Live Science – Naomi Eide
” Musicians and scientists alike have attempted to find whether a person’s musical talents benefit other aspects of that individual’s life, such as the ability to focus. Though scientists have not precisely determined how, or if, music education and performance give a person increased skills in areas like math and science, researchers do know that musicians have some increased cognitive abilities. “If you play a musical instrument, your brain shows changes,” mainly in the motor and auditory cortices, said Nadine Gaab, the principal investigator at the Laboratories of Cognitive Neuroscience at Boston Children’s Hospital. “Auditory, because you’re using your ears a lot … and then motor because you’re doing a lot of practice with your fingers and arms” requiring unique movements, Gaab said. “It is unclear, to this stage, whether musicians have that because they are born with [it] and they are just really good with listening and doing certain finger movements and that’s why there drawn to music,” Gaab said. “Or it’s the other way around, and music actually changes the brain? We don’t know that yet.” [Abstract Reasoning Enhanced by Music Study] Robert Slevc, assistant professor in the psychology department at the University of Maryland, said that the correlations found between musical and mathematical abilities could come from many different factors, as studies are not created in a vacuum and other variables could influence the outcome.”(more)