WEBVTT

00:00:13.959 --> 00:00:17.094
Did you know that every time
musicians pick up their instruments

00:00:17.094 --> 00:00:20.293
there are fireworks going off
all over their brain?

00:00:20.293 --> 00:00:22.875
On the outside,
they may look calm and focused,

00:00:22.880 --> 00:00:26.867
reading the music and making the precise
and practiced movements required.

00:00:26.867 --> 00:00:30.201
But inside their brains,
there's a party going on.

00:00:30.201 --> 00:00:31.409
How do we know this?

00:00:31.409 --> 00:00:33.225
Well, in the last few decades,

00:00:33.225 --> 00:00:35.720
neuroscientists have made 
enormous breakthroughs

00:00:35.720 --> 00:00:40.353
in understanding how our brains work
by monitoring them in real time

00:00:40.353 --> 00:00:43.465
with instruments like
FMRi and PET scanners.

00:00:43.465 --> 00:00:45.718
When people are hooked up
to these machines,

00:00:45.718 --> 00:00:48.624
tasks, such as reading or doing math problems,

00:00:48.624 --> 00:00:51.112
each have corresponding areas
of the brain

00:00:51.112 --> 00:00:53.161
where activity can be observed.

00:00:53.161 --> 00:00:56.316
But when researchers got the participants
to listen to music,

00:00:56.316 --> 00:00:58.300
they saw fireworks.

00:00:58.300 --> 00:01:01.195
Multiple areas of their brains
were lighting up at once,

00:01:01.195 --> 00:01:02.844
as they processed the sound,

00:01:02.844 --> 00:01:05.865
took it apart to understand elements,
like melody and rhythm,

00:01:05.865 --> 00:01:10.375
and then put it all back together
into unified musical experience.

00:01:10.375 --> 00:01:13.043
And our brains do all this work
in the split second

00:01:13.043 --> 00:01:17.587
between when we first hear the music
and when our foot starts to tap along.

00:01:17.587 --> 00:01:19.563
But when scientists turn
from observing the brains

00:01:19.563 --> 00:01:22.635
of music listeners to those of musicians,

00:01:22.635 --> 00:01:25.916
the little backyard fireworks
became a jubilee.

00:01:25.916 --> 00:01:29.038
It turns out that
while listening to music engages the brain

00:01:29.038 --> 00:01:31.193
in some pretty interesting activities,

00:01:31.193 --> 00:01:35.518
playing music is the brain's equivalent
of a full-body workout.

00:01:35.518 --> 00:01:38.706
The neuroscientists saw multiple areas
of the brain light up,

00:01:38.706 --> 00:01:41.638
simultaneously processing different information

00:01:41.638 --> 00:01:46.233
in intricate, interrelated, 
and astonishingly fast sequences.

00:01:46.233 --> 00:01:49.884
But what is it about making music
that sets the brain alight?

00:01:49.884 --> 00:01:54.599
The research is still fairly new,
but neuroscientists have a pretty good idea.

00:01:54.599 --> 00:01:59.317
Playing a musical instrument engages
practically every area of the brain at once,

00:01:59.317 --> 00:02:03.339
especially the visual, auditory, and motor cortices.

00:02:03.339 --> 00:02:07.781
And as with any other workout,
disciplined, structured practice in playing music

00:02:07.781 --> 00:02:11.714
strengthens those brain functions,
allowing us to apply that strength

00:02:11.714 --> 00:02:13.619
to other activities.

00:02:13.619 --> 00:02:17.144
The most obvious difference between
listening to music and playing it

00:02:17.144 --> 00:02:19.728
is that the latter requires
fine motor skills,

00:02:19.728 --> 00:02:22.996
which are controlled
in both hemispheres of the brain.

00:02:22.996 --> 00:02:26.137
It also combines the linguistic
and mathematical precision,

00:02:26.137 --> 00:02:28.295
in which the left hemisphere
is more involved,

00:02:28.295 --> 00:02:32.111
with the novel and creative 
content that the right excels in.

00:02:32.111 --> 00:02:34.304
For these reasons,
playing music has been found

00:02:34.304 --> 00:02:38.884
to increase the volume and acti vity 
in the brain's corpus callosum,

00:02:38.884 --> 00:02:41.349
the bridge between the two hemispheres,

00:02:41.349 --> 00:02:46.214
allowing messages to get across the brain
faster and through more diverse routes.

00:02:46.214 --> 00:02:48.691
This may allow musicians
to solve problems

00:02:48.691 --> 00:02:52.340
more effectively and creatively,
in both academic and social settings.

00:02:52.340 --> 00:02:56.240
Because making music also involves
crafting and understanding

00:02:56.240 --> 00:02:58.504
its emotional content and message,

00:02:58.504 --> 00:03:02.236
musicians often have higher levels
of executive function,

00:03:02.236 --> 00:03:04.261
a category of interlinked tasks

00:03:04.261 --> 00:03:08.031
that includes planning, strategizing, 
and attention to detail

00:03:08.031 --> 00:03:13.255
and requires simultaneous analysis
of both cognitive and emotional aspects.

00:03:13.255 --> 00:03:17.196
This ability also has an impact
on how our memory systems work.

00:03:17.196 --> 00:03:20.449
And, indeed, musicians exhibit
enhanced memory functions,

00:03:20.449 --> 00:03:25.478
creating, storing, and retrieving memories
more quickly and efficiently.

00:03:25.478 --> 00:03:29.232
Studies have found that musicians
appear to use their highly connected brains

00:03:29.232 --> 00:03:31.994
to give each memory multiple tags,

00:03:31.994 --> 00:03:37.116
such as a conceptual tag, an emotional tag,
an audio tag, and a contextual tag,

00:03:37.116 --> 00:03:39.706
like a good internet search engine.

00:03:39.706 --> 00:03:42.590
So, how do we know that all these benefits
are unique to music,

00:03:42.590 --> 00:03:45.317
as opposed to, say, sports or painting?

00:03:45.317 --> 00:03:47.569
Or could it be 
that people who go into music


00:03:47.569 --> 00:03:49.647
were already smarter to begin with?

00:03:49.647 --> 00:03:53.337
Neuroscientists have explored these issues,
but so far, they have found that

00:03:53.337 --> 00:03:57.354
the artistic and aesthetic aspects
of learning to play a musical instrument

00:03:57.354 --> 00:04:01.733
are different from any other activity studied,
including other arts.

00:04:01.733 --> 00:04:04.268
And several randomized studies
of participants,

00:04:04.268 --> 00:04:09.071
who showed the same levels of cognitive function 
and neural processing at the start,

00:04:09.071 --> 00:04:12.879
found that those who were exposed
to a period of music learning

00:04:12.879 --> 00:04:16.733
showed enhancement in multiple brain areas,
compared to the others.

00:04:16.733 --> 00:04:19.932
This recent research about
the mental benefits of playing music

00:04:19.932 --> 00:04:22.589
has advanced our understanding
of mental function,

00:04:22.589 --> 00:04:25.525
revealing the inner rhythms and complex interplay

00:04:25.525 --> 00:04:29.275
that make up the amazing orchestra
of our brain.