14 DAY TRIAL // Music has been with people since the beginning of time, and scientists now think it's safe to say that its influence most likely has been vastly underestimated. A new, extensive review of the scientific literature on the effects of music on humans shows that listening to one's favorite sounds is very likely to enhance skills such as language, speech, memory, attention and even vocal emotion for the better. The study was possible because of the vast number of investigations that have been carried on the influence of music over the past few decades, e! Science News reports.
The research team, based at the Northwestern University in the United States, included vast amounts of data in the investigation, taken from studied conducted around the world. Their review is published in the July 20 issue of the esteemed scientific journal Nature Reviews Neuroscience. The thing that is very likely to make this work a reference piece in the specialty literature is the fact that it includes studies conducted using varied methodologies, as well as different scientific philosophies and research methods. This ensure the diversity of the data, and also that the work covers most aspects related to its subject.
According to Northwestern Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory director Nina Kraus, it would appear that music has a considerable influence on how an individual is educated. The scientist, who is the Hugh Knowles Professor of Communication Sciences and Neurobiology at the university, adds that her team's review indicates that listening to music promotes brain plasticity, a property of the cortex that allows a person to continue adapting and changing to different situations based on past experiences. People who do not develop and cultivate this ability may find change more difficult to accept and embrace.
“The brain is unable to process all of the available sensory information from second to second, and thus must selectively enhance what is relevant. A musician's brain selectively enhances information-bearing elements in sound. In a beautiful interrelationship between sensory and cognitive processes, the nervous system makes associations between complex sounds and what they mean,” Kraus explains. She adds that children exposed to music early on in their lives are better capable of detecting nuances in other people's speech. Musicians can also incorporate sound patterns for a new language into words faster than people with no musical training.
“The effect of music training suggests that, akin to physical exercise and its impact on body fitness, music is a resource that tones the brain for auditory fitness and thus requires society to re-examine the role of music in shaping individual development,” the authors of the Nature paper conclude.