What if every child had access to music education from birth? | Anita Collins | TEDxCanberra

Summary

This TED Talk emphasizes the profound impact of music education on cognitive development, particularly in children under seven. Neuroscientific research reveals that music engagement enhances brain function across motor, visual, and auditory cortices, akin to a full-brain workout. Musicians exhibit superior problem-solving skills, executive functions, and memory systems, potentially due to the multifaceted encoding of memories in music. The talk challenges common misconceptions about musical aptitude, advocating for music education as a foundational element in nurturing cognitive abilities, creativity, and long-term societal benefits.

Takeaways

• 🎼 **Music Education's Cognitive Benefits**: Studies suggest that music education can enhance cognitive function, memory, language learning, emotional regulation, problem-solving, and brain health.
• 👶 **Early Impact**: The activity is most beneficial when undertaken before the age of seven, aligning with critical periods of brain development.
• 🤔 **Broad Success**: Individuals engaged in music often excel in various fields, suggesting music education's role in fostering a wide range of skills.
• 🧠 **Neurological Differences**: Neuroscientists found structural and functional differences in the brains of musicians, indicating music's impact on brain development.
• 🎹 **Formal Music Learning**: The definition of a musician in these studies includes those who have had formal, weekly lessons, learned to read music, and participated in ensembles for at least two years.
• 🌟 **Brain Activation**: Music stimulates multiple brain areas simultaneously, unlike other activities which activate more limited regions.
• 🔗 **Enhanced Connectivity**: Musicians tend to have a larger corpus callosum, facilitating quicker and more creative information processing between brain hemispheres.
• 🧩 **Creative Problem Solving**: Music education enhances the ability to solve puzzles and problems more effectively and creatively.
• 💡 **Executive Function**: Musicians exhibit higher levels of executive function, crucial for addressing complex issues with logical, strategic, and emotional components.
• 📈 **IQ and Earnings Correlation**: Early music education is linked to a significant increase in IQ, which correlates with higher lifetime earnings.
• 🌐 **Societal Impact**: Music education's potential extends to improving literacy, numeracy, and addressing learning disorders, with broad implications for society.

Q & A

What is the potential impact of music education on cognitive function according to the speaker?

The speaker suggests that music education can improve cognitive function, help with memory systems, language learning, emotional state regulation, problem-solving, and contribute to a healthier brain in later life.

Why does the speaker believe music education is most beneficial if undertaken before the age of seven?

The speaker implies that the brain is highly malleable at a young age, and engaging in music education during this critical period can have a profound and lasting impact on brain development.

What is the definition of a 'musician' used by neuroscientists in the studies mentioned?

Neuroscientists define a 'musician' as someone who has formally learned to play a musical instrument, taken lessons from an expert, learned to read music, participated in ensemble music-making, and has done so for at least two years.

How do neuroscientists' studies reveal the differences in the brains of musicians compared to non-musicians?

Neuroscientists' studies show that musicians' brains not only look different but also function differently, with increased activity across various brain areas, particularly when they are engaged in musical tasks.

What does the speaker mean by 'music education is exercise for the brain'?

The speaker refers to music education as a 'full-brain workout' that works out the motor, visual, and auditory cortices simultaneously, akin to a comprehensive physical exercise.

How does music education affect the corpus callosum, and what is its significance?

Music education is found to develop a larger corpus callosum, which is the bridge between the two hemispheres of the brain, allowing for faster and more creative communication between them.

What is the significance of the study involving babies in fMRI machines as mentioned in the script?

The study shows that even newborn babies use their music-processing networks to understand their mother's voices, suggesting a deep and early connection between music and language processing in the brain.

What was the IQ point difference found between those who had music education before the age of seven and those who did not?

The study mentioned in the script found that individuals who received music education before the age of seven had an average of 7.5 IQ points higher than those who did not.

How does the speaker suggest that music education could change societal and economic landscapes?

The speaker posits that universal music education could raise cognitive capacity, literacy, numeracy levels, and potentially reduce learning and behavioral disorders, leading to broad societal and economic benefits.

Why does the speaker argue for a long-term investment in music education?

The speaker argues for long-term investment because the benefits of music education are not just immediate but can have far-reaching impacts on individuals and society, including health, education, and economic prosperity.

What is the speaker's personal experience with music education and its impact on literacy?

The speaker shares a personal anecdote where learning to play the clarinet and read music as a child coincided with overcoming difficulties in reading, suggesting a possible connection between music education and literacy development.

Outlines

00:00

🎵 The Power of Music Education on Brain Development

The speaker, a music educator, posits that music education can significantly enhance cognitive function, memory, language learning, emotional regulation, problem-solving, and brain health. They emphasize its optimal impact when introduced before age seven and suggest that it could be a key factor in the success of many non-musical professionals. The speaker's PhD research delves into neuroscientific findings that musicians' brains exhibit structural and functional differences, notably a larger corpus callosum facilitating quicker interhemispheric communication. Music education is likened to a full-brain workout, impacting the motor, visual, and auditory cortices simultaneously.

05:02

🧠 Music's Impact on Cognitive Abilities and Executive Functions

Neuroscientists have discovered that music education not only enhances cognitive capacity but also acclimates individuals to discomfort, a state inherent in learning. Musicians exhibit superior problem-solving skills and executive functions, which involve complex, multifaceted problem-solving. Their memory systems are highly developed, possibly due to the multifaceted tagging of memories with emotional, visual, conceptual, and contextual cues. Studies reveal that early music education can elevate IQ by 7.5 points, translating to significant economic benefits over a lifetime. The speaker challenges common myths about music requiring innate talent or intelligence, advocating for the universal accessibility of music education.

10:06

🌐 The Broader Societal Implications of Music Education

The speaker contemplates how music education could address various educational and societal issues, such as learning disorders and ADHD, by fostering interhemispheric brain communication. They speculate on the potential for universal music education to improve literacy, numeracy, and economic prospects. Personal anecdotes and future projections are used to illustrate the long-term benefits of early music education on cognitive capacity, societal structures, and individual quality of life. The speaker calls for a shift in educational investment, advocating for long-term strategies that could yield unpredictable but profound benefits for future generations.

15:11

🚀 Rethinking Music Education: A Call to Action

The speaker concludes with a call to action, urging a reevaluation of music education's role and its necessity for every child. They encourage a change in perspective towards the value of music education, suggesting that it is not a luxury but an essential component of cognitive and social development. The speaker shares personal experiences and research insights to argue for the inclusion of music education in the core curriculum, emphasizing its importance in nurturing the potential of future generations. They end with a powerful message about the transformative power of music education and its ability to shape a better future.

Keywords

💡Cognitive function

Cognitive function refers to the mental processes by which individuals perceive, think, remember, and learn. In the video, it is highlighted that music education can significantly improve cognitive function, suggesting that it enhances our ability to process information, solve problems, and learn new skills.

💡Music education

Music education is the process of teaching and learning musical elements, skills, and knowledge. The video emphasizes that music education is not just a cultural activity but a scientifically-backed method to improve cognitive abilities, emotional regulation, and brain health, especially when initiated at a young age.

💡Neuroscientists

Neuroscientists are researchers who study the nervous system and brain functions. In the context of the video, neuroscientists have conducted studies that reveal the positive impacts of music education on brain development and structure, showing that musicians' brains function differently and more effectively in many areas.

💡Corpus callosum

The corpus callosum is a band of nerve fibers that connects the two hemispheres of the brain, facilitating communication between them. The video mentions that musicians have a larger corpus callosum, which allows for quicker and more creative neural communication, enhancing their problem-solving and executive functions.

💡Executive function

Executive function is a set of cognitive processes that are necessary for planning, organizing, and executing complex tasks. The video explains that music education enhances executive functions, which are crucial for handling complex problems that involve logic, strategy, and emotions.

💡Memory systems

Memory systems are the cognitive processes involved in encoding, storing, and retrieving information. The video suggests that music education strengthens memory systems, possibly because musicians create multifaceted memories with emotional, visual, and contextual tags, improving recall and learning.

💡Cognitive capacity

Cognitive capacity refers to the overall ability of the brain to process information, learn, and think. The video posits that music education raises an individual's cognitive capacity, which can have far-reaching implications for learning, intellectual development, and overall brain health.

💡Discomfort

Discomfort in the video is used to describe the unease associated with learning new skills or adapting to new situations. Music education is said to help individuals become comfortable with discomfort, which is essential for embracing the learning process and personal growth.

💡Language processing

Language processing involves the cognitive mechanisms by which we understand and produce language. The video discusses how music processing networks are used by infants to comprehend their mother's voices, indicating a deep connection between music and language in the brain.

💡IQ points

IQ points are numerical values used to quantify a person's intelligence or cognitive abilities. The video cites a study showing that individuals who received music education before the age of seven had higher IQ points, suggesting a correlation between early music education and intellectual capacity.

💡Neuroplasticity

Neuroplasticity, or brain plasticity, is the brain's ability to change and adapt as a result of experience. While not explicitly mentioned in the video, the concept is implicit in discussions about how music education can alter brain structure and function, enhancing cognitive abilities.

Highlights

Scientific studies suggest that music education can improve cognitive function, memory, language learning, emotional regulation, problem-solving, and brain health.

The benefits of music education are most profound if begun before the age of seven.

Music education is enjoyable and accessible, unlike temporary medical interventions.

Music education's benefits extend beyond professional musicians to various career paths.

Neuroscientists discovered that musicians' brains have distinct structures and functions.

Music education activates the motor, visual, and auditory cortices simultaneously.

Musicians exhibit a larger corpus callosum, facilitating faster and more creative neural communication.

Music education enhances executive functions, crucial for solving complex problems.

Musicians have highly developed memory systems, potentially due to multi-sensory memory tagging.

Two decades of research indicate that music education raises cognitive capacity.

Music education helps individuals become comfortable with the discomfort of learning.

Babies use music-processing networks to understand their mother's voices, highlighting the innate musicality in humans.

Children who receive music education before age seven have an average 7.5 IQ points higher.

Each additional IQ point correlates to approximately $700 higher annual earnings.

Music education could address learning disorders by improving inter-hemispheric communication in the brain.

The potential of universal music education to transform literacy, numeracy, and societal structures is vast.

Investing in music education at a young age could have long-term impacts on health, economy, and society.

Music education is not a luxury but an essential component of a child's development.

Encouraging perseverance in music education can lead to long-term cognitive and societal benefits.

Transcripts

Translator: Cissy Yun Reviewer: Tanya Cushman

What if,

what if a large number of scientific studies

had found that there was one activity that could improve our cognitive function,

help our memory systems to work, help us to learn language,

help us to moderate our emotional states, help us to solve complex problems

and help our brains to be healthier into later life?

What if that activity,

while beneficial if undertaken at any time during our lives,

was actually found by the scientists

to be most beneficial if it was undertaken before the age of seven?

What if that activity,

unlike the momentary pain of a vaccination needle,

is actually enjoyable for everyone involved?

Now, you might be expecting me

to reveal a new superfood we could eat some more of,

maybe a pill we could take every day or an exercise regimen we could start,

But actually, this activity is as old as our cultures and societies itself.

And that activity is music education.

Now, I may well be biased.

I am a music educator,

and I understand the world

through the twin lenses of being a musician and being a teacher.

But even before I became a teacher,

I used to look around at all the people I was doing musical activities with

and I used to wonder why they seemed to be good at everything,

why they seem to do well at all of their studies,

why they fit more into a day.

And while many of them, most of them,

never went on to be musicians in their professional lives,

the careers they did choose were incredibly diverse

and they were so successful in them.

and they continue to be so.

What, if anything, did music education have to do with that?

So when it came time for me to choose a topic for my PhD study,

it became pretty clear pretty quickly,

I wanted to know if music education benefited brain development.

What I found was a huge amount of research, now two decades worth,

conducted by neuroscientists.

And the neuroscientists had stumbled on something kind of by accident.

They were looking at the brain functions and structures of musicians,

and, literally, their brains looked different

and they function differently and in many cases, far more effectively.

So the neuroscientists started to do experiments

that compared groups of musicians with groups of non-musicians

doing all manner of tasks.

Now, it's important at this point

to share the definition of musician that the neuroscientists use.

They believe it was someone who learnt a musical instrument

and had learnt it formally,

meaning they'd had lessons from an expert every week.

They'd learnt how to read music,

most of them had been involved in ensemble music-making experiences,

and they'd done it for a reasonably long period of time,

two years at the very least.

Now, to help me explain some of this research,

I'm going to use, I hope -

There we go! Thank you.

I'm going to use some animation from a TED Education film

that I wrote and I helped to create earlier this year.

Now, the technology that helped the neuroscientists

allow them to see our brains working in real time.

And what they did is they used fMRI machines and PET scanners

to watch what was happening.

They would get the participants to do all sorts of tasks -

reading, maths problems -

and they would see certain areas of the brain light up.

But when they asked the participants to listen to music, they saw fireworks.

They had never seen so many areas of the brain light up at the same time.

So why did music education have this impact on the brain?

Well, what they found

is that music education works three areas of the brain at once:

the motor, visual and auditory cortices.

If we think about it, it's like a full-brain workout;

it's like our legs,our arms and our torso doing an exercise at the same time.

Music education is exercise for the brain.

And among many, many other things,

they also found that musicians had a larger bridge, a larger corpus callosum,

across the two hemispheres of the brain,

which allowed the messages to travel far more quickly

and in very, very creative pathways.

So what did this brain exercise mean

for how musicians' brains actually functioned?

Again, among many, many other things they found,

they found that musicians

were able to solve puzzles and problems far more effectively and creatively.

They found that musicians had higher levels of executive function.

Now, executive function is a complex group of activities in our brain

that solve those really complex problems

that have logical, strategic, conceptual, emotional elements to them.

They also found that musicians

had very highly developed memory systems in their brain.

And that they thought this might have happened

because when a musician makes a memory, they actually put tags against it -

an emotional tag, a visual tag, a conceptual tag, a contextual tag.

And overall, so far with these two decades of research that we now have,

they have found that music education

raises the general cognitive capacity of anyone who undertakes it.

And even further to that,

they've found that music education helps us be comfortable with discomfort.

Now, learning is uncomfortable:

we're asking our brains and our bodies to do things we've never done before.

So music education actually helps us be comfortable in that state.

It helps us to feel comfortable with learning.

Now, I'd like to share with you

two studies which, to me, highlight some of the many applications and impacts

that music education could have.

First one involves babies.

I've seen very trusting mothers

allow their beautiful babies to be put into fMRI machines

so the neuroscientists could monitor their brain functions

as the mothers spoke to them,

along with many other tasks.

Now, I say "trusting mothers"

because these babies were between one and three days old.

What the neuroscientists saw

is that the babies were using their music-processing networks

to understand their mother's voices.

Literally, they were hearing music in their mother's voices.

And this confirms something

that the neuroscientists had been thinking for a while,

that music and language processing are very closely connected in the brain,

that, indeed,

at birth we need our music processing to understand our language:

at birth, we are musical.

The second study involves IQ points.

And I know we could have a whole other TED Talk about IQ points,

but they are a well-used measure of intellectual capacity.

And in this study comparing musicians with non-musicians,

they found that those that had undertaken music education

before the age of seven

had around about 7.5 IQ points higher than those that had not.

Now, 7.5 IQ points doesn't sound like much,

but if we put it in context, an IQ of 100 is said to be average or normal,

an IQ of 130 is said to be genius or entry into Mensa.

So 7.5 points is huge.

It's over 20%.

And even further to that,

another study looked at the economic capacity vs. IQ point,

how much more we would earn per year, on average,

per one IQ point that we had higher.

What they found in today's dollars

is that for every IQ point higher we have is equal to about $700 per year.

Let's take our 7.5 IQ points for music education.

That's about $5000 per year.

Now think of that across 10 years,

and suddenly we start to see that music education

could have an enormous impact on every part of our society.

Now, in every area of scientific study,

it is incredibly important to ask big questions

and to look at the myths that exist in that area.

And there are two big ones in this area,

and they are that to play music we need to be smart

and to play music we need to be talented.

Neuroscientists have now done a large number of randomized studies

that have showed that music education impacts everybody who undertakes it.

You don't need to be smart to start with.

And if we think back to that study about babies, we're all born musical.

We have to be to understand language.

It is the experiences and the opportunities that we have in life

that realizes that talent.

And this gets me thinking even more about the fact

that music education could be the glue

that could bring together so many things that we are dealing with

in our educational systems and our societies today.

Let me give you some examples.

Learning disorders.

At the moment, many of them understood to be a miscommunication

between the left and the right hemispheres of the brain.

And as we saw earlier,

music education actually makes those two sides of the brain

work together really well.

ADHD, again, at the moment understood

to be a mistiming between the motor, visual and auditory cortices.

And again, we saw before,

music education actually makes the three areas of the brain

work together incredibly well.

If we take it another step further,

music education has been found to help us acquire and understand language

and to solve complex problems, many of which involve numbers.

How might universal music education change literacy and numeracy

in this country and in many countries around the world

where it's a very hot topic?

Now, I think about all of these issues in light of my own daughter,

who's just turned four.

And I think about her and her generation.

I wonder what could universal music education do for an entire generation?

I think of in 10 years' time, when she's 14,

what might learning be like in her classroom

if the general cognitive capacity has been raised of an entire generation.

If literacy and numeracy levels have been raised,

if many of the learning and behavioural disorders

that we deal with today in classrooms

have had the benefit of music education,

how might our schools change?

I jump again to 30 years' time,

when she's 34.

She could be doing absolutely anything with her life.

But again, if we raise the cognitive capacity of an entire generation,

how might that change our social, cultural, economic, political landscape?

Dare I say it, how might the focus and quality

about political debate in this country change

if that's the generation of voters that they're trying to impress upon?

I jump again to 70 years' time,

when she's 74.

I wonder about the quality of her physical and mental health

if we'd invested before the age of seven in her brain health into later life.

How might that impact our health budget?

How might we be spending our money differently

if we've made an investment back here in her generation

that will impact in 70 years' time?

And this gets me thinking about a much larger issue with education.

Too often, we play the short game with education.

It is a political football that gets hit back and forth

with every change in government.

What if we played the long game?

What if we invested now in my daughter's generation

before the age of seven

in ways that now the science has showed us

we can absolutely predict to the benefits,

and in so many ways, we absolutely cannot predict the benefits.

Now, music education is not the only answer,

it's not the silver bullet that we've heard of earlier.

There is no single answer.

But I know it was the answer for me.

When I was seven or eight years old, I was struggling to read.

I could not untangle words and letters.

And it wasn't through a lack of trying.

My mother was a specialist reading teacher.

And at the age of nine,

someone handed me a clarinet by mistake - I was meant to get a flute.

There was none left, so they said, "Here you go. Have a clarinet."

And I learnt how to play, and I learnt how to read music.

Within about six months, I'd untangled those words and those letters.

I have no proof that those two are interconnected,

but from all the research that I have read

and from the works I continue to see the neuroscientists undertake,

I'm sure they are connected.

So now, with all of this research and all of this knowledge,

what can we do?

I think the first thing we can do is think differently.

Music is a beautiful and wonderful art form

that almost every human being on the planet enjoys

in so many different ways

every single day.

But maybe we are missing an opportunity with music education

that could change our world in ways we have no idea of.

I think we could listen differently.

When we hear that scratchy, out-of-tune sound of a beginner violinist,

don't think about how it offends our ears.

Think about the fireworks that are going off for that young child

as they try so desperately to get the right note.

Think of the learning that is going on for them.

I think we could act differently.

Instead of just going along to our child or grandchild's end-of-year concert,

ask the music teacher if you can go to the rehearsal beforehand.

See the learning happening.

See the learning to be comfortable with discomfort going on.

See the fireworks.

And if you have a child or a grandchild

who's been playing trombone for about six months

and doesn't feel that they're really getting anywhere

and they ask you if they can give up,

don't let them.

Make a choice for them

that they will thank you for in the decades to come.

Music education should be essential

for every child.

And if you look at our national curriculum

and many national curriculums around the world,

it is a core part of it.

And yet in a research a study recently, relates to here in Australia,

1.4 million children today do not have access to a music teacher in their school.

Music education is not for the talented.

It is not a luxury, it's not an add-on,

it's not a bonus, it's not a nice thing if we had some extra money.

It is essential.

We take deliberate steps to teach our children how to care for this planet

so that they may enjoy it in the future.

We take deliberate steps to teach our children how to eat well, exercise

and look after themselves and make good choices

so that they may live a full life.

Why can't we take deliberate steps

to raise the cognitive capacity through music education

of the next generation

so that they can build a better world for themselves?

Thank you.

(Applause)