• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Tracking Health and Wellness Applications of Brain Science

Spanish
sb-logo-with-brain
  • Resources
    • Monthly eNewsletter
    • Solving the Brain Fitness Puzzle
    • The SharpBrains Guide to Brain Fitness
    • How to evaluate brain training claims
    • Resources at a Glance
  • Brain Teasers
    • Top 25 Brain Teasers & Games for Teens and Adults
    • Brain Teasers for each Cognitive Ability
    • More Mind Teasers & Games for Adults of any Age
  • Virtual Summits
    • 2019 SharpBrains Virtual Summit
    • Speaker Roster
    • Brainnovations Pitch Contest
    • 2017 SharpBrains Virtual Summit
    • 2016 SharpBrains Virtual Summit
    • 2015 SharpBrains Virtual Summit
    • 2014 SharpBrains Virtual Summit
  • Report: Pervasive Neurotechnology
  • Report: Digital Brain Health
  • About
    • Mission & Team
    • Endorsements
    • Public Speaking
    • In the News
    • Contact Us

Study: Music Training Can Enhance Verbal Intelligence and Executive Function

October 5, 2011 by SharpBrains

Very inter­est­ing new study pub­lished in Psy­cho­log­i­cal Sci­ence: Short-Term Music Train­ing Enhances Ver­bal Intel­li­gence and Exec­u­tive Func­tion.

Abstract: Researchers have designed train­ing meth­ods that can be used to improve men­tal health and to test the effi­ca­cy of edu­ca­tion pro­grams. How­ev­er, few stud­ies have demon­strat­ed broad trans­fer from such train­ing to per­for­mance on untrained cog­ni­tive activ­i­ties. Here we report the effects of two inter­ac­tive com­put­er­ized train­ing pro­grams devel­oped for preschool chil­dren: one for music and one for visu­al art. After only 20 days of train­ing, only chil­dren in the music group exhib­it­ed enhanced per­for­mance on a mea­sure of ver­bal intel­li­gence, with 90% of the sam­ple show­ing this improve­ment. These improve­ments in ver­bal intel­li­gence were pos­i­tive­ly cor­re­lat­ed with changes in func­tion­al brain plas­tic­i­ty dur­ing an exec­u­tive-func­tion task. Our find­ings demon­strate that trans­fer of a high-lev­el cog­ni­tive skill is pos­si­ble in ear­ly childhood.

–> To access orig­i­nal study, click Here (requires sub­scrip­tion).

Good com­men­tary on the study: Music Train­ing Enhances Chil­dren’s Ver­bal Intel­li­gence (Miller McCune).

  • “These results are dra­mat­ic not only because they clear­ly con­nect cog­ni­tive improve­ment to musi­cal train­ing, but also because the improve­ments in lan­guage and atten­tion are found in com­plete­ly dif­fer­ent domains than the one used for train­ing,” said York Uni­ver­si­ty psy­chol­o­gist Ellen Bia­lystok, one of the paper’s co-authors. “This has enor­mous impli­ca­tions for devel­op­ment and education.”
  • “The study, pub­lished in the jour­nal Psy­cho­log­i­cal Sci­ence, was con­duct­ed at York Uni­ver­si­ty by psy­chol­o­gist Syl­vain Moreno, who is now with Baycrest’s Rot­man Research Insti­tute. It focused on 48 chil­dren between the ages of 4 and 6, who took part in one of two com­put­er­ized train­ing pro­grams Moreno designed.”

Relat­ed Articles:

  • Musi­cal train­ing as men­tal exer­cise for cog­ni­tive performance
  • Music: anoth­er pil­lar of brain fitness?
  • Neu­ro­plas­tic­i­ty: the poten­tial for life­long brain development

Share this:

  • Tweet
  • Email
  • Print
  • More
  • Share on Tumblr
  • Pock­et

Filed Under: Education & Lifelong Learning Tagged With: art, Baycrest, Brain-Fitness, Brain-Plasticity, cognitive, cognitive-improvement, cognitive-performance, cognitive-skill, computerized, computerized-training, development, Education & Lifelong Learning, Ellen Bialystok, enhance executive function, enhance-intelligence, executive-function, intelligence, Mental-Health, Miller McCune, music, music-training, musical-training, preschool children, Psychological Science, Rotman-Research-Institute, Sylvain Moreno, training, verbal intelligence, visual, visual art

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Braden Talbot says

    October 5, 2011 at 4:04

    I’m glad I stud­ied and played music all those years.

Primary Sidebar

Top Articles on Brain Health and Neuroplasticity

  1. Can you grow your hippocampus? Yes. Here’s how, and why it matters
  2. How learning changes your brain
  3. To harness neuroplasticity, start with enthusiasm
  4. Three ways to protect your mental health during –and after– COVID-19
  5. Why you turn down the radio when you're lost
  6. Solving the Brain Fitness Puzzle Is the Key to Self-Empowered Aging
  7. Ten neu­rotech­nolo­gies about to trans­form brain enhance­ment & health
  8. Five reasons the future of brain enhancement is digital, pervasive and (hopefully) bright
  9. What Educators and Parents Should Know About Neuroplasticity and Dance
  10. The Ten Habits of Highly Effective Brains
  11. Six tips to build resilience and prevent brain-damaging stress
  12. Can brain training work? Yes, if it meets these 5 conditions
  13. What are cognitive abilities and how to boost them?
  14. Eight Tips To Remember What You Read
  15. Twenty Must-Know Facts to Harness Neuroplasticity and Improve Brain Health

Top 10 Brain Teasers and Illusions

  1. You think you know the colors? Try the Stroop Test
  2. Check out this brief attention experiment
  3. Test your stress level
  4. Guess: Are there more brain connections or leaves in the Amazon?
  5. Quick brain teasers to flex two key men­tal mus­cles
  6. Count the Fs in this sentence
  7. Can you iden­tify Apple’s logo?
  8. Ten classic optical illu­sions to trick your mind
  9. What do you see?
  10. Fun Mental Rotation challenge
  • Check our Top 25 Brain Teasers, Games and Illusions

Join 12,620 readers exploring, at no cost, the latest in neuroplasticity and brain health.

By subscribing you agree to receive our free, monthly eNewsletter. We don't rent or sell emails collected, and you may unsubscribe at any time.

IMPORTANT: Please check your inbox or spam folder in a couple minutes and confirm your subscription.

Get In Touch!

Contact Us

660 4th Street, Suite 205,
San Francisco, CA 94107 USA

About Us

SharpBrains is an independent market research firm tracking health and performance applications of brain science. We prepare general and tailored market reports, publish consumer guides, produce an annual global and virtual conference, and provide strategic advisory services.

© 2022 SharpBrains. All Rights Reserved - Privacy Policy