![]() To qualify the findings concerning grey-matter density, Slevc added that some skilled typists might have similar grey-matter distributions as a pianist. Violinists tend to have more grey matter density devoted to their left hands, while pianists have density bilaterally, Slevc said, with professionals having higher densities than amateurs. Grey matter densities can show the instrument that a person plays, Slevc said. These areas include grey matter, which comprises regions of the brain involved with muscle control, memory, emotions, speech and senses. ![]() "Anytime you learn a new skill, that skill is represented in your brain in some way and can show up functionally, but can also show up structurally," Slevc said.Īreas of the brain can show a person's aptitude for certain skills, allowing scientists to physically observe a person's traits rather than just make psychological observations. However, this is another example of tricky correlation, as Gaab said there are no studies that look at executive functioning over time, determining whether such skills influence someone to become a musician, or whether music changes and enhances a person's executive functioning skills. Musicians are particularly good "at switching tasks quickly and switching rules quickly," said Gaab. This involves the mental processes that allow brains to plan, focus attention, remember instruction and successfully juggle multiple tasks, according to the Center of the Developing Child at Harvard University. Studies also have shown that children and adults with musical training have heightened skills in an area called executive functioning, Gaab said. "We're all good at catching things, too, in ways that are quite complicated, but that doesn't necessarily make us good at physics," he said. Similarly, while the laws of physics govern how a ball travels through the air, playing baseball doesn't make a person a scientist, Slevc said. Though a performer may understand intervals and time measurements in music, it does not mean he or she is automatically good at math, he said. There are a lot of aspects of music that can be expressed mathematically, but musicians do not sit through a piece of music calculating its mathematical nuances or interval frequencies, Slevc said. ![]() Slevc said that the association between performing music and having mathematical skills could mean, simply, "that smart people are good at things." "What those mean, I think we don't yet know. "I think you could say there's evidence for relationships between musical experience, ability or interest, and various kinds of cognitive and social domains," Slevc said. 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. "Or it's the other way around, and music actually changes the brain? We don't know that yet." "It is unclear, to this stage, whether musicians have that because they are born with and they are just really good with listening and doing certain finger movements and that's why there drawn to music," Gaab said. "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. "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. 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. 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.
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