This Is Your Brain. This Is Your Brain On Music
Musical training doesn't just improve your ear for music — it also helps your ear for speech. That's the takeaway from an unusual new study published in The Journal of Neuroscience. Researchers found that kids who took music lessons for two years didn't just get better at playing the trombone or violin; they found that playing music also helped kids' brains process language.
And here's something else unusual about the study: where it took place. It wasn't a laboratory, but in the offices of Harmony Project in Los Angeles. It's a nonprofit after-school program that teaches music to children in low-income communities.
Two nights a week, neuroscience and musical learning meet at Harmony's Hollywood headquarters, where some two-dozen children gather to learn how to play flutes, oboes, trombones and trumpets. The program also includes on-site instruction at many public schools across Los Angeles County.
Harmony Project is the brainchild of Margaret Martin, whose life path includes parenting two kids while homeless before earning a doctorate in public health. A few years ago, she noticed something remarkable about the kids who had gone through her program.
"Since 2008, 93 percent of our high school seniors have graduated in four years and have gone on to colleges like Dartmouth, Tulane, NYU," Martin says, "despite dropout rates of 50 percent or more in the neighborhoods where they live and where we intentionally site our programs."
There are plenty of possible explanations for that success. Some of the kids and parents the program attracts are clearly driven. Then there's access to instruments the kids couldn't otherwise afford, and the lessons, of course. Perhaps more importantly, Harmony Project gives kids a place to go after the bell rings, and access to adults who will challenge and nurture them. Keep in mind, many of these students come from families or neighborhoods that have been ravaged by substance abuse or violence — or both.
Still, Martin suspected there was something else, too — something about actually playing music — that was helping these kids.
Enter neurobiologist Nina Kraus, who runs the Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory at Northwestern University. When a mutual acquaintance at the National Institutes of Health introduced her to Martin, Kraus jumped at the chance to explore Martin's hunch and to study the Harmony Project kids and their brains.
Breaking Down Brainwaves
Before we get to what, exactly, Kraus' team did or how they did it, here's a quick primer on how the brain works:
The brain depends on neurons. Whenever we take in new information — through our ears, eyes or skin — those neurons talk to each other by firing off electrical pulses. We call these brainwaves. With scalp electrodes, Kraus and her team can both see and hear these brainwaves.
Using some relatively new, expensive and complicated technology, Kraus can also break these brainwaves down into their component parts — to better understand how kids process not only music but speech, too. That's because the two aren't that different. They have three common denominators — pitch, timing and timbre — and the brain uses the same circuitry to make sense of them all.
In other research, Kraus had noticed something about the brains of kids who come from poverty, like many in the Harmony Project. These children often hear fewer words by age 5 than other kids do.
And that's a problem, Kraus says, because "in the absence of stimulation, the nervous system ... hungry for stimulation ... will make things up. So, in the absence of sound, what we saw is that there was just more random background activity, which you might think of as static."
In addition to that "neural noise," as Kraus calls it, ability to process sound — like telling the difference between someone saying "ba" and "ga" — requires microsecond precision in the brain. And many kids raised in poverty, Kraus says, simply have a harder time doing it; individual sounds can seem "blurry" to the brain. (To hear an analogy of this, using an iconic Mister Rogers monologue — giving you some sense of what the brain of a child raised in poverty might hear — be sure to listen to the audio version of this story.)
Improving Your Ear For Music, And Speech
Learning to play an instrument appears to strengthen the brain's ability to capture the depth and richness of speech sounds. These heat maps of brainwaves show how much music lessons improved kids' neurophysiological distinction of consonants.
Working with Harmony Project, Kraus randomly assigned several dozen kids from the program's waitlist into two groups: those who would be studied after one year of music lessons and those who would be studied after two years.
And what she found was that in the two-year kids, the static didn't go away. But their brains got better — more precise — at processing sound. In short: less blur.
Why The Improvement?
It goes back to pitch, timing and timbre. Kraus argues that learning music improves the brain's ability to process all three, which helps kids pick up language, too. Consonants and vowels become clearer, and the brain can make sense of them more quickly.
That's also likely to make life easier at school, not just in music class but in math class, too — and everywhere else.
To be clear, the study has its limits. It was small — roughly 50 kids, ranging in age from 6 to 9. It wasn't conducted in a lab. And it's hard to know if kids doing some other activity could have experienced similar benefits.
But 10th-grader Monica Miranda doesn't need proof that playing violin has helped her. She's one of the first students in the door at a recent Harmony Project re-enrollment event in the auditorium of a nearby elementary school.
"I feel like music really connects with education," she says. "It helps you concentrate more."
Miranda is in her third year with Harmony Project.
"When I do my homework or I'm studying for something and I feel overwhelmed, I usually go to my violin, to start playing it," Miranda says. "I feel like it relaxes my mind. And coming here to play with an orchestra, it's just amazing. I love it."
And, the science says, her brain loves it, too.
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Transcript
AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:
A new study in the Journal of Neuroscience says something remarkable about how the human brain processes sound. Researchers found that kids who took music lessons for two years didn't just get better at playing the trombone or violin, playing music also helped their brains better understand language. From the NPR Ed Team, Cory Turner explains.
CORY TURNER, BYLINE: Before we get to the neuroscience nitty-gritty, let's visit the place in Los Angeles where these researchers did their work.
SHELLEY SUMINSKI: How de we hold our mouthpieces? Good job, two fingers and a thumb. Am I holding it correctly, like this? No, that's ridiculous, you guys.
TURNER: That's teacher Shelley Suminski, and these are the dulcet tones of seven and eight-year-olds learning trombone.
SUMINSKI: One, two, here we go.
(TROMBONES PLAYING)
TURNER: We're at the LA headquarters of Harmony Project - a nonprofit, after-school program that teaches music to children in low-income communities. On this late afternoon, a few dozen kids have come to get lessons. Kids like eight-year-old Bless Patawaran, who's been with Harmony for two years. When I asked why she loves the flute?
BLESS PATAWARAN: It's because, like, it has a really good spitting and a really good fingering and stuff.
TURNER: We were on the second floor of a tired old billing in Hollywood. The walls are thin and a few of the windows barely close. There are no padded practice rooms. At 5:00, staffers simply surrender their offices to the kids and their teachers. Bless and the other young flutists warm up around a scratched old conference table.
(FLUTES PLAYING)
UNIDENTIFIED TEACHER: You're an expert on the head, Joey.
TURNER: Down the hall, trumpets and trombones rattle the glass doors. And around the corner, oboes squeeze between desks and stacks of paperwork.
(MUSIC)
TURNER: Harmony Project was founded by Margaret Martin, who's life path includes parenting two kids while homeless before earning a doctorate in public health. A few years ago, she noticed something surprising about the kids who had gone through her program.
MARGARET MARTIN: Since 2008, 93 percent of our high school seniors have graduated in four years and have gone on to colleges like Dartmouth, Tulane, NYU, despite dropout rates of 50 percent or more in the neighborhoods where they live and where we intentionally site our programs.
TURNER: Now there are lots of possible explanations for that success. Some of the kids and parents the program attracts are clearly driven. Then there's access to instruments the kids couldn't otherwise afford, and the lessons of course. It also gives kids a place to go after school and access to adults who will challenge and nurture them. Keep in mind, many of these students come from families or neighborhoods that have been ravaged by substance abuse or violence. Still, founder Margaret Martin suspected there's something else too - about actually playing music - that was helping these kids. And here's where we come to that study we mentioned in the intro.
NINA KRAUS: The brain wave physically resembles the sound wave.
TURNER: That's neurobiologist Nina Kraus at Northwestern University. When a mutual acquaintance at the National Institutes of Health introduced her to Margaret Martin, Kraus jumped at the chance to study the Harmony Project kids - and their brains. First though, a quick primer - the brain depends on neurons. Whenever we take in new information through our ears or eyes or skin, those neurons talk to each other by firing off electrical pulses. We call these brain waves. And with scalp electrodes, Kraus and her team can both see and hear these brain waves. This is a bit of Mozart - first to your ear, then your brain.
(SOUNDBITE OF MOZART)
TURNER: Using some pretty new, expensive and complicated technology, Kraus and her team can also break these brain waves down into their component parts to better understand how kids process not only music, but speech too because the two aren't all that different. They have three common denominators - pitch, timing and timbre - and the brain uses the same circuitry to make sense of them all. Now, in other research, Kraus had noticed something about the brains of kids who come from poverty - like many in Harmony project - these children often hear fewer words by the age of five than other kids and that's a problem.
KRAUS: In the absence of stimulation, the nervous system will just, you know, it's hungry for stimulation and it will make things up. So in the absence of sound, what we saw is that there was just more sort of random background activity, which you might think of as static.
TURNER: Kraus called the neural noise. On top of that, processing sound, like telling the difference between someone saying "Bah" and "Gah," requires microsecond precision in the brain. And Kraus says many kids raised in poverty simply have a harder time doing it. Here's an analogy we put together...
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "MR. ROGERS' NEIGHBORHOOD")
FRED ROGERS: Well, even when you're dressed up, you're still yourself inside. You will always be you, no matter how different you look. And that's just fine with me.
TURNER: That is, of course, Mr. Rogers. In the brain of a child raised in poverty, as we said, there might be lots of neural noise. The result of too little stimulation early on. To the brain, it might sound something like this.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "MR. ROGERS' NEIGHBORHOOD")
ROGERS: (Static) You will always be you, no matter how different you look. And that's just fine with me.
TURNER: Plus, the child might have some basic trouble processing the voice itself. To the brain, it might seem muddy.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "MR. ROGERS' NEIGHBORHOOD")
ROGERS: (Muffled static) You will always be you, no matter how different you look. And that's just fine with me.
TURNER: Working with Harmony Project, Kraus randomly assigned kids from the program's waitlist into two groups - those who would be studied after one year of music lessons and those who would be studied after two years. In the two-year kids, Kraus found that the static didn't go away, but they got better - more precise at processing sound - in other words, less mud.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "MR. ROGERS' NEIGHBORHOOD")
ROGERS: (Static) You will always be you, no matter how different you look. And that's just fine with me.
TURNER: Why the improvement? It goes back to pitch, timing and timbre. Kraus argues that learning music improves the brain's ability to process all three which helps kids pick up language, too. Consonants and vowels become clearer, and the brain can make sense of them more quickly, which makes life easier at school - not just in music class, but math too and everywhere else.
Now, to be clear, the study has its limits. It was small. It was done in a lab. And it's hard to know if kids doing some other activity could've experienced similar benefits. But tenth-grader Monica Miranda doesn't need proof that playing violin has helped her.
MONICA MIRANDA: Music really connects with education. It helps you concentrate more.
TURNER: Miranda's in her third year with Harmony Project.
MONICA: When I do - see, I'm going to tell you a story - when I do my homework or I'm studying for something and I feel overwhelmed, I usually go to my violin to start playing it. I feel like it relaxes my mind. And coming here to play it with an orchestra - it's just amazing. I love it.
TURNER: And, the science says, her brain loves it, too. Cory Turner, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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