What is neuromusicology?
The brain is divided into the left and right hemispheres by the corpus collosum, a deep longitudinal fissure which ensures both hemispheres communicate with each other. Each hemisphere is further sub-divided into 4 lobes, as can be seen above. The diagram shows the 4 lobes and the cerebellum. The information following are broad generalisations about function as there is much integration, however it is useful background knowledge for teachers…
The frontal and temporal lobes are the most advanced regions of the brain, responsible for speech, language and music. The temporal lobe is linked to hearing and memory, including phonemic awareness, identifying phonemes and decoding. The parietal lobe is responsible for motor movements and spatial skills whereby the occipital lobe is responsible for vision. More experienced readers have more activity in their parietal and occipital lobes. The cerebellum is our primitive, reptilian brain; linked to dancing, movement, playing an instrument and emotional reactions to music. When the two halves of the brain work together, optimal learning is said to occur, resulting in hemispheric synchronisation, a coveted state of improved concentration, learning and memory.
Brain research suggests that music study influences the development of integrated sensory, attentional, cognitive, emotional and motor neurobiological functions; a neural symphony, termed neuromusicology (Holmberg, 2010; Collins, 2020; Jensen, 2000). Music instruction increases students' brain capacity by enriching the neural structures and establishing new connections in children. All musical engagements activate both hemispheres and involve cerebral cortex activity and memory retrieval mechanisms (Reimer, 2004).
The necessary neural connections for reading are active when a child can keep a steady beat. Our engagement with music can be either passive (listening to background music) or active (music we sing along to). Students learn through play, so musical games and activities that involve active learning, listening, movement and keeping a beat help them along the road to literacy. The neuromusical research began in the 1990s and, through MRI imaging, allowed researchers to watch the human brain function in real time. The way in which the brain processes sound is likened to fireworks.
The sense that gathers the most information is hearing- the auditory processing system in our brains. Sound is a cognitive nutrient. Our brains process the unique musical signature of voices. Everyone has a musical signature.
Teachers should provide opportunities for aurally identifying voice, and beat, learning activities that allow students identify and listen to beat, copying beats and rhythm patterns, moving to the music- all useful activities which strengthen auditory and motor cortices connectivity. Making music through singing increases brain chemicals such as dopamine and reduces stress hormones (cortisol). Students who can maintain their attention and concentrate on a given task have a much better chance of being successful at school.
Teachers can assist students by providing structured and sequential learning activities; ensuring clear enunciation, by saying and pronouncing words and sounds clearly. Distinguishing sounds aurally is a foundational building block. Children need to keep a beat to be able to learn to read.
Circle rhythm games are rich in music and early reading. They assist young children in learning to take turns and socialise. A useful source of circle games for children is my text, The Early Reading and Music Partnership (PETAA, 2023). Songs and musical games from my text have come from far and wide, however I have been heavily influenced by Kodaly action songs (as teachers and children love them) and texts I frequently use in my work with teachers are by Lucinda Geoghegan from the National Youth Choir of Scotland, and Susan Brumfield, from Texas Tech University (see references).
Poor readers have slower neural timing, weaker speech encoding and lower levels of distinction between speech sounds. Through environmental and/ or genetic factors, children who struggle to read have neural processes we can now identify as contributing to that struggle. In the first two years of school- children are learning how to read, after that they are reading to learn. BEAT THE DRUM. Give the class a beat (repeated sound equidistant apart). Pass the steady beat down the line without missing a clap or a student.
Learning sound to symbol correspondences is a complex process. This process describes the brain's ability to look at a symbol and hear the sound the symbol represents. Research identifies a typical development framework in the human brain leading to independent reading: "if a child cannot hear it, they cannot speak it, and if they cannot speak it, they cannot read it" (Collins, 2020 p115). A symbol on a page can be a musical score or a letter of the alphabet. They are both visual representations of sound.
References:
Brumfield, S. First, We Sing! 100 little songs and rhymes for reading, writing and more! Hal Leonard.
Collins, A. (2020). The Music Advantage: how learning music helps your child’s brain and wellbeing. Allen & Unwin.
Geoghegan, L. (1999). Singing Games and rhymes for early years. National Youth Choir of Scotland.
Holmberg, S. (2010). Music teachers’ perceptions: the role of music education in early literacy. Department of Curriculum and instruction. Manhatten Kansas State University. Doc no. 3419577
Jensen, E. (2000). Brain-based learning: the new science of teaching and training. The Brain Store.
Kolb, G. Read with a beat: developing literacy through music and song. The Reading Teacher, 50, 1, 76-79.
Reimer, B. (2004) New brain research on emotion and feeling: Dramatic implications for music education. Arts education policy review, 106, 21-30.
Suggested further reading:
Dr Anita Collins outlines what she learned from leading neuromusical researchers worldwide, during her PhD research. She shares the latest (2020) cognitive research on the potential benefits of learning music and how it supports learning in many areas, in an accessible and easy to read informative text.
This (2019) text explores the relationship between music and the human brain. The author shares his passion for music in all forms. He explains the neuroscience of music, the parts of the brain and their various functions, a must-read for educators seeking accessible knowledge in this rapidly growing field of science.
A mathematician, scientist with a specialisation in the cognitive neuroscience of language and number processing in the human brain, Dehane (2009) describes research on how we process language in the brain and its wonderous capacity to adapt. A text for the enthusiasts…
