Researcher Nina Kraus
In the past few years, neurobiologists have been delving into the question of how studying music benefits people of all ages. One of this field’s primary researchers is Dr Nina Kraus, Ph.d., an auditory neuroscientist and professor at Northwestern University.
By Debra Penberthy
Dr Kraus was one of the panelists for the event held Sunday, January 25 in Pasadena at the KPCC’s Crawford Family Forum: Music and Brain—the Science of Change. Dr. Kraus has documented multiple benefits in people of all ages as a result of participating in making music. Some of her research was conducted on SoCal students who participate in the Harmony Project: a music and mentoring project for low-income youth around LA. In this study, Dr. Kraus found that the musical training provided by Harmony Project not only improved musical ability but also improved children’s ability to process speech. Making music seemed to counteract a challenge that many of these students faced. Because they had been exposed to fewer words in their households from a young age, they had developed a high level of “noise” when trying to process speech. Music participation seemed to reduce this neural noise and make it easier for students to understand what they were hearing. The benefits of this went well beyond doing well in music class. This may be a reason that Harmony Project students graduate from high school at almost twice the rates of their counterparts, with the vast majority completing high school and many more than average going on to college.
Credit: LA Johnson and Alyson Hurt/NPR
The benefits don’t stop in childhood, though. Young people benefit in language acquisition when making music, and playing music early in life benefits older people in maintaining their ability to process speech. As Professor Kraus said: “We have looked at sixty and seventy year olds who had music in their background… As older adults their nervous systems are responding better to sound… There is a lasting impact on neural activity from studying music.”
One of the other successful programs in Los Angeles county that is building upon this research is the Boyle Heights Community Youth Orchestra. Founded and directed by Dr. Suzanne Gindin, this program is based on El Sistema, the Venezuelan music education model that has nurtured such luminaries as Gustavo Dudamel, Music Director of the LA Philharmonic. Dr. Gindin was a panelist at the KPCC event, and she stated that her students were not only learning music but that their parents were reporting that the program had helped their children improve in such areas as math, reading, and social skills. The final member of the panel, Kristin Madsen, Senior Vice President of The GRAMMY Foundation & MusiCares explained that some of the programs in low-income areas operated off of relatively low budgets, but that these funds went a long way to making it possible for these children to have access to making music, something that is lacking in many LA County schools. All of today’s panelists advocated for the reinstatement of music programs in all of our public schools, given the musical and non-musical benefits of making music. As Dr. Gindin put it when talking about her public school music students: “I have the best students, and it’s not an accident. It’s the music that made them wonderful, and why not have it for them if it’s what made them the wonderful people that we adore.”
To get involved and advocate for music to be a regular part of the school day, the panelists recommended that you contact your local school principals, your school board, and your superintendent of schools. If your school already has a strong music program, contacting these same people to thank them for their continued support was recommended.
See a video recording of the KPCC’s Music and the Brain event, including performances by members of the Boyle Heights Community Orchestra.
Leave a Reply