The amazing correlation has been documented in a study

Jan 14, 2010 11:53 GMT  ·  By
Mozart's music has a calming effect on premature babies, allowing them to grow faster
   Mozart's music has a calming effect on premature babies, allowing them to grow faster

Scientists were surprised to find out recently that playing Mozart's music to prematurely born babies boosted their growth rate, and helped them survive their ordeal better than children who were played no such music. The work also revealed that the children who listened to classical music tended to become stronger than other premature infants, and that this correlation held true for most of the children in the study group, LiveScience reports.

During the four-day investigation, a group of premature babies was made to listen to about 30 minutes of music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart per day, whereas preemies in a control group heard no music. The research center was located at the Tel Aviv Medical Center, in Israel, where some 20 children were part of each group. The investigators determined that the infants subjected to the music were calmer and less likely to uselessly expend their energy, whereas those in the control group were more agitated, and moved around in their beds a lot.

While these results may seem intuitive, their implications are not. Because premature babies are much weaker than those born when they are due, they need a lot more calories to grow, and are also more likely to suffer from fatigue or growth deficits during their first few weeks of life. The control group at TAMC followed the same trend, but the study group did not. Children who heard Mozart were a lot calmer, and did not spend as much energy as the others. This allowed for them to need less calories to grow, so they got stronger than the other children. The researchers behind the study said that the correlation was very strong, and that it became apparent after only a short period of time.

“It's not exactly clear how the music is affecting them, but it makes them calmer and less likely to be agitated,” Tel Aviv University lecturer and researcher Dror Mandel explains. “The repetitive melodies in Mozart's music may be affecting the organizational centers of the brain's cortex. Unlike Beethoven, Bach or Bartok, Mozart's music is composed with a melody that is highly repetitive,” the expert adds. At this point, the researchers are focusing on determining what other types of music have the same effect on children. Details of their work so far appear in the January issue of the renowned scientific journal Pediatrics.