Music constructs the brain

Brain scans have allowed scientists to reveal how years of music practice change the brains of professional musicians.

So, it was shown that the brain of musicians in certain areas has much more nerve cells. Professor Gottfred Schlaug examined professional musicians and 15 people who had nothing to do with music using the NMR method. Both groups were represented by men. 4 brain regions of musicians contained more gray matter than the brains of non-musicians. All 4 zones are usually associated with musical abilities.

However, the Professor is convinced that additional research is needed to finally understand how the brain tissue is reconstructed in accordance with professional activity. An alternative explanation for this fact may be that these people were born with such a brain, which “made” them talented musicians.

However, experiments on animals have shown that the brain can actually rearrange itself according to repetitive activity.

The same result was achieved by researchers who studied the human brain. So, it was shown that, for example, the brain of taxi drivers has a much larger hippocampus in comparison with other people. This part of the brain is associated with navigation tasks.

Moreover, it has been shown that taxi drivers who have more hours of driving experience have some areas of the hippocampus larger than those drivers who have less driving experience.

The results of the study of the musicians ‘ brains were reported at the American Academy of Neurology Annual meeting.