Cognitive enhancements through music
This Research Quick Read is intended to help further your understanding of the connections between music learning and brain development and assist you in introducing the benefits to your school leadership, school staff or parent community.
This research summary looks at the research findings of cognitive enhancements through music based on six factors; time, age, pedagogies, notation, instruments and expertise.
The field of neuromusical research, using music and music learning as a tool for neuroscientific discovery, has been active for almost 25 years. Neuroscientists and psychologists have found that music education (which they refer to as music training), offers what Prof Robert Zatorre of the Montreal Neurological Institute describes as, “a tantalizing mix of practically every human cognitive function”.
Since Zatorre made this statement in 2005, music education has been found to enhance students’ cognitive functions in the areas of language development, literacy skills, abstract thinking skills (including numeracy understandings), executive function skills (including impulse control), levels of well-being and emotional health, and social skills (including higher levels of empathy).
While the BBB Research Quick Reads will help you see the breadth of skills music learning has the capacity to enhance, it does not go into the important details of why or how music learning transfers across to other skills. These are important nuances and explanations that you should pursue to enrich your understanding of how music learning can impact on brain development.
