Know how playing music boosts your DQ

 A 2008 study by Folley and Park found evidence of enhanced divergent as well as convergent thinking in musicians due to their extensive training and experience that facilitate performance of these tasks.  This behavioral and near-infrared spectroscopy study of the brain made at Vanderbilt University (US) found increased frontal cortical activity among musicians.  Music training influences brain organization such that the cognitive system is prone to divergent thinking.

Guitar as well as keyboard playing require deft finger movements of the left hand, something a right-handed person is not accustomed to. It triggers activity in the right brain. And coordinated left and right hand movements (as in strings instruments like Guitar) and independent dual hand movements (as in keyboard) trigger a inter-hemispheric coordination facilitating better utilization of the brain.

 Trained musicians may perform better than non- musicians on cognitive tasks that require the use of the two cerebral hemispheres and its efficient inter-hemispheric communication because of the nature of their lengthy training: Study

A 2005 study by Thomas Elbert and others using magnetic source imaging revealed that cortical representation of left hand fingers in strong players.

Music training at an early stage can lead to altered brain structure development. Gaser and Schlaug (2003) study found gray matter volume differences among professional musicians (pianists), amateur musicians and non-musicians in motor, auditory, and visual-spatial regions using voxel-based morphometry (VBM). Extensive music training involves reorganization of cortical structures and functions including reduced hemispheric asymmetry and efficient inter- hemispheric interactions which are in turn associated with creative thinking.

This is the finding of a study done by Australian Council for Educational Research. While there were no significant differences between students’ scores in Numeracy or Reading, Music students did better than Non- music in ‘Writing’ and in the other four competencies, the differences were not significant. Adults who received music training before the age of 12 have a better memory for spoken words than those who did not. Music training in childhood may therefore have long-term positive effects on verbal memory. (Han, Ho and Cheung)

“Saper Vedere” is the Latin phrase for “knowing how to see”. Leonardo Da Vinci had the unique capability to ‘visualize’ his ideas. And from an early age, musicians learn complex motor and auditory skills (e.g., the translation of visually perceived musical symbols into motor commands with simultaneous auditory monitoring of output), which they practice extensively from childhood throughout their entire careers. An anatomist, architect, botanist, engineer, inventor, mathematician, scientist, writer and a great artist.

Eighteen different areas of the brain process vision, far more than those devoted to language. It means that through reading western classical notations, your brain works at higher capacity utilization than otherwise.

Music acts as a good stress reliever, calming the mind and soothing the soul. It is possible because the music playing itself is an intense activity involving visual, aural and mental faculties. Its said great ideas come when people are in a meditative state.

Playing a music score, according to its notation, instills an element of perfectionism among musicians. A drive towards excellence is cultivated, which has a rub-off effect on all walks of life.

Extensive music training is associated with increased full scale IQ (Schellenberg, 2004) and enhanced verbal ability (various studies) However, correlations between musical ability and IQ are positive, but low: Above an average IQ, intelligence is not particularly predictive of musical ability. In the same vein, high musical ability is not predictive of a high IQ (Shuter-Dyson 1982) Individuals who are retarded and autistic but who have exceptional musical ability, shows decisively that a high IQ is not a necessary component of giftedness in music (Miller,1999 & Treffert, 1989) Yet, musically gifted children typically do well academically (Csikszentmihalyi et al, 1993) If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician. I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music – Albert Einstein