Music Training Strengthens Children’s Brains

If the brain is a muscle, then learning to play an instrument and read music is the ultimate exercise.

Two new studies from the Brain and Creativity Institute at USC show that as little as two years of music instruction has multiple benefits. Music training can change both the structure of the brain’s white matter, which carries signals through the brain, and gray matter, which contains most of the brain’s neurons that are active in processing information. Music instruction also boosts engagement of brain networks that are responsible for decision making and the ability to focus attention and inhibit impulses.

The benefits were revealed in studies published recently in scientific journals – including one this week in the journal Cerebral Cortex.

The results are from an ongoing longitudinal study that began in 2012, when BCI at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences established a partnership with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association and Heart of Los Angeles (HOLA) to examine the impact of music instruction on children‘s social, emotional and cognitive development.

The neuroscientists have been monitoring the brain development and behavior of a group of children from underserved neighborhoods in Los Angeles. Some of the children are learning to play and read music through the Youth Orchestra Los Angeles at HOLA.

To examine the impact of music training on their brains, the scientists have utilized several scientific techniques, including structural and functional MRI scans, EEG to track electrical activity in the brains, and behavioral testing.

Initial results published last year showed that music training accelerates maturity in areas of the brain that are responsible for sound processing, language development, speech perception and reading skills.

“Together these results demonstrate that community music programs such as Youth Orchestra Los Angeles can offset some of the negative consequences that low socio-economic status can have on child development,” said Assal Habibi, the study’s lead author and an assistant research professor of psychology at BCI in USC Dornsife College.