Written by Elif Gulce Batgi
A lot of parents believe that playing an instrument will improve cognitive, intellectual, and perceptual skills. They believe that the IQ levels of their children will increase due to the instruments they play, how early they started and how much they practice. Even though it would be wrong to say there is no benefit of playing an instrument to human brains, playing an instrument doesn’t affect IQ levels. However, as we mentioned above, benefits are undeniable and contribute to function and structure of the brain.
There are over 1500 instruments currently and also millions of people who play these instruments (1). It can be clearly observed that playing an instrument is a workout for our brain. It helps the brain to turn on many areas of itself because instruments make us use our vision, auditory and motor areas. It is a richer and complexer experience when it is compared to other experiences believed to improve the brain such as brain games. The reason is it is using the information visual, hearing, and touch, with fine movements, senses (1). For example, playing violin uses the peripheral nervous system to control the movements of your fingers, also gross and fine motor skills (2).
Playing instruments also changes the structure of the brain. There are differences between a normal person who doesn’t play an instrument, and a person who does. The corpus callosum which is a massive bundle of nerve fibers connecting the two sides of the brain is larger in the musicians (3). In the beginning of the studies, researchers were not sure about anatomical differences or training affecting these differences. Then, the studies determined that training was the thing which affects the differences. They found out that training increases the gray matter volume in certain brain areas and strengthens the long-range connections between them (3). Moreover, it contributes to the improvement of literacy skills, verbal memory, and spatial reasoning (3).
Another benefit of playing an instrument is promotion of neuroplasticity. The Hebbian Principle says that the more you engage, the more your neurons are firing together constantly (4). Firing constantly culminates in strong connections and promotes neuroplastic changes all over the brain by using occipital lobe, temporal lobe, frontal lobe, and parietal lobe to read and analyze pitches and rhythm, process sound, attend to music and integrate all of the incoming sensory information, respectively (4).
Feelings during playing an instrument can also show us how beneficial playing an instrument is. Music reduces your stress level and depression It lowers the levels of depression and anxiety. You can feel it both playing and listening to music.
In conclusion, an individual who wants to keep his/her brain healthy and alive, increase functional skills and develop its structure should choose playing musical instruments as a way. No matter if the individual is young or old, benefits and development can be observed clearly in a short time.
References:
How playing an instrument affects your brain. (n.d.). BrainFacts. https://www.brainfacts.org/neuroscience-in-society/the-arts-and-the-brain/2020/how-playing-an-instrument-affects-your-brain-111720.
Playing an instrument: Better for your brain than just listening - Penn medicine. (n.d.). https://www.pennmedicine.org/news/news-blog/2017/january/playing-an-instrument-better-for-your-brain-than-just-listening.
Rampton, J. (2017, August 21). The benefits of playing music help your brain more than any other activity. Inc.com. https://www.inc.com/john-rampton/the-benefits-of-playing-music-help-your-brain-more.html.
Izbicki, P. (2020, April 9). Your brain will thank you for being a musician. Scientific American Blog Network. https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/your-brain-will-thank-you-for-being-a-musician/.
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