier, makes these benefits easier it is apprehended. In summation, music needs to be at the front of our attention when schools are concerned. Just as innovations from the past; print books, computers, the internet, have increased the learning power of schools, so too shall music. It is truly up to us to raise a new generation of musicians.
Works Cited
[1] Alluri, Vinoo, et al. “Large-Scale Brain Networks Emerge from Dynamic Processing of Musical Timbre, Key and Rhythm.” NeuroImage, vol. 59, no. 4, 2012, pp. 3677–3689., doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2011.11.019.
[2] Burunat, Iballa, et al. “Action in Perception: Prominent Visuo-Motor Functional Symmetry in Musicians during Music Listening.” Plos One, vol. 10, no. 9, 2015, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0138238.
[3] Diamond, Marian C., David Krech, and Mark R. Rosenzweig. "The Effects of an Enriched Environment on the Histology of the Rat Cerebral Cortex." The Journal of Comparative Neurology 123.1 (1964): 111-19. Web. 7 Feb. 2018.
[4] Forgeard, Marie, et al. "Practicing a Musical Instrument in Childhood Is Associated with Enhanced Verbal Ability and Nonverbal Reasoning." Plos ONE, vol. 3, no. 10, Oct. 2008, pp. 1-8. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0003566.
[5] Gaser, Christian, and Gottfried Schlaug. “Brain Structures Differ between Musicians and Non-Musicians.” NeuroImage, vol. 13, no. 6, 2001, p. 1168., doi:10.1016/s1053-8119(01)92488-7.
[6] Holmes, Sylwia and Susan Hallam. "The Impact of Participation in Music on Learning Mathematics." London Review of Education, vol. 15, no. 3, Nov. 2017, pp. 425-438. EBSCOhost, doi:10.18546/LRE.15.3.07.
[7] Osborne, Margaret S., et al. "Exploring the Academic and Psychosocial Impact of El Sistema-Inspired Music Programs within Two Low Socio-Economic Schools." Music Education Research, vol. 18, no. 2, June 2016, pp. 156-175. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1080/14613808.2015.1056130.
[8] Stockman, J.a. “Lifetime Prevalence of Mental Disorders in U.S. Adolescents: Results from the National Comorbidity Survey ReplicationâAdolescent Supplement (NCS-A).” Yearbook of Pediatrics, vol. 2012, 2012, pp. 385–387., doi:10.1016/j.yped.2011.04.014.
[9] Suárez, Lidia, et al. "Cross-Sectional Study on the Relationship between Music Training and Working Memory in Adults." Australian Journal of Psychology, vol. 68, no. 1, Mar. 2016, pp. 38-46. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1111/ajpy.12087.
[10] Tucker, Matthew A., et al. "Experience Playing a Musical Instrument and Overnight Sleep Enhance Performance on a Sequential Typing Task." Plos ONE, vol. 11, no. 7, 29 July 2016, pp. 1-10. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0159608