SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN MIND March/April 2015

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CREATIVE AGILITY: HOW TO INSPIRE REAL INNOVATION page 54 IS MIDLIFE CRISIS REAL? THE TRUTH—AND HOW TO DEAL WITH IT BEHAVIOR • BRAIN SCIENCE • INSIGHTS page 58 MMarch/April 2015 IND Mind.Scienti cAmerican.com

“OF COURSE, HOWHOW I COULD DIE” MUSICMUSIC STANDING UP HEALSHEALS TO EBOLA CAT QUALM THETHE PROBLEMS FROM A BRAINBRAIN PARASITE? ITS POWER FIRST AID TO LIFT MOOD FOR MENTAL AND BUILD HEALTH CONNECTIONS

© 2015 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN The Healing Power Musof c New therapies are using rhythm, beat and melodyi to help patients with brain disorders recover language, hearing, motion and emotion By William Forde Thompson and Gottfried Schlaug IllUSTRATIONS BY ChRISSIE MACDONAlD

One day when Laurel was 11, she began to feel dizzy while playing with her twin sister and some friends in a park on Cape Cod. She sat down, and one of her friends asked her if she was okay. And then Laurel’s memory went blank. A sudden blockage in a key blood vessel leading to the brain had caused a massive stroke. Blood could no longer reach regions crucial for language and communication, resulting in permanent Odamage. Laurel was still able to understand language, but she struggled to vocalize even a single word, and what she managed to say was often garbled or not what she had intended.

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© 2015 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN Except when she sang. Through a type of treatment called melodic intonation lennium b.c. appear to depict the use of music to enhance therapy, Laurel learned to draw on undamaged brain regions fertility in women. Shamans in the highland tropical forests that moderate the rhythmic and tonal aspects of language, by- of Peru use chanting as their primary tool for healing, and passing the speech pathways on the left side of her brain that the Ashanti people of Ghana accompany healing ceremonies were destroyed. In other words, she found her way back to lan- with drumming. guage through music. Much of the power of music-based treatment lies in its The therapeutic program that helped Laurel—like the oth- ability to meld numerous subtle benefi ts in a single, engaging ers we focus on in our work as scientists and clinicians—is one package [ see boxes beginning on this page ]. Music is perhaps of a new class of music-based treatments based directly on the unrivaled by any other form of human expression in the range biology of neurological impairment and recovery. These treatments aim to restore functions lost to injury or neurological disorders by enlisting healthy areas of the brain and sometimes even by reviving dysfunctional circuitry. As evidence accumu- lates about the effectiveness of these techniques, clinicians and MUSICAl ATTRIBUTES therapists from a variety of fi elds have begun to incorporate a uniquely effective tool them into their practices, most notably music therapists, who Music is are at the intersection of music and health and important for treating neurological impairment mediators of these interventions, as well as speech therapists because it recruits nearly every and physical therapists. And among the benefi ciaries are peo- region of the brain. Imaging studies ple diagnosed with stroke, autism, tinnitus, Parkinson’s dis- show that both listening to and ease and dementia. making music spur activity and foster As scientists learn more about the effect of music on cogni- connections across a wide swath of tive and motor functions and mental states, they can tailor these therapies for each disorder, targeting specifi c brain inju- brain regions typically involved in ries or dysfunctions. In Laurel’s case, the treatments were de- emotion, reward, cognition, sensation signed to trigger, over time, the development of alternative neu- and movement. Here are seven ways ral pathways in healthy parts of the brain that would compen- music might work to benefi t our mind sate for the lost pathways in the damaged language centers. But and brain: the ultimate aim was to help her recapture as much as she could  of the world that had collapsed around her that day in the park.

Music as Medicine Across cultures and throughout history, music listening and music making have played a role in treating disorders of of its defi ning characteristics, from its melody and rhythm to the mind and body. Egyptian frescoes from the fourth mil- its emotional and social nature. The treatments that take ad- vantage of these attributes are rewarding, motivating, acces- sible and inexpensive, and basically free of side effects, too. FAST FACTS The attractive quality of music also encourages patients to MUSICAL PRESCRIPTIONS continue therapy over many weeks and months, improving  Music can be a powerful tool in the treatment of brain disorders the chance of lasting gains. and acquired injuries, helping patients recover language and The view that music can be useful in treating neurological motor skills. impairment gained some scientifi c heft in a landmark study  New music-based therapies can trigger neuroplasticity—fostering local connections and long-range pathways that compensate for published in 2008. Psychologist Teppo Särkämö of the Univer- impairments in damaged regions of the brain. sity of Helsinki and his team recruited 60 patients who had suf-  The greatest benefi ts from therapy—cognitive, emotional and fered a stroke in the middle cerebral artery of one hemisphere. social—come from effortful engagement with music. They split the patients into three groups: the fi rst participated

34 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN MIND MARCh/ApRIl 2015 © 2015 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN © 2015 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN FROM “MUSIC MAKING AS A TOOl FOR pROMOTING BRAIN plASTICITY ACROSS ThE lIFE SpAN,” BY CAThERINE Y. WAN AND GOTTFRIED SChlAUG, IN NEUROSCIENTIST, VOl. 16, NO. 5; OCTOBER 2010 “How are you?” in a simple up-and-down pattern, with the the with pattern, up-and-down asimple you?” in are “How phrase the sing might patients For example, “Greensleeves”). of notes two first the (such as third byaminor rated sepa- perhaps notes, two involves usually melody The hand. left their with syllable out each tapping while melody ple to asim- set phrases short and words sing will patients sion, ses- atypical During element. acentral is singing which py in thera- intonation melodic called atreatment developed and ability of this implications therapeutic the recognized ton, Bos- in hospital Administration at aVeterans brooks), then (now Helm-Esta- Helm Nancy and Sparks Robert thologists say.not otherwise can- they nonfl words sing with sometimes can uent aphasia people have noted, years over the therapists as ly. yet, And nonfl as to speak known inability an or uent aphasia, uent- fl acondition with leave patients it can speech, control that brain of the areas affects astroke When astroke. have had who people about observation aremarkable from springs and motor functions in stroke patients. stroke in functions motor and MIND.SCIENTIFICAMERICAN.COM MIND.SCIENTIFICAMERICAN.COM Cure Singing The making music active that now is hope the memory, to improve appears to music tening lis- lis- because because And And attention. attention. and and memory memory verbal verbal in in recovery recovery est est great- great- the the exhibited exhibited to to music music listened listened that that group group the the in in Those Those months. months. over over two two patients patients the the observed observed Researchers Researchers ment. ment. treat- treat- no no auditory auditory received received third third the the and and day day every every diobooks diobooks to au- listened second the listening, of music sessions daily in to abeat and gross motor gross and function. improve circulation, health, brain fi and ne movements. physical exercise help can In the 1970s neurologist Martin Albert and speech pa- speech and Albert Martin neurologist 1970s the In received Laurel that treatment of music-based variety The — might help restore additional skills, including speech speech including skills, additional help restore might — singing, moving and synchronizing synchronizing and moving singing, emphatic the body body the emphatic sweeping more and salient the beat, the more The beat. the to move with people Music encourages Physical is Music © 2015 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN © 2015 SCIENTIFIC es in neural circuitry neural in es chang- from to arise appear that gains long-term produces also therapy intonation melodic months, over intensively formed per- when But session. treatment asingle even after evident Benefi apparatus. vocal are often the ts with associated ments move- controls that hemisphere right the in vokes a network in- turn, in hand, left the with tapping rhythmic The sounds. to slowly modulated sensitive particularly it is sequence, a con- as does; hemisphere left the than interval over alonger information sensory integrates which hemisphere, right the in perception with associated areas engage voice of the pitch the in slow changes The brain. of the areas undamaged cruiting to two. second per syllable one from perhaps increases, vocalizations of the frequency the and longer get phrases the progresses, treatment the As ers. oth- the than pitch (“are”) a higher syllable assigned stressed the strengthening of rudimentary ones in the brain. In effect, effect, In brain. the in ones of rudimentary strengthening the enhancing benefi ts of lifelong music making. benefimusic enhancing lifelong of ts non the brain- demonstrating in both 60s, their early musician, in each hemisphere of a healthy musician ( tract, auditory-motor an fasciculus, arcuate the show Images in the brain, rehabilitation.in the speeding of change rate may increase in the turn arousal, heightened and moods which Each element of the treatment contributes to fl contributes re- treatment by of the uency element Each — the creation of alternative pathways or or pathways of alternative creation the can induce positive positive induce can neurochemicals that of distribution the initiating changes in emotional by states Music induces Emotional is Music SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN MIND AMERICAN SCIENTIFIC left ) and a healthy 35 for patients with severe aphasia, singing trains structures and Because melodic intonation therapy seemed to work by en- connections in the brain’s right hemisphere to assume perma- gaging the right hemisphere, researchers then surmised that nent responsibility for a task usually handled mostly by the left. electrical or magnetic stimulation of the region might boost the This theory has gained support in the past two decades from therapy’s power. In two recent studies that we conducted with studies of stroke patients with nonfl uent aphasia conducted by our collaborators—one in 2011 at Beth Israel Deaconess and researchers around the world. In a study published in September Harvard and the other in 2014 at the ARC Center of Excellence 2014 by one of us (Schlaug) and his group at the Beth Israel Dea- in Cognition and Its Disorders in Sydney, Australia—research- coness Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, 11 patients ers stimulated an area in the right hemisphere called the infe- received melodic intonation therapy; nine received no treatment. rior frontal gyrus, which helps to connect sounds with the oral, The patients who received therapy were able to string together facial and vocal movements that produce them. For many participants, combining melodic intonation therapy with nonin- vasive brain stimulation yielded improvements in speech fl uency after only a few sessions. Music is The benefi ts of melodic intonation therapy were dramat- ic for Laurel (who was part of a study led by Schlaug). The Engaging stroke had destroyed much of her left hemisphere, including Musical treatments a region crucial for language production known as Broca’s are engrossing area. When she began therapy in 2008, she could not string and rewarding, so together more than two or three words, and her speech was patients are highly often ungrammatical, leaving her frustrated whenever she motivated to tried to communicate. Her treatment plan was intensive—an hour and a half a day for up to fi ve days a week, with 75 ses- participate with sions in all. By the end of the 15-week treatment period, she enthu siasm, focus and dedication. could speak in sentences of fi ve to eight words, sometimes more. Over the next several years she treated herself at home using the techniques she learned during the sessions. Today,

When performed intensively over months, melodic intonation therapy produces long-term gains that appear to arise from changes in neural circuitry—the creation of alternative pathways in the brain. more than twice as many appropriate words per minute in re- eight years after her stroke, Laurel spends some of her time sponse to a question. That same group also showed structural as a motivational speaker, giving hope and support to fellow changes, assessed through MRI, in a right-hemisphere network stroke survivors. Her speech is not quite perfect but remark- associated with vocalization. The laboratory is now conducting able nonetheless for someone whose stroke damaged so much studies to compare the benefi ts of melodic intonation therapy of her left brain. Evaluation of the long-term benefi ts of com- with other forms of therapy for patients with aphasia. bination therapy is next on researchers’ agenda.

Music and Motion ThE AUThORS Music making can also help stroke survivors living with impaired motor skills. In a study published in 2007 neuropsy- WILLIAM FORDE THOMPSON is a professor of psychology at chologist and music educator Sabine Schneider and neurolo- Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, and a chief investiga- gist Eckard Altenmueller, both then at the Hannover Univer- tor at the ARC Center of Excellence in Cognition and Its Disorders sity of Music, Drama and Media in Germany, asked patients there. GOTTFRIED SCHLAUG is an associate professor of neurol- to use their movement-impaired hand to play melodies on the ogy at harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medi- piano or tap out a rhythm on pitch-producing drum pads. Pa- cal Center and is a leading researcher on plasticity in brain disor- tients who engaged in this intervention, called music-support- ders and music-based treatments for neurological impairments. ed training, showed greater improvement in the timing, preci-

36 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN MIND MARCh/ApRIl 2015 © 2015 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN searchers around the world demonstrated a technique called rhythmic auditory stimulation, or RAS, for people who had Music permits trouble walking, such as stroke and Parkinson’s patients. A therapist will fi rst ask patients to walk at a comfortable speed Synchronization and then to an audible rhythm. Tempos that pushed patients Music helps listeners slightly past their comfort zone yielded the greatest improvements in velocity, cadence and stride length. synchronize rhythm Despite these encouraging outcomes, the neural mecha- (by tapping along) and nisms that trigger improvements have been diffi cult to pin melody (by singing down. Imaging work suggests that during rhythmic auditory along), addressing stimulation, neural control of motor behavior is rerouted problems of timing, around the basal ganglia; instead the brain stem serves as a re- initiation and coordination in people with stroke, lay station that sends auditory input to motor networks in the cerebellum, which governs coordination, and to other cortical parkinson’s disease, and other brain dis orders regions that could help synchronize sound and motion. involving sensory and motor systems. Recovered Memory Fewer neurological disorders inspire greater fear than dementia, one of the most common diseases of the elderly. Ac- cording to some estimates, 44 million people worldwide are sion and smoothness of fi ne motor skills than did patients who living with dementia, a number expected to reach 135 million relied on conventional therapy. The researchers postulated that by 2050. Alzheimer’s disease, a neurodegenerative condition, the gains resulted from an increase in connections between accounts for more than 60 percent of the cases; multiple strokes neurons of the sensorimotor and auditory regions. can also cause so-called vascular dementia. Rhythm is the key to treatment of people with Parkinson’s, Music may be ideally suited to stimulating memory in peo- which affects roughly one in 100 older than 60. Parkinson’s ple with dementia, helping them maintain a sense of self. Be-

When performed intensively over months, melodic intonation therapy produces long-term gains that appear to arise from changes in neural circuitry—the creation of alternative pathways in the brain.

arises from degeneration of cells in the midbrain that feed dopamine to the basal ganglia, an area involved in the initiation and smoothness of movements. The dopamine shortage in the Music is region results in motor problems ranging from tremors and stiffness to diffi culties in timing the movements associated Social with walking, facial expressions and speech. Musical activities Music with a strong beat can allay some of these symptoms can be collective by providing an audible rhythmic sequence that people can use experiences. to initiate and time their movements. Treatments include Social isolation so-called rhythmic entrainment, which involves playing a stimulus like a metronome. In neurologist Oliver Sacks’s 1973 is a common book Awakenings, musical rhythm sometimes released in- consequence of dividuals from their immobility, letting them dance or sing many neurologi cal disorders, and social out unexpectedly. support through music making helps in The use of rhythm in motor therapy gained momentum in recovery, rehabili tation and coping. the 1990s, when musician, music therapist and neuroscientist Michael Thaut of Colorado State University and other re-

MIND.SCIENTIFICAMERICAN.COM SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN MIND 37 © 2015 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN © 2015 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN tions and rewards might prevent loss of neurons and synapses. synapses. and of neurons loss prevent might rewards and tions emo- for systems the with motion and senses integrate that brain of the parts of the engagement continuous the sic,” 40]; page on Mu- Making from Gain Can “Everyone [see dementia veloping of de- risk the decrease even may and young mind the keeps life throughout activities musical in part taking that suggests search re- Other of judgment. areas different in impairments signifi cant despite others the as accurate as just were participants heimer’s Alz- The of music. pieces of various connotations emotional the it to judge without 12 and Alzheimer’s with individuals 12 asked colleagues her and Quebec in of Sherbrooke versity Uni- of the Gagnon Lise psychologist study a2009 In decline. cognitive of general face the in even responses emotional mal nor- stimulates also Music disease. survive will music with ated associ- memories that greater are odds the brain, of the parts several in pathways and areas neural activates music cause 38 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN MIND AMERICAN SCIENTIFIC The type of therapy that individual dementia patients re- patients dementia individual that of therapy type The to remain positive. tends theirin attitude their treatment, naei ciiiswt te epe curn social, language and motor as they skills do. treatments that can help children with autism engageactivities in otherwith people, acquiring The positive response to music opens the way to patients believepatients When compelling. fi more lmsseem and assuch lyrics associated media Music make can Persuasive Music is Music © 2015 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN © 2015 SCIENTIFIC the overdevelopment of short-range brain connections. As an an As connections. brain of short-range overdevelopment the gesture. including kind, of any vocabulary have limited many at all; of speech sounds the make cannot autism with ple peo- of percent 30 up to Indeed, difficommunication. in culties and behaviors repetitive interactions, social impaired include of autism Hallmarks boys. of are whom most of children, cent 1 to 2 per- in occurs that syndrome order, a neurodevelopmental dis- fi spectrum case the autism with in people of lies les brain the Music on the on Spectrum Music ing to music, she can bang her leg in time with the beat. beat. the with time in leg her bang can she to music, ing listen- When out aword two. or blurt even may and songs mas Christ- loves especially June to laugh. begins and widely smiles legs, her on hands her bangs She alive. comes to her, June sings Yet daughter her when incontinent. is she and walk, or talk low. cannot She hanging head her with sits and nonresponsive day, mainly is the June Thompson’s lab). in Throughout cian to aclini- circumstances mother’s her (who described daughter byher at for home cared is and dementia irreversible severe, has June Hampshire. New from woman 89-year-old an June, well-being. tional emo- their enhance can and better sleep dementia with tients help pa- also can therapy Music others. with interaction and to wandering and vocal outbursts and encourages cooperation cooperation encourages and outbursts vocal and to wandering lead that of agitation feelings the it reduces work, does ment treat- the when But short-term. to be benefi The self. tend and ts too, vary, and to memory aconnection resents rep- choice the because effective most is selects patient the that Music ping). clap- singing, (dancing, to active ing) (listen- receptive vary, from will ceive One of the peculiarities of the neurobiology of autism is is of autism neurobiology of the peculiarities of the One and music between interplay fascinating most the Perhaps These emotional and social benefi ts are clear in the case of of beneficase the in social and clear are ts emotional These healthy right brain. Laurel’s in gions re- speaking and thebetween hearing up connections nation therapy built into- melodic time, how, over shows above sequence The MARCh/ApRIl 2015

COURTESY OF GOTTFRIED SChlAUG ing drums while singing or speaking words and phrases. In a proof-of-principle study, six completely nonverbal children Music is took part in 40 sessions of this training over eight weeks. By the end, all were able to produce some speech sounds, and some Personal were even able to voice meaningful and appropriate words dur- Neurological ing tasks that the therapy sessions had not covered. Most im- impairment can portant, the children were still able to demonstrate their new skills eight weeks after the training sessions ended. make people feel that they have lost Quiet, Please touch with them- Music-based treatments can also train the brain to tune out selves. The personal the phantom strains of tinnitus—the experience of noise or nature of music can evoke memories ringing in the ear in the absence of sound that affects roughly and help individuals maintain a sense 20 percent of adults. Age-related hearing loss, exposure to loud sounds and circulatory system disorders can all bring on the of identity. condition, with symptoms ranging from buzzing or hissing in the ears to a continuous tone with a defi nable pitch. The sen-

The positive response to music opens the way to treatments that can help children with autism engage in activities with other people, acquiring social, language and motor skills as they do.

apparent consequence, children with autism tend to focus in- sation can cause serious distress and interfere with the ability tensely on the fi ne details of sensory experience, such as the to concentrate on other sounds and activities. There is no cure. varying textures of different fabrics or the precise sound qual- The past decade has seen a surge in understanding of the ities emitted by appliances such as a refrigerator or an air con- neurological basis of the disorder. In one view, cochlear dam- ditioner. And this fascination with sound may account for the age (most likely caused by exposure to loud sounds) reduces many anecdotal reports of children with autism who thor- the transmission of particular sound frequencies to the brain. oughly enjoy making and learning music. A disproportionate To compensate for the loss, neuronal activity in the central au- number of children with autism spectrum disorder are musical savants, with extraordinary abilities in specialized areas, such as absolute pitch. The positive response to music opens the way to treatments FURThER READING that can help children with autism engage in activities with oth- ■ From Singing to Speaking: Why Singing May Lead to Recovery er people, acquiring social, language and motor skills as they of Expressive Language Function in Patients with Broca’s Aphasia. Gottfried Schlaug, Sarah Marchina and Andrea do. Music also activates areas of the brain that relate to social Norton in Music Perception, Vol. 25, No. 4, pages 315–323; ways of thinking. When we listen to music, we often get a sense April 1, 2008. of the emotional states of the people who created it and those ■ Listening to Tailor-Made Notched Music Reduces Tinnitus Loudness who are playing it. By encouraging children with autism to and Tinnitus-Related Auditory Cortex Activity. hidehiko Okamota imagine these emotions, therapists can help them learn to think et al. in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, Vol. 107, No. 3, pages 1207–1210; January 19, 2010. about other people and what they might be feeling. ■ Auditory-Motor Mapping Training as an Intervention to Facilitate Recently the Music and Neuroimaging Laboratory at Beth Speech Output in Non-Verbal Children with Autism: A Proof of Israel Deaconess and Harvard (which Schlaug directs) devel- Concept Study. Catherine Y. Wan et al. in PLOS ONE, Vol. 6, No. 9, oped a new technique called auditory-motor mapping training, Article No. e25505; September 29, 2011. or AMMT, for children whose autism has left them unable to ■ Music, Health, and Wellbeing. Edited by Raymond MacDonald, Gunter Kreutz and laura Mitchell. Oxford University press, 2012. speak. The treatments have two main components: intonation ■ Music, Thought, and Feeling: Understanding the Psychology of of words and phrases (changing the melodic pitch of one’s Music. Second edition. William Forde Thompson. Oxford University voice) and tapping alternately with each hand on pitch-produc- press, 2014.

MIND.SCIENTIFICAMERICAN.COM SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN MIND 39 © 2015 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN ditory system changes, creating neural “noise,” perhaps by inducing changes in the neural circuitry. For those with ton- throwing off the balance between inhibition and excitation in al tinnitus, one treatment involves listening to “notched mu- the auditory cortex, leading to the perception of sounds that sic,” generated by digitally removing the frequency band that are not there. Also at play might be dysfunctional feedback to matches the tinnitus frequency. The notching—pioneered and auditory brain regions from the limbic system, which is thought proved effective by neurophysiologist Christo Pantev and his to serve as a noise-cancellation apparatus that identifies and group at the University of Münster in Germany—might help inhibits irrelevant signals. reverse the imbalance in the auditory cortex, strenghtening Music treatment seeks to counteract this dysfunction by the inhibition of the frequency band that might be the source

Everyone Can Gain from Making Music The perks of learning to play an instrument last for decades By Julia Calderone

hink back to your elementary school music class. You absorbed commands from a baton-wielding conduc- tor while deciphering inky notes on a page. You kept tempo with the rest of the band while your contorted Tfingers sped from key to key. There is no doubt that musical training is a challenge for the brain. And in the past decade an abundance of studies have found that this effort confers cognitive benefits on all who study music, from toddlers to retirees. Researchers became interested in the effects of music on the brain when a provocative study in the early 1990s claimed that simply listening to a Mozart sonata could make you brain- ier—so dubbed the “Mozart effect.” The finding was never con- firmed. Various studies followed that showed listening to music has transient effects on cognitive functions such as spatial ability, speed of processing and creative problem solving—but such effects last only about 10 minutes once the music is switched leave unanswered the important question of correlation: Are musi- off. Experts continue to debate whether frequently engaging with cians better at certain tasks because of musical practice alone? music has longer-term effects on cognition. In recent years new Or are they drawn to music because they have these skills already techniques to measure the brain’s response to auditory cues in real or because they come from advantaged backgrounds? time have given researchers valuable data to address the issue. Kraus and her colleagues have conducted a number of studies “We can see how these ingredients of sound are processed by the to tackle this question. In one experiment published last Septem- brain,” says Nina Kraus, an auditory neuroscientist at the North- ber, they gathered 44 children aged six to nine from disadvantaged western University School of Communication. Today some evidence schools in Los Angeles and asked them to participate in musical in- suggests that musical training may enhance a suite of cognitive struction for two hours a week. One group practiced for one year; functions, including listening, linguistics, focus and memory, along the other practiced for two. After administering a battery of neuro- with spatial, motor and mathematical skills. physiological tests that recorded their brain activity, Kraus’s team found that those who participated in the music program for two Better Reading through Music? years, independent of their age, were markedly better at processing

Young children are ripe subjects for research in this field because speech syllables—such as differentiating between the sounds [ba] Alamy

their brains are primed to develop language skills, which music and [ga]—than those who had only one year of training. AUX H seems to enhance. Many studies suggest that children who are As Kraus explains, a key element of literacy is the ability to dis- musically trained have stronger cognitive abilities, including better cern meaningful differences between speech sounds—so study-

vocabulary, reading skills and sound perception. Yet these studies ing music, which shares characteristics with speech such as pitch, REGINE MA

40 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN MIND March/April 2015 © 2015 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN of the phantom sound in the first place. Another approach in- the evidence, and researchers have rightly pointed out that the volves playing a series of pitches to patients and then asking new music-based treatments must prove their efficacy against them to imitate the sequence vocally. As the patients refine the more established therapies. But of all the techniques for ad- their accuracy, they learn to disregard irrelevant auditory sig- dressing neurological disorders, music-based therapies seem nals and focus on what they want to hear. In time, the stim- unique in their capacity to tap into emotions, to help the brain ulus of effortful attention might help the auditory cortex re- find lost memories, to let patients resume their place in the turn to its normal physiological state. world. We are only now beginning to understand the science For any novel therapy, enthusiasm can sometimes outpace behind the belief in the power of music to heal. M

timing and timbre, may help kids read better. The authors say the ample, child musicians appear to have better spatial reasoning study provides the first direct evidence that a community music than their nonmusician peers, but adult musicians do not. program for at-risk youth has a biological effect on the children’s developing nervous systems. Other experts urge caution when in- Preventing Age-Related Decline terpreting these results. “We already know that music training Many areas in which child and young adult musicians outperform makes you a better listener,” says psychologist Glenn Schellen- their nonmusician peers—such as processing speed, memory berg, who researches music’s effect on cognition at the University and attention—also happen to correlate with areas of cognitive of Toronto Mississauga. Until researchers have behavioral evi- decline in old age. A small but growing body of evidence suggests dence that kids who get music training become superior at reading that lifelong musical practice makes our brains healthier as we or perceiving speech, he explains, the question of whether music age—especially in combating hearing loss, which affects an esti- can influence language development remains open. mated two thirds of adults older than 70 in the U.S. A series of studies by neuroscientist Alexandra Parbery-Clark of the Swedish Empathetic Multitaskers Medical Center in Seattle and her colleagues found that musi- As a musician grows up, other cognitive benefits appear, among cians aged 45 to 65 appear to lack four of the five hallmark de- them a better ability to multitask, according to a 2014 study by psy- clines of speech processing in old age—they maintained consis- chologist Melody Wiseheart and her colleagues at York University in tent and speedy brain responses to speech, for example, and the Toronto. The team recruited 153 university students aged 18 to 31, ability to understand speech in noisy settings. about half of whom were musicians with about 12 years of formal In addition, studies suggest that older adult musicians tend to musical training; the others were nonmusicians. The students per- have stronger memory, more focused attention and faster brain formed multitasking exercises, such as switching between identify- processing. Although such effects are most evident in adults who ing how many numbers were on a screen and indicating which par- have practiced their instrument at least twice a week for 20 min- ticular number was on the screen or tracking a moving white dot utes a session since childhood, researchers think that such ben- with their mouse while monitoring a flashing set of letters. efits may also exist for less enthusiastic hobbyists. The act of “We found that musicians were doing a lot better,” Wiseheart making music appears to be key because it requires the integra- says; they were about 30 percent more accurate than the nonmu- tion of various senses, motor coordination and concentration in a sicians when performing two tasks at once. She says that musi- way that even very attentive listening does not. cianship appears to enhance working memory, which underlies What this means is that learning to play a musical instrument the ability to multitask and can boost skills both in and out of the is very good for you. And when that practice begins early in life, its classroom—when holding numbers in mind to compute an equa- positive effects can stretch into old age. “Biologically, our past tion, for instance, or avoiding distractions while driving. shapes our present,” Kraus says. Both she and Wiseheart hope Playing in a band or singing in a choir provides another type of educators and policy makers will take note of this research and benefit important for this age group. Studies show that making mu- keep music in classrooms. As Kraus says, “We want to improve hu- sic in a group improves communication, coordination, cooperation man communication by harnessing the brain’s ability to change.” and empathy among group members. Many of these advantages of musicianship may be felt for decades, but some may not. For ex- Julia Calderone is a freelance science writer and former Mind intern.