Research Findings Show Music Can Enhance Key Component of Human Intelligence

Music lessons, and even simply listening to music, can enhance spatial reasoning performance, according to research presented at the 102^nd Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association. The new findings were presented by psychologist Frances Rauscher, Ph.D. and neuroscientist Gordon Shaw, Ph.D., representing a research team from the University of California at Irvine.

Dr. Rauscher and Dr. Shaw's studies confirm, and substantially extend their earlier research which demonstrated an unmistakable causal link between music and spatial intelligence. This further research will have considerable potential to reverse the commonly-held view of music education as essentially irrelevant to intellectual development.

The researchers note that well-developed spatial intelligence is the ability to perceive the visual world accurately, to form mental images of physical objects, and to recognize variations of objects. The researchers theorize that spatial reasoning abilities are crucial for such higher brain functions as music, complex mathematics, and chess. As many of the problems in which scientists and engineers engage in cannot be described in verbal form, progress in science may, in fact, be closely linked to the development of certain spatial skills.

Dr. Rauscher and Dr. Shaw's results show that the spatial reasoning performance of 19 preschool children who received eight months of music lessons, far exceeded the spatial reasoning performance of a demographically comparable group of 15 preschool children who did not receive music lessons. Moreover, scores on a puzzle task, designed to measure spatial reasoning ability, increased significantly during the course of the period they received the music lessons. This experiment was designed to follow up on results generated by a preliminary pilot study completed by the researchers in 1993.

The second experiment, presented at the meeting by Dr. Rauscher and Dr. Shaw, expanded on their widely-reported study published by Nature in October 1993, which found that listening to 10 minutes of Mozart's Piano Sonata K448 increased spatial IQ scores in college students, relative to silence or relaxation instructions. The new findings replicated the effect, and found no increase in spatial skills after subjects listened to 10 minutes of either a composition by Philip Glass or a highly rhythmic dance piece, suggesting that hypnotic musical structures will not enhance spatial skills.

Dr. Rauscher and Dr. Shaw suggest that these two complimentary studies have serious educational and scientific implications. "We are in the process of designing further studies directed toward strengthening the enhancing effect of music training on spatial reasoning that we found for the preschoolers. We hope our research will help convince public school administrators of how crucial music instruction is to all children," they explained. Dr. Rauscher and Dr. Shaw also plan experiments which will begin to examine the neuronal mechanisms responsible for the causal ink between music and spatial intelligence.

Dr. Frances Rauscher

Drs. Rauscher and Shaw Biographical Notes

Frances Rauscher, Ph.D. is a Research Psychologist at the Center for Neurobiology of Learning and Memory at UC Irivine. After surviving a career as a concert cellist, which included solo and chamber music performances worldwide, she went on to receive her Ph.D. from Columbia University in psychology. Dr. Rauscher has authored numerous papers in the areas of social and cognitive psychology. Her dual careers in music and psychology are uniquely combined in her research on music and intelligence. Gordon Shaw, Ph.D. is a professor Emeritus of Physics at UC Irvine with a major research effort in theoretical neuroscience, specializing on properties of structured neuronal models of the cortex. He is a member of the Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory.

Making the Case for Music Education In Front of the Class

• Music contributes to the school and community quality of life.
  
• Music promotes use of higher-order thinking skills.
  
• Music is a way to understand our cultural heritage as well as the other past and present cultures.
  
• Music contributes to sensitivity ("feeling intelligence").
  
• Music education promotes motor development.
  
• Music encourages teamwork and cohesiveness.
  
• Music fosters creativity and individuality.
  
• Music education fosters discipline and commitment.
  
• Music is a therapeutic outlet for human beings. Music is a predictor of success in life.

Cover Story Highlights Music Research - April 8, 1998 Issue Education Week

April 8, 1998 issue leads with a cover story about the effects of music making on young minds. The article "Music on the Mind" by Debra Viadero is clearly one of the best compilations of what is known and not known about the effects of music listening and music making in the development of children. Both Frances and Rauscher and Gordon Shaw call for improved and expanded music education programs for young children based on what is known while Dr. Rauscher also points out "There is little evidence to suggest that just listening to music, as Gov. Miller of Georgia has proposed, produces lasting intellectual benefits." A must read for any policy maker, decision maker, educator, parent or advocate. Music Beats Computers at Enhancing Early Childhood Development From: Bob Morrison pp002343@mindspring.com Irivine, CA (February 28, 1997)

A research team exploring the link between music and intelligence reports that music training – specifically piano instruction – is far superior to computer instruction in dramatically enhancing children's abstract reasoning skills necessary for learning math and science.

The new findings, published in the February 1997 issue of Neurological Research, are the result of a two-year experiment with preschoolers. Led by psychologist Dr. Frances Rauscher of the University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh and physicist Dr. Gordon Shaw of the University of California at Irvine. As a follow-up to their groundbreaking studies indicating how music can enhance spatial-reasoning ability, the researchers set out to compare the effects of musical and non-musical training on intellectual development.

The experiment included three groups of preschoolers: one group received private piano/keyboard lessons and singing lessons; a second group received private computer lessons; and a third group received no training. Those children who received piano/keyboard training performed 34% higher on tests measuring spatial-temporal ability than the others. These findings indicate that music uniquely enhances higher brain functions required for mathematics, chess, science and engineering.

The implications of this and future studies can change the way educators view the coreschool curricula, particularly since music making nurtures the intellect and produces long-term improvements. "It has been clearly documents that young students have difficulty understanding the concepts of proportion (heavily used in math and science) and that no successful program has been developed to teach these concepts in the school system," stated Dr. Rauscher. "The high proportion of children who evidenced dramatic improvement in spatial-temporal reasoning as a result of music training should be of great interest to scientists and educators," added Dr. Shaw.

Functional Anatomy of Human Music Processing

Robert J. Zatorre Ph.D. (Science-Week 24 Apr 98) (Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. US 17 Mar 98 v95:p3172) The existence of special perceptuo-motor skills in certain individuals presents many puzzling questions for the cognitive neurosciences. One such ability whose cerebral substrate remains essentially unknown is absolute pitch(also called "perfect pitch"), a relatively rare ability that refers to a long-term internal representation for the pitch of tones in the musical scale, typically manifested behaviorally by the ability to identify by the name of the musical note the pitch of any sound without reference to another sound, or by the ability to identify by the name of the musical note the pitch of any sound without reference to another sound, or by the ability to produce a given musical tone on demand. In contrast, relative pitch, which is well-developed among most trained musicians, refers to the ability to make pitch judgments about the relation between notes, such as within a musical interval. The term "functional brain imaging" refers to a number of different techniques for mapping activity in the brain in response to external stimuli or during sensory, perceptual, or cognitive events. Positron emission tomography is a technique for producing cross-sectioning images of the body after ingestion and systemic distribution of safely metabolized positron-emitting agents. The images are essentially functional or metabolic, since the ingested agents are metabolized in various tissues. Fluorodeoxyglucose and H(sub2)0(sup15) are common agents used for cerebral applications, and in cerebral applications of central importance to the technique is the fact that changes in the cellular activity of the brains of normal, awake humans and unanesthetized laboratory animals are invariably accompanied by changes in local blood flow and also changes in oxygen consumption. Magnetic resonance imaging is a technique involving images produced by mobile protons of a tissue excited by the application of a magnetic field, and when used in functional cerebral imaging, the basis of the technique is that it images very small metabolic, blood-flow, and perfusion diffusion changes in vivo, in real time, and with no risk to the subject. . . Zatorre et al (5 authors at McGill University, CA) report a study of the neural basis of human absolute pitch using both structural and functional brain imaging techniques (magnetic resonance imaging and positron emission tomography). Although there were some localization differences between absolute pitch possessors and control non-absolute-pitch musicians when responding to musical tones, the results as a whole bring the authors to suggest that the absolute pitch may not be associated with a unique pattern of cerebral activity, but rather may depends on the recruitment of a specialized network involved in the retrieval and manipulation of verbal-tonal associations.

Researchers find Active music Making Expands the Brain

In the April 23, 1998 issue of Nature, Researchers at the University of Munster in Germany reported their discovery music lessons in childhood actually enlarge the brain. An area used to analyze the pitch of a musical note in enlarged 25% in musicians, compared to people who have never played an instrument. The findings suggest the area is enlarged through practice and experience. The earlier the musicians were when they started musical training, the bigger this area of the brain appears to be.

The discovery, described in the April 23 issue of the journal Nature, 5/5/98 NYT was made after scientists put musicians and others into a magnetic brain imaging machine pointed at the auditory cortex, where sounds are processed.

This part of the brain contains cells, called neurons, which are sensitive to different sound frequencies. Neurons that fire in response to the same frequency tend to cluster into little islands, forming a kind of sound frequency map in the auditory cortex.

The researchers said that skilled musicians use more neurons for processing sounds from a piano or better synchronize those sounds because of their training, Furthermore, the younger the musicians started playing their instruments, the greater their response to piano notes. Musicians with perfect pitch or absolute relative pitch showed no differences. The increased response to piano tones was the same in those who played piano, woodwinds or stringed instruments, although most of the musicians said that they had received early training on the piano.

Musical training during childhood may influence regional brain growth Bob Morrison - American Music Conference http://www.amc-music.com

Rauscher & Shaw, as reported in Symphony Sep. - Oct. 1996

Preschoolers who studied piano performed 34 per cent better in spatial and temporal reasoning ability than preschoolers who spent the same amount of time learning to use computers. Disadvantaged preschoolers display dramatic improvements in spatial reasoning ability after music training.

Rauscher, Shaw, as reported in Neurological Research, February 1997 -

Preschoolers who took singing and keyboard lessons scored 80 per cent higher on object-assembly tests than students as the same preschool who did not have the music lessons.

Gardiner, Fox, Jeffry, and Knowles, as reported in Nature, May 23, 1996 – Students in two Rhode Island elementary schools given a sequential, skill-building music program showed a marked improvement in math skills.

Music and Spatial Task Performance: A Casual Relationship, Rauscher, Shaw, Levine, KY and Wright, University of California, 1994 - After eight months of keyboard lessons, preschoolers demonstrated a 46 per cent boost in their spatial reasoning IQ.

N.H. Barry, Auburn University, 1992

At risk children who participated in an arts program that included music showed significant increases in overall self-concept.

Listening to Mozart's Piano Sonata K448 was found to significantly increase spatial scores of college students on IQ tests. (Rauscher & Shaw, University of California, as reported in Nature)

In a study of medical school applicants, 66 per cent of music majorswho applied to medical school were admitted, the highest percentage of any group. Only 44 per cent of biochemistry majors were admitted. (Lewis Thomas, as reported in Phi Delta Kappan, February 1994)

Students who study music scored higher on both the verbal and math portions of the SAT than non-music students. (College Entrance Examination Board as reported in Symphony, Sep-Oct 1996)

Listening to Baroque music while studying can enhance one's ability to memorize spellings, poetry, and foreign words. (The Mozart Effect, Don Campbell, 1997) The very best engineers and technical designers in the Silicon Valley industry are, nearly without exception, practicing musicians. (Grant Venerable, The Center for the Arts in the basic Curriculum, New York, 1989)

The University of Washington reported in a study of ninety people editing a manuscript, that accuracy in the group listening to classical music increased by 21.3 per cent.

AT&T and DuPont have cut training time in half by using creative music programs. Equitable Life Insurance increased the output of transcriber by 17 per cent after introducing music to the office.

Mississippi Power & Light raised efficiency in the billing department by 18.6 per cent after instituting a nine-month office listening program. (University of Washington, Business Music: A Performance Tool for the Office/ Workplace 1991)

Listening to music can increase levels of interleukin-1 (IL-1) in the blood from 12.5 to 14 per cent. Interleukins are a family of proteins associated with blood and platelet production, lymphocyte stimulation and cellular protection against AIDS, cancer and other diseases. (Michigan State University as reported in The Mozart Effect, Don Campbell, 1997)

For the unborn child, classical music, played at a rhythm of 60 beats per minute, equivalent to that of a resting human heart, provides an environment conductive to creative and intellectual development. (Dr. Thomas Verny, The Secret Life of the Unborn Child) Stanford Report, February 2, 2005

Evolutionary Science & Culture

Music and the Brain

Music Appreciation 'Hard Wired' in Brain NPR 12/28/2002

Why do certain melodies stick in your head? And why does hearing "Stairway to Heaven" remind you of your high school dance? discussion about the way music affects your brain. Petr Janata * Research assistant professor, Dartmouth College, Hanover, H.H. Mark Jude Tramo * Musician, Director, The Institute for Music and the Brain, Neurologist and neuroscientist, Harvard Medical School, Cambridge, Mass. NPR May9, 2003.

Social Rhythm Experts - Dr. Mark Jude Tramo, a neuroscientist who is director of the Institute for Music and Brain Science at Harvard. Neurobiology research has established a close link between the brain's hearing and emotional centers. "The anatomical and functional connectivity of the brain's auditory systems and emotional systems underlie musical aesthetics," Dr. Tramo said. "The effect of music on emotions may, in turn, influence autonomic and immunologic systems in ways that affect and help the body's natural responses to disease." Music On The Brain and Functional Role of Auditory Cortex in Frequency Processing and Pitch Perception also see

Singing Familiar Songs is Found to Use Spatial Abilities

students were converting the sounds into an image in their heads actually a picture of what the melody would look like if it were somehow projected on a piece of paper. Interestingly, trained musicians and non-musicians did it exactly the same way showing that it is probably a basic way the brain works, not something that is learned.

Stanford University research has found for the first time that musical training improves how the brain processes the spoken word, a finding that researchers say could lead to improving the reading ability of children who have dyslexia and other reading problems. The study, made public Wednesday, is the first to show that musical experience can help the brain improve its ability to distinguish between rapidly changing sounds that are key to understanding and using language. The research also eventually could provide the "why" behind other studies that have found that playing a musical instrument has cognitive benefits.

"What this study shows, that's novel, is that there's a specific aspect of language... that's changed in the minds and brains of people with musical training," said researcher John Gabrieli, a former Standford psychology professor now at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. <snip>

There is some overlap between musical ability and math. Inter-domain transfer between mathematical skills and musicianship. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2004 APA, all rights reserved) Authors Bahr, Nan; Christensen, Carol A. Affiliations Bahr, Nan: U Queensland, Graduate School of Education, QLD, Australia Source Journal of Structural Learning & Intelligent Systems. 14(3), 2000, 198-197.

Abstract Investigated the nature of transfer of problem solving sills between 2 domains which are very dissimilar at a surface level but which overlap at a deep structural level in specific areas. The domains are formal musical skill and mathematics. This study examined specifically whether this transfer occurs without explicit instruction to facilitate transfer. Structural Learning Theory provided a frame of reference for the study of the deep structural similarities between music and math. 85 public secondary school students (mean age 15.5 yrs) enrolled in an extension math course completed a mathematics test in their regular classroom. One week later Ss completed the Musicianship Rating Scaled to measure trained musical knowledge. The results indicate that in the domains of mathematics and music, students who had training in musicianship performed better than students who no musical training in mathematical areas of structural overlap. However, they did not perform better in areas without overlap. The author concludes that transfer occurs as a result of deep-structural similarity of domains and that this transfer can occur spontaneously without explicit instruction designed to facilitate transfer.

Music as embodied mathematics: A study of mutually informing affinity. (PsycINFO Datebase Record (c) 2004 APA,) Authors Bamberger, Jeanne; Disessa, Andrea Affiliations Bamberger, Jeanne: Music and Theater Arts, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, US Disessa, Andrea: University of Californina, Berkeley, CA, US Source International Journal of Computers for Mathematical Learning. 8(2), 2003, 123 - 160.

Abstract The argument examined in this paper is that music - when approached through making and responding to coherent musical structures, facilitated by multiple, intuitively accessible representations - can become a learning context in which basic mathematical ideas can be elicited and perceived as relevant and important. Students' inquiry into the bases for their perceptions of musical coherence provides a path into the mathematics of ratio, proportion, fractions, and common multiples. In a similar manner, we conjecture that other topics in mathematics - patterns of change, transformations and invariants - might also expose, illuminate and account for more general organizing structures in music. Drawing on experience with 11-12 year old students working in a software music/math environment, we illustrate the role of multiple representations, multimedia, and the use of multiple sensory modalities in eliciting and developing students' initially implicit knowledge of music and its inherent mathematics.

Playing music can be good for your brain. Stanford study finds it helps the understanding of language Carrie Sturrock Chronicle Staff Writer November 17, 2005.