{"id":63527,"date":"2022-06-23T00:19:07","date_gmt":"2022-06-23T04:19:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/world.edu\/?p=63527"},"modified":"2022-06-24T22:51:29","modified_gmt":"2022-06-25T02:51:29","slug":"how-does-musical-practice-change-our-brain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/world.edu\/how-does-musical-practice-change-our-brain\/","title":{"rendered":"How does musical practice change our brain?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

They say that Mick Jagger, the leader of the Rolling Stones, said that everything worth doing is worth overdoing (” Anything worth doing is worth overdoing<\/em>\u00a0“).\u00a0Music, which has made the Rolling Stones so famous, is one of the activities that societies have valued and practiced the most.\u00a0The songs appear in social events to express group identity, as in hymns, and emotions, which are contagious or serve as relief.<\/p>\n

Playing an instrument involves a large amount of learning and cognitive demands (perceptive, attention, etc.).\u00a0So it is not surprising that prolonged practice improves\u00a0listening and rhythmic skills<\/a>\u00a0.\u00a0It is also associated with a larger size of brain areas dedicated to\u00a0auditory, somatosensory, and motor perception<\/a>\u00a0.<\/p>\n

An example of brain reorganization is seen in pianists, who use both hands when playing.\u00a0In right-handed people, it is common to observe a larger size in the left motor cortex (the one that controls the movements of the right hand).\u00a0However, pianists show\u00a0greater symmetry<\/a>\u00a0between both hemispheres.<\/p>\n

Likewise, playing the same instrument for years changes the relationship with its sound.\u00a0The response of a trumpeter’s auditory cortex is much greater for\u00a0sounds from a trumpet than from a violin<\/a>\u00a0.\u00a0The opposite happens for a violinist.<\/p>\n

Music beyond music<\/strong><\/h4>\n

The case of music is not isolated.\u00a0Other activities that involve perfecting a skill have their imprint on the brain.\u00a0Professional\u00a0taxi drivers<\/a>\u00a0develop a larger size of the posterior hippocampus, an area of \u200b\u200bthe brain that is associated with spatial navigation.\u00a0And\u00a0juggling training<\/a>\u00a0produces changes in the size of areas responsible for processing movement.<\/p>\n

In the last 30 years, many studies have observed that the benefits of music extend beyond hearing and motor skills.\u00a0Playing an instrument improves\u00a0mental abilities in general<\/a>\u00a0.\u00a0For example, music promotes functions such as reasoning or memory.<\/p>\n

The changes to these other abilities are more modest.\u00a0But the simple fact that musical practice increases performance in reasoning or memory tasks has aroused the interest of the scientific community: why does musical practice affect capacities that are not directly trained?<\/p>\n

The most common explanation has been that musical practice increases brain capacity and its functions.\u00a0Thus, as it is necessary to attend or memorize during musical practice, these functions would be enhanced.\u00a0But this theory fails to explain many of the results.\u00a0What other theories could be viable?<\/p>\n

A multisensory activity<\/strong><\/h4>\n

When performing a piece of music, finger movements are converted into sounds.\u00a0And often visual symbols like notes or tablature guide those movements and sounds.\u00a0Therefore, the auditory-visual-motor interrelation is one of the most genuine characteristics of music.<\/p>\n

The brain of professional musicians works in a multisensory way.\u00a0When they listen to works that they have already performed, the\u00a0motor areas of their brain are activated<\/a>\u00a0.\u00a0And conversely, moving the fingers as if they were playing a piece produces the\u00a0activation of auditory areas<\/a>\u00a0.<\/p>\n

In fact,\u00a0listening accompanied by movement<\/a>\u00a0has been shown to produce greater changes than training listening to music alone.\u00a0One possibility is that musicians, accustomed to perception rich in sensory modalities, tend to apply it in other contexts.\u00a0For example,\u00a0activation of the visual cortex<\/a>\u00a0is observed in musicians when they memorize words that have only been heard.\u00a0And most critically, this additional brain activity is associated with sharper memories.<\/p>\n

Therefore, it could be that musical practice modifies the way in which we represent reality.\u00a0As with\u00a0synesthesia<\/a>\u00a0, a multisensory perception would enhance everything from the memories of events to how we use them to make decisions and reason.<\/p>\n

Not-So-Musical Strategies<\/strong><\/h4>\n

A second possibility is that musical practice encourages the development of new mental strategies.\u00a0By adopting more efficient cognitive routines, musicians could overcome many of the difficulties of playing an instrument.\u00a0But what if they applied these new strategies in other contexts?<\/p>\n

This would be the case of rhythm.\u00a0The complex rhythmic structures that exist in music and the importance of playing\u00a0in time<\/em>\u00a0promote rhythmic strategies.\u00a0But many other activities follow repetitive sequences.<\/p>\n

One of them is language, with stress and emphasis structures that help the listener to learn it and extract the meaning.\u00a0People who\u00a0are better attuned to the rhythmic structure of a language<\/a>\u00a0, including musicians, learn it more easily.<\/p>\n

Reward effort<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Finally, we must think that the brain tends to be adapted to the present.\u00a0But achieving long-term goals, like mastering an instrument, means giving up that balance in the present.\u00a0That is, we stop doing what we feel like in search of a better adaptation in the future.\u00a0This is experienced as a great effort that, whether physical or mental, is aversive.\u00a0Hence, we try not to exert ourselves for long periods of time and opt for less expensive activities.<\/p>\n

Although every effort well applied carries its reward.\u00a0Properly managed, effort allows us to reap greater\u00a0rewards in the future<\/a>\u00a0.\u00a0Thus, as a paradox, the\u00a0fruits of our effort<\/a>\u00a0, be it a plate of food or a piece of furniture that we have assembled from scratch, acquire greater value.<\/p>\n

Music practice is a very reinforcing activity: the reward is intense and encourages you to keep trying.\u00a0It is possible that these rewards (the music itself, the applause, etc.)\u00a0reverse the negative value of the playing effort<\/a>\u00a0.\u00a0Furthermore, they could turn effort into something positive in all contexts.<\/p>\n

In this way, musical practice could promote effort.\u00a0Musicians may not have better reasoning and memory skills.\u00a0But learn to manage the effort successfully, which leads them to make better use of their abilities in different areas of their lives.<\/p>\n

Author Bios:<\/strong> Rafael Roman Caballero is a Researcher at the Faculty of Psychology of the University of Granada \/ Mind, Brain and Behavior Research Center and Juan Lupianez Castillo is Professor of Experimental Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience. Department of Experimental Psychology \/ Mind, Brain and Behavior Research Center both at the University of Granada<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

They say that Mick Jagger, the leader of the Rolling Stones, said that everything worth doing is worth overdoing (” Anything worth doing is worth overdoing\u00a0“).\u00a0Music, which has made the Rolling Stones so famous, is one of the activities that societies have valued and practiced the most.\u00a0The songs appear in social events to express group […]\n… learn more→<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[95],"tags":[429098],"coauthors":[11733],"class_list":["post-63527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lifestyle","tag-musical-practice"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nHow does musical practice change our brain? - World leading higher education information and services<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/world.edu\/how-does-musical-practice-change-our-brain\/\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How does musical practice change our brain? 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