{"id":1214,"date":"2015-04-19T22:44:47","date_gmt":"2015-04-20T02:44:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.music.mcgill.ca\/mpbs\/?page_id=1214"},"modified":"2017-03-27T09:14:09","modified_gmt":"2017-03-27T13:14:09","slug":"music-neuroscience-what-do-you-think","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.music.mcgill.ca\/mpbs\/737-2\/music-neuroscience-what-do-you-think\/","title":{"rendered":"Music Neuroscience, What Do You Think?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chances are if you are reading this you may be a musician, music educator or music student. If you are such a person, you may have heard non-musicians refer to you as ‘talented’. Being referred to as talented implies you may have born with a special ability that those that aren’t as musical you, don’t possess. Have you ever wondered if this is true? At times, musicians do seem different than non-musicians. Are these differences innate or does our environment shape our musical future? The age-old question of nature vs. nurture crops up yet again. Fortunately we now possess tools and have developed skills to help answer these questions. The development of Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) and improvements in image resolution due to technology advances and increased computer power has provided us with the means to peer into the brain non-invasively (Laufs, 2012)<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

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[toggle title=”A Little on Brain Structure”]<\/b><\/p>\n

Reading about neuroscience can be daunting partially due to unfamiliar terminology. If you get overwhelmed, this site http:\/\/www.g2conline.org\/<\/a> is a very helpful resource. It includes a 3D model and peer reviewed research reviews on brain structure. The structures of the brain are organized into headings and subheadings, and it includes a search bar and video links. I have found it invaluable and refer to it regularly to clarify brain structure and function, as well as to explore articles on related topics.<\/p>\n

I have assembled a playlist with some useful links to help clarify the structure of the brain, its nomenclature and some things about its function. This 5 part video series entitled “Brain Matters” is especially clear and helpful:<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/playlist?list=PLgkIZ87-dg0VWRf-8ur1aJvpdGkaw7qvn<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Question: Can you suggest other sources for brain structure and function?<\/em><\/p>\n

Brain development can be compared to muscle development; the parts that are used the most get stronger. Musical activities are a great workout for your brain and often for your body too.<\/p>\n

Grey Matter and White Matter<\/h4>\n

A few simplified definitions may be helpful when discussing brain function.<\/p>\n

Grey Matter<\/b><\/p>\n

\"Neuron1\"Neurons-\u00a0<\/i><\/strong>A category of specialized cells that handle information going to\u00a0and from and within\u00a0the brain.<\/p>\n

Dendrites-<\/i><\/b> The portion of the brain cell responsible for collecting incoming signals.<\/p>\n

Axon-<\/i><\/b> The portion of the brain cell responsible for carrying signals away from the cell body.<\/p>\n

White Matter<\/b><\/h4>\n

Myelin-<\/i><\/b> Allows faster signal rate transfer by the axon.<\/p>\n

We can think of the structural portions of the neuron as grey matter and the myelin around the axon as white matter. \u00a0There are many types of neurons and myelinated cells due to the variety of functions they are required to handle.<\/p>\n

Basic Neuron Function<\/b><\/p>\n

Neurons can communicate within the neuron and between neurons. Dendrites accept information from other neurons and house it in the cell body until the signal is strong enough for the cell to send a signal to other neurons down the axon. The combined signal collected by the dendrite must strong enough to be transferred to the next neuron; this is called action potential. If the dendrites have collected enough signal for the cell body to send the signal through the axon it has reached its ‘action potential’. If the dendrites have not provided enough external signal, no signal is passed along the axon. The axon terminals connect to the dendrites of other cells through neurotransmitters; an\u00a0area called the synapse.<\/p>\n

\"Neuronal_Synapse\"<\/p>\n

Synapse-<\/i><\/b> The area of communication between brain cells.\u00a0<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

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[toggle title=”Nature Vs. Nurture, Are Musicians Born with Musical Ability?”]<\/b><\/p>\n

The second tier of the study was a cross-sectional<\/a><\/span> comparison of children between the ages of 9-11; each possessing\u00a0an average of 3-4 years of instrumental music instruction. Once more, a significantly larger volume of grey and white matter was found in the instrumental group than in the control group (Schlaug, 2006)<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A previous cross-sectional study was used as the third tier of the study, using\u00a0adults as participants. The study\u00a0used three categories for comparison; non-musicians, amateur musicians, and professional musicians. And once again, significantly more grey and white matter was found in the brain structures of professional musicians than compared the other two groups. (Gaser & Schlaug, 2003<\/a>; Schlaug, 2006<\/a>)<\/span>. These findings indicate that increased grey matter development was due to the amount of musical training, practicing and performing one engages in.<\/p>\n

[\/toggle]<\/b><\/p>\n


\n[toggle title=”Maybe Some People are Wired for Music?”]<\/b><\/p>\n

There is a distinction between being born with musical ability and being genetically predisposed with the potential to focus on musical activities. The former implies that those who are born with this ability don\u2019t have to work as hard to achieve musical success, the later implies certain people may possess the hereditary\u00a0potential to succeed at music.<\/p>\n

15 children with a mean age of 6.32 years old were given 15 months of private keyboard lessons (i.e. outside of the school system)\u00a0weekly for 30 minutes. This group was compared with a control group of 16 children of a mean age of 5.90 years old who did not receive private lessons but who did participate in a weekly 40 minute group music class in school. The results of the experiment revealed that extra musical training over only 15 months in early childhood leads to structural brain changes that diverge from typical brain development. Hyde et al. (2009)<\/a><\/span> state in their study, \u201cIt is not possible \u2028from these findings to completely rule out \u2028that musicians may be born with preexisting biological predictors of musicality or\u2028 that some children may have a certain genetically determined trajectory of cerebral\u2028 development that may lead them to more \u2028likely continue to practice music relative to\u2028 other children without this same predisposition. However, our findings do support the view that brain differences seen in\u2028 adult musicians relative to non-musicians\u2028 are more likely to be the product of intensive music training\u201d\u2028\u00a0(Hyde et al., 2009,\u00a0p. 3022)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Question: Does music seem to run in your family? If so, do you think environment is a stronger determining factor or do you suspect musical ability is due to genetic disposition? Can you provide articles that support your point?<\/i><\/p>\n

[\/toggle]<\/b><\/p>\n


\n[toggle title=”What Parts Brain Get a Workout When I’m Playing Music?”]<\/b><\/p>\n

\"brain-train\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Many parts of the brain get a workout when playing music, including those that are shown to play a role in:<\/p>\n

The short answer to this question is – maybe.<\/em>\u00a0fMRI evidence points to differences in development in various brain areas of musicians due to practice and exposure to music, this phenomenon is referred to as ‘brain plasticity’\u00a0(Berlucchi & Buchtel, 2009)<\/a><\/span>. A multi-tiered, 2 year longitudinal study<\/a><\/span> was designed to determine if individuals were potentially predisposed to musicality. In the first tier, a group \u00a0of \u00a05-7 year old children with no prior musical training were given extra instrumental lessons and compared with a control group who had no prior training and did not receive music lessons either. fMRI results were combined\u00a0with a battery of other cognitive tests to establish a baseline measurement. No significant structural differences in grey matter, white matter or corpus callosum size (the tissue of the brain\u00a0responsible for connecting the left and right hemispheres) were detected\u00a0in either group at baseline. However, after one year of training a significant increase in grey and white matter in these areas was found in the test group.<\/p>\n