From dougwedel@sbcglobal.net Mon Feb 28 14:56:19 CST 2005 Article: 108694 of rec.music.makers.piano Path: news!news.niu.edu!arclight.uoregon.edu!wns14feed!worldnet.att.net!207.115.63.142!newscon02.news.prodigy.com!prodigy.net!newsmst01a.news.prodigy.com!prodigy.com!postmaster.news.prodigy.com!newssvr13.news.prodigy.com.POSTED!fcc3a3b7!not-for-mail From: Newsgroups: rec.music.makers.piano Subject: Your Brain On Music Lines: 44 X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2800.1409 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2800.1409 Message-ID: <_cRTd.9545$Pz7.8536@newssvr13.news.prodigy.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: 69.110.15.98 X-Complaints-To: abuse@prodigy.net X-Trace: newssvr13.news.prodigy.com 1109385146 ST000 69.110.15.98 (Fri, 25 Feb 2005 21:32:26 EST) NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 25 Feb 2005 21:32:26 EST Organization: SBC http://yahoo.sbc.com X-UserInfo1: S[O[RYSGRZSYBT\YBBCBNWX@RJ_XPDLMN@GZ_GYO^JWTEPIB_NVUAH_[BL[\IRKIANGGJBFNJF_DOLSCENSY^U@FRFUEXR@KFXYDBPWBCDQJA@X_DCBHXR[C@\EOKCJLED_SZ@RMWYXYWE_P@\\GOIW^@SYFFSWHFIXMADO@^[ADPRPETLBJ]RDGENSKQQZN Date: Sat, 26 Feb 2005 02:32:26 GMT Xref: news rec.music.makers.piano:108694 I've been boning up on neuroimaging studies of the effects of piano practice on the brain, and the results are actually pretty surprising. Why are scientists interested in this subject? Because it's a perfect model of the neuroplasticity of the brain. For example, the part of the motor cortex that controls the action of the fingers is enlarged in pianists, and the degree of this effect correlates with the age at which they started practicing (which hints at the extreme neuroplasticity of the brain in early childhood). The scientists hypothesized that the extraordinary coordination between the two hands required in piano playing might also have a neural substrate. They found it in an enlarged anterior corpus collosum--the very part of the brain that connects the motor regions of the two hemispheres. But as the imaging technologies have become more sophisticated, the scientists have found many other neuroanatomical effects of the practice of music. Musicians have enlarged Broca's areas--the famous language area named after the 19th century psychiatrist. Music practice correlates with an enlarged left planum temporale which is in Wernicke's area and lights up during both speech and music processing. What's going on with these language centers? One very clever study revealed the "bottomline". The scientists hooked up some musicians to the fMRI machines and had them listen to and follow the score of a Bach chorale. Unbeknownst to the musicians the investigators introduced an error into both teh performance and the score, to see what what would happen with this kind of 'exception processing' What happened was that the unexpected event lit up half a dozen areas of the brain which had prior thereto been considered part of the language-specific cortical circuitry. So that's the bottom line of a decade of PET, MRI, fMRI and other imaging studies on the effect of the practice of music on the brain. The practice of music develops the language circuitry of the brain. In fact, a major study done at the Chinese Universitiy in Hong Kong shows that music practice can "cross train" the brain for language skills--they measured everything very carefully and even used brain imaging to study differences between the subjects and controls. If you want the URL, let me know. From dougwedel@sbcglobal.net Mon Feb 28 14:56:39 CST 2005 Article: 108698 of rec.music.makers.piano Path: news!news.niu.edu!arclight.uoregon.edu!wns14feed!worldnet.att.net!207.115.63.142!newscon02.news.prodigy.com!prodigy.net!newsmst01a.news.prodigy.com!prodigy.com!postmaster.news.prodigy.com!newssvr13.news.prodigy.com.POSTED!fcc3a3b7!not-for-mail From: Newsgroups: rec.music.makers.piano References: <_cRTd.9545$Pz7.8536@newssvr13.news.prodigy.com> <421FE38D.3090708@optusnet.com.au> Subject: Re: Your Brain On Music Lines: 17 X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2800.1409 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2800.1409 Message-ID: <_HRTd.9551$Pz7.2316@newssvr13.news.prodigy.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: 69.110.15.98 X-Complaints-To: abuse@prodigy.net X-Trace: newssvr13.news.prodigy.com 1109387130 ST000 69.110.15.98 (Fri, 25 Feb 2005 22:05:30 EST) NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 25 Feb 2005 22:05:30 EST Organization: SBC http://yahoo.sbc.com X-UserInfo1: SCSYQNONQZUYSUT[KBJNOPTDFZ\@@FXLM@TDOCQDJ@_@FN\CDVW[AKK[J\]^HVKHG^EWZHBLO^[\NH_AZFWGN^\DHNVMX_DHHX[FSQKBOTS@@BP^]C@RHS_AGDDC[AJM_T[GZNRNZAY]GNCPBDYKOLK^_CZFWPGHZIXW@C[AFKBBQS@E@DAZ]VDFUNTQQ]FN Date: Sat, 26 Feb 2005 03:05:30 GMT Xref: news rec.music.makers.piano:108698 "Mike Williams" wrote > > In fact, a major study done at the Chinese > > Universitiy in Hong Kong shows that music practice can "cross > > train" the brain for language skills--they measured everything very > > carefully and even used brain imaging to study differences between > > the subjects and controls. If you want the URL, let me know. > > Yes please. Here's a good discussion of the study by a psychiatrist with URLs so you can look at the study itself: http://www.wisconsinmedicalsociety.org/savant/music_verbal.cfm