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Commentary

Brain-Music Connection: Activations That Continue to Amaze

By Natalie Kuztnich
Abstract; Research supporting the hrain-music nnection is considerable. Studies seem to indicate that music learninr drives ncurahidurical changes that influence brain function. Findings, however, do not seem to indicate improvements in grades, but this should not be a concern for there is ^eat value in music studies that embrace thinking, creating, performing, discriminating, interpretingprocesses that engage the firing of neurons, but, more importantly, that connect sound to meaning.
The human brain has billions of neurons, each with up to thousands of connections with other neurons. The neurons meet at synapses, small gaps between neurons, and communicate across the synaptic gap via neurotransmitters. There are trillions of neural connections in the human brain: it is considered the most complex entity in the universe. These connections form neural circuits, and the activation of these circuits in different parts of the brain gives rise to thought, emotion, and action. (Fishbane, 2007, p. 396)

Music learning involves engagement with musical sound. Connecting sound to meaning generates musical expectations; and musical expectations provide a powerful mechanism for eliciting emotions (Trainor, 2010). Apparently, the brain seems to rely on an expectation-realization process. The brain detects changes and responds to even the slightest difference in expectations. In any event, unexpected changes in pitch, timbre, duration, intensity, texture, patterns, or chords create tension. The ebb and flow of tension implies greater emotional involvement. (Chapados &. Levitin, 2008).*** Stored stylistic knowing, then, forms the cognitive basis of musical meaning (Trainor, 2010); thus, a greater receptivity to the manipulations in music. Cognition and emotion strongly interact in the brain. In music they jointly contribute to understandings, leading, perhaps, to illuminating ecstatic involvements. Might not the emotions and feelings roused by music inspire further explorations into musical manipulations? Key ideas, gleaned from numerous readings, suggest that:
Brain networks are shaped by experience. Throughout life, learning experiences encourage brain adaptation and rewiring. The deluge of publications dealing with how experiences affect the brain confirms that all kinds of learning involving thinking processes alter the brain. Apparently, any learning activity can influence changes in the neural networks; that is, the synaptic connections between neurons. Many parts ofthe brain are activated by musical involvement. Music learning is very effective in encouraging short and long term brain plasticity. Rich experiences in music will help keep the brain pliable and adaptable. Music processing draws on cognitive resources that are not music-specific, such as pitch, memory, and pattern recognition. Music's emotional power can be and has been studied in scientific ways. Substantive musical knowing encourages a receptivity to the emotive ebb and flow happenings in music.

A cornucopia of research and published studies seem to focus on neuroplasticity, that is, on changes that occur in the brain as a result of experience. Researchers from diverse disciplines have sought to explore the influence of experiences. A considerable number have noted that intensive musical practice* has led to marked structural changes in the brain, thus enhancing learning and listening skills (Kraus & Chandrasekaran, 2010). Statements on the effects of music learning abound: Regular engagement with music can exert lasting effects on brain function, on brain malleability throughout life. Music learning activates a "widespread bilateral network of brain regions ... related to attention, working memory, semantic and syntactic processing, motor functions and emotional processing" (Chermak, 2010). "Early, intensive, and prolonged skill learning leads to significant structural changes in the brain, changes that are associated with changes in related behavioural" (Schlaug et al, 2009), and so forth. Many educators believe that attending to pitch, timing, timbre, and creative problem-solving enhances listening and learning skills; as well, a capacity to discern emotional intonation in speech. So it is not surprising that studies suggest that the cognitive-sensory aspects of music learning do improve auditory processing of all sounds - spoken as well as musical. Music also appears to engage "processing mechanisms shared with a wide range of cognitive domains, such as language, attention, auditory scene analysis." It may even "drive plasticity in brain networks that share these domains" (Patel, 2010, p. 21).**
8 CANADIAN MUSIC EDUCATOR

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commentary
The infotmation suppotting the btain-music connection is vast. Still, there doesn't seem to be too many definitive studies that indicate linkages between "music ttaining and improvement in extta-musical abilities," such as bettet grades and SAT scores (Halva, 2010). Nor do they attend to the considerable diversity encountered in music education practices, methodologies, and teaching. But the brain, as indicated, never stops changing through learning; therefore, keeping the brain alive and activeengaging the neurons through music activationimplies experiences that connect musical sound to meaning; that embrace thinking, feeling, doing, discriminating, and creating, CME Notes *Some journals containing studies regarding the music-brain connection:
h]ature Revue, Neuroscience, Music Perception, Journal of Neuroscience, Psychophysiohgy, Neurorepcrrt, Cognition, Neuroimage, Current Directions in Psychological Science, Journal of Experimental Psychology, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, Musicae Scientiae, Memory and Cognition, Medical Hypotheses, Mind, Brain, and Education, Trends in Cognitive Sciences, Behavioural and Brain Sciences, Contemporary Music Revue.
References AltenmuUer, Eckart. (2007). Music education as a powerful stimulus for brain plasticity. SME. Andrade, Paulo E. & Bhattacharya, J. (2003). Brain tuned to music. }R Soc Med, 96, 284-297. Baker, Mitzi. (2007). Music moves brain to pay attention, Stanford study finds, published on line. Ball, Philip. (2010). Why music is good for you. Nature News, published on line. Begley, Sharon. (2007). Train Your Mind: Change your brain. Ballantine Books. Chapados, Catherine & Levitin, Daniel. (2008). Cross-modal interactions in the experience of musical performances: Physiological correlates. Cognition, 108, 639-651. Chermak, Cail, D. (2010). Music and auditory training. Hearing Journal, 63(4) 1-4. Fishbane, Mona Dekoven. (2OO7).Wired to connect: Neuroscience, relationships, and therapy. Family Process, 46 (3) 395-412. Halva, Erika. (2010). Cognitive and Brain Consequences of Learning in the Arts. Observer, 23 (6). Kraus, N. & Chandrasekaran, B. (2010). Music training for the development of auditory skills. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 11, 599-605. Levitin, Daniel. (2007). This is your Brain on Music: The science of a Human Obsession. Penguin. Levitin, Daniel. (2009). The musical brain: How music tunes the mind. CTV documentary. Patel, Aniruddh D. (2010). Music, biological evolution, and the brain. Emerging Disciplines, Rice University Press (91-144). Pessoa, Luiz. (2008). Cognition and emotion are not separate. Nature Reviews Neurosence, 9, 148-158. Reimer, Bennet. (2004). New brain research on emotion and feeling: Dramatic implications for music education. Arts Education Policy Review, 106 (2), 21-27. Schlaug,G., Forgeard, M., Zhu, L., Norton, A. Winner, E. (2009). Traininginduced neuroplasticity in young children. The Neurosciences and Music I: Disorders and Plasticity: Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sd., I 69: 205-208. Seigel, Daniel, J. (1999). The Developing Mind: How Rektionsfiifis and the Brain Interact to Shape Who We Are. Cuilford Press. Thaut, Michael H, (2009). The musical brain - an artful biological necessity. Karger Gazette, No 70 Music and Medicine, 1-9. Trainor, Laurel. (2010). The emotional origins of music. Physics of Life Reviews,

Topics gleaned from a smattering of 2007-2010 research publications explore the following:
"Motor interactions in music perception" "Music, the food of neuroscience" "Musical training enhances automatic encoding of melodic contour and interval structure" "Musical training shapes structural brain development" "Can music influence language and cognition?" "The linguistic benefits of musical abilities" "Musical expertise, bilingualism, and executive functioning" "The neurosciences and music III: Disorders and plasticity" "If music is the food of love, what about survival and reproductive success?" "Structural integration in language and music: Evidence for a shared system" "Musical training shapes structural brain development" "Towards a neural basis of music-evoked emotions" "Emotional responses to music: The need to consider underlying mechanisms" "Towards a neurobiology of musical emotions," and so forth.

7, 44-45.
Professor Natalie Kuzmich ciiaired the Music Education Department at the University of Toronto's Faculty of Education (now OISE/UT) until 1998. During that time, she also taught the strings program at the University of Toronto Schools, a lab school for grades 7-graduation v^ihere she implemented and refined many creative problem solving teaching and learning strategies. Since her retirement, Kuzmich continues to contribute to teacher education through wori<shops, articles, and regular commentary. Natalie Kuzmich may be reached at ni<uzmich@oise.utoronto.ca.

** Patel is extraordinarily knowledgeable re: studies related to the brain, music cognition, and language processing. *** A Stanford university medical centre report states that there are "functional brain imaging studies of anticipation which is at the heart of the musical experience." Expectations are believed to play a great role in musical emotions (Levitin, 2006, p. 111). "When you listen to music your brain is constantly trying to figure out what's going to happen next" (Levitin, 2009, The Musical Brain, CTV).

VOLUME 52 - NUMBER 2 WINTER 2010

MUSICIEN DUCATEUR AU CANADA

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