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Did you know that every time[br]musicians pick up their instruments

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there are fireworks going off[br]all over their brain?

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On the outside,[br]they may look calm and focused,

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reading the music and making the precise[br]and practiced movements required.

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But inside their brains,[br]there's a party going on.

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How do we know this?

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Well, in the last few decades,

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neuroscientists have made [br]enormous breakthroughs

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in understanding how our brains work[br]by monitoring them in real time

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with instruments like[br]FMRi and PET scanners.

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When people are hooked up[br]to these machines,

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tasks, such as reading or doing math problems,

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each have corresponding areas[br]of the brain

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where activity can be observed.

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But when researchers got the participants[br]to listen to music,

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they saw fireworks.

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Multiple areas of their brains[br]were lighting up at once,

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as they processed the sound,

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took it apart to understand elements,[br]like melody and rhythm,

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and then put it all back together[br]into unified musical experience.

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And our brains do all this work[br]in the split second

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between when we first hear the music[br]and when our foot starts to tap along.

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But when scientists turn[br]from observing the brains

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of music listeners to those of musicians,

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the little backyard fireworks[br]became a jubilee.

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It turns out that[br]while listening to music engages the brain

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in some pretty interesting activities,

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playing music is the brain's equivalent[br]of a full-body workout.

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The neuroscientists saw multiple areas[br]of the brain light up,

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simultaneously processing different information

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in intricate, interrelated, [br]and astonishingly fast sequences.

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But what is it about making music[br]that sets the brain alight?

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The research is still fairly new,[br]but neuroscientists have a pretty good idea.

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Playing a musical instrument engages[br]practically every area of the brain at once,

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especially the visual, auditory, and motor cortices.

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And as with any other workout,[br]disciplined, structured practice in playing music

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strengthens those brain functions,[br]allowing us to apply that strength

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to other activities.

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The most obvious difference between[br]listening to music and playing it

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is that the latter requires[br]fine motor skills,

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which are controlled[br]in both hemispheres of the brain.

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It also combines the linguistic[br]and mathematical precision,

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in which the left hemisphere[br]is more involved,

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with the novel and creative [br]content that the right excels in.

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For these reasons,[br]playing music has been found

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to increase the volume and activity [br]in the brain's corpus callosum,

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the bridge between the two hemispheres,

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allowing messages to get across the brain[br]faster and through more diverse routes.

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This may allow musicians[br]to solve problems

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more effectively and creatively,[br]in both academic and social settings.

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Because making music also involves[br]crafting and understanding

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its emotional content and message,

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musicians often have higher levels[br]of executive function,

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a category of interlinked tasks

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that includes planning, strategizing, [br]and attention to detail

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and requires simultaneous analysis[br]of both cognitive and emotional aspects.

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This ability also has an impact[br]on how our memory systems work.

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And, indeed, musicians exhibit[br]enhanced memory functions,

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creating, storing, and retrieving memories[br]more quickly and efficiently.

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Studies have found that musicians[br]appear to use their highly connected brains

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to give each memory multiple tags,

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such as a conceptual tag, an emotional tag,[br]an audio tag, and a contextual tag,

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like a good internet search engine.

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So, how do we know that all these benefits[br]are unique to music,

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as opposed to, say, sports or painting?

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Or could it be [br]that people who go into music[br]

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were already smarter to begin with?

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Neuroscientists have explored these issues,[br]but so far, they have found that

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the artistic and aesthetic aspects[br]of learning to play a musical instrument

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are different from any other activity studied,[br]including other arts.

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And several randomized studies[br]of participants,

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who showed the same levels of cognitive function [br]and neural processing at the start,

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found that those who were exposed[br]to a period of music learning

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showed enhancement in multiple brain areas,[br]compared to the others.

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This recent research about[br]the mental benefits of playing music

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has advanced our understanding[br]of mental function,

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revealing the inner rhythms and complex interplay

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that make up the amazing orchestra[br]of our brain.