Brain Anatomy and Music

There is a widespread belief that early exposure to music in- creases the size of brain structures in young children. How- ever, examination of scientific publications reveals that there are only a very few studies of brain size and music and these have been conducted only with adults. The results do support the view that certain regions of the brain are enlarged in musicians. Although increased relative size of a part of the brain suggests increased function or competence, increased function and skill develop and are maintained without any detect- able change in the relative size of brain structures. Thus, the assumption that increased size of certain regions of the brain is necessary for achieving a high level of musicianship is not supported. Therefore, it is not necessary fur relative brain size to be increased in children or adults in order for them to achieve musical literacy and good performance skills.

MuSICA continually receives requests to help students in their research projects, which we gladly do. Most recently grade school students are undertaking science fair projects about music and behavior. This is the logical extension of a trend that started about four or five years ago in college — a pronounced upswing in the choice of music, brain and behavior as a topic for term papers. Shortly thereafter, high school and then intermediate school students joined in. While the exact reasons for this belated but welcome concern with music research have not been pinpointed, there are some strong clues. As inquiring students often get their information from newspapers, magazines and TV news, increased media attention to music research seems to he clearly implicated. Findings on child development and the effects of early experience on brain development are usually included in these media accounts of music. This probably fosters the belief that listening to music increases brain development in young children. When ten year olds express this belief, asking only which type of music is best for brain growth, one can hardly escape the conclusion that this assumption has spread widely and penetrated deeply into the public psyche.

One of the themes of these essays concerns the importance of critical thinking about beliefs and claims, by identifying assumptions and by examining their scientific bases. Equally important is the need to consider the implications of any findings. With these goals in mind, let’s examine the assumption that early exposure to music increases the development of children’s brains. More specifically, we’ll focus on the size of some “musical” parts of the brain relative to the size of the whole brain.

Studies on Music and Relative Brain Size

This question actually has a very long history. In the nineteenth century, a good deal of thinking and research was concerned with the relationship between the relative size of brain structures and highly developed knowledge and skills. For example. it was thought that painters might have greater development of the visual system of the brain, because they relied on vision so much. For musicians, the auditory system of the brain was the area of interest. As recently as the 1960s and practically up to the present, researchers have studied the brain of Albert Einstein. They have sought possible over-development of some parts of his cerebral cortex, which is the largest brain structure and the region most involved in thinking, reasoning and other complex psychological processes. Investigators hoped to find a clue about the cerebral basis of Einstein’s particular genius. For the 191h and most of the 2Ott~ centuries, scientists had to rely on direct examination of the brain after death. The results were unclear; no indisputable conclusions could be drawn.

However, the possible relationship between regional brain size, experience and behavioral expertise remains of great interest. Nowadays it is possible to use brain imaging techniques in living people to ask the same question. Magnetic resonance imaging (MR) can effectively provide accurate pictures of brain structures. Direct measurements of the volume of the whole brain and of selected regions can be made. Given such techniques, what is known about relative brain size and music in children? As of the Spring of 1999, there seem to be no published studies

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