Another study on the benefits of Music Education
From the Canadian Press (wire source) via the Toronto Star…
Music lessons can help children as young as four show advanced brain development and improve their memory, even when it sounds like a budding musician is banging out little more than noise, a new Canadian study suggests.
This really may not be a big surprise, there have been many studies on the way music education helps the development of the brain. But it’s always good to see new studies continue to back up that belief…
Researchers at McMaster University in Hamilton used magnetoencephalography or MEG brain-scanning technology to compare the developmental changes in 12 children aged four to six over the course of a year.
The study, to be published in the October edition of Oxford University’s neurology journal Brain, found that those who took music lessons showed more changes in brain responses.
Even when parents hear only what sounds like random notes or nonsense, it’s likely their children are developing their brains in ways that could enhance their overall thinking, said professor Laurel Trainor, who led the study with Takako Fujioka, a scientist at the Rotman Research Institute in Toronto.
What is different about this study is that it notes the changes in preschool age students (and is the first study to do so.)
“There’s this tremendous emphasis on math and English and science and those are wonderful and important things, but here’s a study proving, yet again, that music education does help develop the brain,” Whyte said.
Certainly we don’t want to skimp on Math/English and Science, but we shouldn’t skimp on music either….
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