Researchers in Japan studied the brains of secondary school students during a musical observation task. Students who were trained to play music from a young age had more brain activity than other students. The link between musical processing and areas of the brain associated with language processing was first observed by the researchers.
Professor Sakai is a musician and many of his colleagues are as well. Although he has studied neuroscience for 25 years, Sakai also studies the effect music has on the brain. The Suzuki method, which is based on ideas of natural language acquisition, inspired Sakai and his team to explore common neurological aspects of music and language.
There are areas of the brain that deal with language, and even specialized regions that correspond to different parts of language processing, according to Sakai. We wondered if training under the Suzuki method would lead to activity in such areas, not when using language, but when engaging with music. This is the case, according to our study.
Group S was trained from a young age in the Suzuki method, Group E was not trained in the Suzuki method, and Group L was not trained in the Suzuki method. The students had their brains scanned by fMRI, which produced 3D models of their brains' activity. They were given a musical exercise to identify errors in music. The musical pieces played had errors in one of the four musical conditions.
The brain activity of groups S and E was higher than that of Group L during the exercises. The groups S and E showed activity in different regions depending on the error being tested for. Group S showed some unique patterns of activity in areas of the right brain associated with emotion and melody, which supports the Suzuki method.
The left brain's highly specific grammar center was activated regardless of musical experience. The connection between music and language might explain why people enjoy music even if they aren't musical themselves. We've found that other researchers may be able to build on what we've found here. We want to explore deeper into the connection between music and language by designing novel experiments to tease out more elusive details.
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Journal reference
Takeaki Miyamae, Ryugo Hayano, and Kuniyoshi L Sakai are all related. Music-Experience-Related and Musical-Error-Dependent Brain activity. Cerebral cortex, 2021.
