Nearly 20 years ago a small study advanced the notion that listening to Mozart’s “Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major” could boost mental functioning. It was not long before trademarked “Mozart effect” products appealed to neurotic parents aiming to put toddlers on the fast track to the Ivy League. Georgia’s governor even proposed giving every newborn a classical CD.

The evidence for Mozart therapy turned out to be flimsy, perhaps nonexistent, although the original study never claimed anything more than a temporary and limited effect. In recent years, however, neuroscientists have examined the benefits of a concerted effort to study and practice music, as opposed to playing a Mozart CD or a computer-based “brain fitness” game once in a while.

Advanced monitoring techniques have enabled scientists to see what happens inside your head when you listen to your mother and actually practice the violin for an hour every afternoon. And they have found that music lessons can produce profound and lasting changes that enhance the general ability to learn.

Studies have shown that assiduous instrument training from an early age can help the brain to process sounds better, making it easier to stay focused when absorbing other subjects, from literature to tensor calculus.

The musically adept are better able to concentrate on a biology lesson despite the racket in the classroom or, a few years later, to finish a call with a client when a colleague in the next cubicle starts screaming at an underling. They can attend to several things at once in the mental scratch pad called working memory, an essential skill in this era of multitasking.

Research has led to the conclusion that music education needs to be preserved — and revamped. The main reason for playing an instrument, of course, will always be the joy of blowing a horn or banging out chords. But we should also incorporate into the curriculum our new knowledge of music’s beneficial effect on the brain. Music is not just an “extra.”

Source: http://www.scientific american.com/article.cfm?id=hearing-the-music-honing