Teaching With the Brain in Mind

p. 96). Reading music engages both sides of the
brain, said the late Justine Sergent of the Montreal
Neurological Institute. Once anyone learns how to
read, compose, or play music, their left brain gets
very involved. How does music fit with the concept
of enrichment? Think of music as a tool for
usage in at least three possible categories: for
arousal, as a carrier of words, and as a primer for
the brain. Arousal means the music either increases
or decreases the attentional neurotransmitters. An
example of “perk up” music could be the theme
from “Rocky.” Relaxing music might include a
waterfall or soft piano melodies. This type of music
can significantly affect the states of the learners.
And that, of course, can affect the learning. A
study of 8th and 9th graders reported in Principal
magazine showed that students’ reading comprehension
substantially improved with background
music (Giles 1991).
A second use of music is as a carrier. In this
case, the melody of the music acts as the vehicle
for the words themselves. You may have noticed
how easily students pick up the words to new
songs. It’s the melody that helps them learn the
words. How did you learn the alphabet? Most
likely it was through the alphabet song. You heard
that song over and over as an infant. When it was
time to learn the letters, you simply “glued” the
letters to the notes of the melody. The result was a
quickly learned alphabet.
There is a third, and quite powerful, use of
music. It can actually prime the brain’s neural
pathways. Neurons are constantly firing. What distinguishes
the “neural chatter” from clear thinking
is the speed, sequence, and strength of the connections.
These variables constitute a pattern of firing
that can be triggered or “primed” by certain pieces
of music. As an example, have you ever put on a
37
Enriched Environments and the Brain
piece of music to help you get a task done like
cleaning the house or garage?
To review the evidence, we turn to Norman
Weinberger, a neuroscientist at the University of
California at Irvine. He’s an expert on the auditory
cortex and its response to music. He says, “An
increasing amount of research findings supports
the theory that the brain is specialized for the
building blocks of music” (Weinberger 1995, p. 6).
Much research suggests that the auditory cortex
responds to pitch and tones rather than simply raw
sound frequencies, and individual brain cells
process melodic contour. Music may, in fact, be
critical for later cognitive activities.
Lamb and Gregory (1993) found a high correlation
between pitch discrimination and reading
skills. Mohanty and Hejmadi (1992) found that
musical dance training boosted scores on the
Torrance Test of Creativity. What causes the correlation?
It’s all in the rate and pattern that brain
cells fire. Frances Rauscher says, “We know the
neural firing patterns are basically the same for
music appreciation and abstract reasoning. . . .” (in
Mandelblatt 1993, p. 13). In the well-publicized
“Mozart Effect” study at the University of California
at Irvine, there were three listening conditions.
One was relaxation music. The other, the control,
had no music. The third had Mozart’s “Sonata for
Two Pianos in D Major.” After just 10 minutes of
headset listening, Rauscher, Shaw, Levine, Ky, and
Wright (1993) found that the Mozart selection
temporarily improved spatial temporal reasoning.
Rauscher notes that it’s a causal relationship, not
a correlation. This study was the first ever to show
listening to music as the cause of improved spatial
intelligence. Other studies had merely shown
that music was a contributing factor or had
indirect correlations. Listening to Mozart before