Music Increase Brain Gray Matter?

[Racerty1]

Im writing a persuasive piece for my language arts class about getting iPods and Cell phones allowed in my school system. I had heard before that listening to music can increase gray matter (which is what the brain uses to think) In the brain. I was wondering if anyone knew if this was true or if anyone could give me some related links to this topic. It would be much appreciated, and would make a strong basis for my argument.

Thanks,
Tyler Stevens

[CraigD]

I’m aware of several studies that show improvement in cognitive function as a result of listening to music, especially in elderly subjects, for whom loss of cognitive function (senile dementia) is often a problem. I recall (but may be imagining) at least one study correlating music listening to higher post-mortem brain mass. I’m aware of several studies linking listening to music by children 0-3 years old to high intelligence and academic test scores later in life, though suspect that many of these studies are methodologically troubled. It would take me a while to find citations, so this is left as an exercise for the reader

Finding and analyzing this data is a substantial undertaking, requiring a pretty good grasp of statistics, or help from a statistician (if you know any recent Math grads or post grads, or have access to a university Math department where such folk are known, and have even a small budget to pay one, they can be good stats consultants – many have little pro experience, and will work for little or nothing, in order to gain it), though this may be overkill for your current assignment.

Some basic brain science concepts and terms:

Though it’s common to refer to the whole brain as “gray matter”, the term has a very specific neurological connotation. Brain tissue is divided into 2 major categories:

• gray matter - “supporting material”, “scaffolding” cells such as glial cells, short “multiconecting” dentrites, and even non-nerve cells such as blood vessels;
• white matter – “connecting strands”, long nerve cell processes that are structurally supported by and connect gray matter cells.

Over 90% of the brain is gray matter, the rest white.

Though the terms gray and white matter are descriptive – a dissected brain shows distinct gray and white areas both to the naked eye and a microscope – neurologists often use the terms more as functional ones, so may differ in considering a specific brain cell “gray” or “white”. The ratio of gray to white cells vary among individuals, and suggest intriguing links between this ratio to intelligence, and some brain disorders, such as autism.

Racerty, your paper sounds like a great opportunity to study not only music-brain correlations, but brain science in general. Good luck, and please feel free to bounce your discoveries and ideas off us in this thread. Sorry for the delay in reply to your thread-starting post.

[ronthepon]

Interesting topic for research, although I'm not entirely sure if the gray matter content actually has the capability of increasing or not.

As far as I know, neurons won't divide after their initial growth stage. It's the connections that undergoes fixing. I'm not sure if the white matter, consisting of myelinated nerve axons that go any growth either.

And -er- hey, cool idea for an attempt to get the music peices allowed. Good luck, and be absolutely sure to post any info you happen to find from other sources as well.

[orbsycli]

You should talk about music with and without human vocals.

Instrumentals usually help me focus when I'm reading, studying, writing,
but then when someone starts singing my brain just freaks out and analyzes the words and then I totally lost track of what I was doing.

Like, listen to philip glass while you clean, or while you work...

[CraigD]

Originally Posted by orbsycli

Instrumentals usually help me focus when I'm reading, studying, writing,
but then when someone starts singing my brain just freaks out and analyzes the words and then I totally lost track of what I was doing.

A bit off Racerty’s topic, but I’m curious, orby – what does your brain do when there are vocals, but not recognizable words? La-la-la / ah-ah-ah type vocals? “Fake language” (sometimes termed “glossolalia”), like Dead Can Dance lyrics? A language you understand not at all, like (for me) Japanese?

Personally, I find the “fake language” lyrics, and Dead Can Dance in particular, very hypnotic, very much as if it's rearranging some neurons in a novel way. It's some of my favorite music.

[maikeru]

Originally Posted by ronthepon

Interesting topic for research, although I'm not entirely sure if the gray matter content actually has the capability of increasing or not.

As far as I know, neurons won't divide after their initial growth stage. It's the connections that undergoes fixing. I'm not sure if the white matter, consisting of myelinated nerve axons that go any growth either.

And -er- hey, cool idea for an attempt to get the music peices allowed. Good luck, and be absolutely sure to post any info you happen to find from other sources as well.

While neurons might not divide after differentiation, there's evidence that suggests that stem cells in the brain can give rise to new neurons (neural stem cells located in the hippocampus and ventricles, it seems) and perhaps gradual accumulation of neurons can be increased by stimulation and learning:

Neurogenesis in the Adult Brain -- Gage 22 (3): 612 -- Journal of Neuroscience
Neurogenesis - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Studies Find Brain Grows New Cells - New York Times

In regard to your question, Tyler, I'm not sure if there is much evidence that shows that listening to music can increase "gray matter," but there's some evidence that suggests that playing and learning music can cause thickening and growth of gray matter in specific areas of the brain as well as an increase in the "information superhighway" that connects the two hemispheres of the brain (the corpus callosum):

Online NewsHour: Brain Music?--November 10, 1998
Society for Neuroscience | Music Training And The Brain
Mixed Content » Playing Music Can Be Good For Your Brain

As I understand it, musical ability is not located in any one region of the brain, but the abilities to play (and probably listen to) music are located in several regions of the brain (involved in things like language, mathematics, reasoning, etc.), and when playing music, it's obvious that the musician has to coordinate movements, keep track of timing, memory, etc. as well as "feel" the music (and that's hard to describe, but if you play music, you'll know what I mean).

[Fatstep]

I know this isn't scientific, but, I cannot write a paper nor can I do any type of art without music. It somehow gives me ideas when I am writing, and when I am drawing it filters what I am hearing so I can truly focus.