This document summarizes research on the effects of music exposure at different stages of human development. It discusses studies that found music exposure during prenatal development positively influences neonatal behavior. Infants were found to learn lyrics more easily when paired with consistent melodies. Studies also showed music improves cognitive, physical and social development in children. Adolescents who took music courses achieved better academic performance. Musical training in adulthood was linked to better auditory processing and cognitive abilities related to speech perception. The document concludes that music exposure has overall positive implications across the human lifespan.

1. Music Exposure: Influence
in Different Stages of
Human Life
Alejandra M. De Jesús Soto
RISE Program
BIOL 3095 - Scientific Literature

2. Introduction:
Does music produce some effect in humans?
• Music has been…
…a fundamental part of human evolution
…included in cultures around the world
(universal experience)
• Music affects:
cognitive area
learning development
physical and other human skills
• Sounds had a greater impact on human
conscience.

3. Introduction:
Does music produce some effect in humans?
• Scientific research related to music exposure and
their implications in the subjects studied at
different stages of human development.
Adolescence (12-21)
Pre-natal
Youth (20-30)
Infancy (1-4)
adulthood (30-60)
Childhood (5-11) Old age (60+)
• Each study uses a particular type of music

4. Concepts:
Music
Tones or sounds
employed
Melody (single
lines)
Harmony
(multiple lines)
Retrieved from http://www.piano-play-it.com/piano-staff.html
Sounded or to be sounded by one or
more voices or instruments (or both)

5. Concepts:
• Cognitive
Refers to the act or process of
knowing, perceiving, remembering,
and others.
Is related to the mental processes
of perception, memory, judgment,
and reasoning.
Retrieved from
http://www.utexas.edu/academic/ctl/assessment
/iar/students/plan/objectives/bloom.php

6. Prenatal:
(Arya et al. 2012)
• Humans can be influenced by music since fetal stage.
• Scientific evidence / Fetus skills: responds to external stimuli
and ability to listen.
• Fetal exposure to music positively affects neonatal behavior.

7. Pre-natal:
(Arya et al. 2012)
339 primigravida mothers
India
• The fetus was not
exposed to music.
Two days after
birth, the baby
was evaluated
using Brazelton
Neonatal
Behavioral
Assessment
Scale (BNBAS).
Control group
• Fetus was exposed
to a Garbh
Sanskar’s cassette
during the first half of
pregnancy, 173
hours of music)
Experimental group
• Based on the baby’s
ability to communicate
through body
movements, facial
gestures, types of
crying and social cues
• Tests were performed
to measure:
habituation,
orientation, motor,
performance, range of
state, regulation of
state, autonomic
stability and reflexes.

8. Pre-natal:
(Arya et al. 2012)
• Results:
Newborns who were exposed to music performed better on tests,
except the one corresponding to measure reflexes (equal for both
groups). The greatest effect was in the orientation of the child, a factor
which should make his birth less traumatic
• It is possible to carry out further research using the results of
this study.
• The evidence on the behavior of the newborn in relation to
intrauterine and perinatal events experience may influence the
organization of the newborn’s Central Nervous System.

9. Infants:
(Thiessen & Saffran 2009)
• Cognitive abilities allow them to process some of the
information given.
• Complexity of environment results confusing at this
stage.
It is believed that the teaching method for infants should be
one simplified (using less information, simplified input).

10. Infants:
(Thiessen & Saffran 2009)
Complex stimulus
(2 ways)
• Should learn in the same
manner as the adult: using
complex stimuli.
 Method: relationship of two
concepts (melody and lyrics).
Providing
additional
redundant cues
Supporting infants'
attention.
• Melody facilitates the lyrics
learning (repetitive signals),
and lyric facilitates the melody
learning.

11. Infants:
(Thiessen & Saffran 2009)
• In two experiments:
 Infants listened to music in which melodic and lyrical structure
predicted each other (forty and thirty infants between 6.5 and 8.0
months old)
They heard melodies or lyrics presented alone.
The results
Indicate that the presence of melody facilitates infants’ learning
Infants learned easily the lyrics when it was paired with a consistent melody than
when they were presented alone.
 Infants learned better the melody when it was paired with consistent lyrics.

12. Children:
(Mattar 2013)
• Early ages are essential to musical growth.
• From 4 to 6 years children have great sensitivity (differentiate
between bass and treble).
• Many teachers use music as a learning method.
Teaching through song and auditory stimuli helps the student during
learning process.
• Even commercially, different educative attachments based on
music are sold (alphabet and multiplication tables).
• Educators such as Maria Montessori and Jean Piaget regarded
music as an important tool in education.

13. Children:
(Mattar 2013)
• A study shows the impact of music in social, cognitive and
physical activities of 42 kindergarten students (Jordan).
Same
curriculum.
• Not exposed to
any kind of music
Control group
The preschool
and kindergarten
children's
performance
scale. (Al-Batch,
2001)
• Exposed to Mozart’s
music.
Experimental group
Consists of fifty
behavioral aspects,
which cover ten subareas, within three
main domains of
growth; cognitive,
physical and social.

14. Children:
(Mattar 2013)
• Results:
The experimental group showed higher capacity than the control group.
Mozart’s music included in the first years of school directly affects the
social, cognitive and physical development of them.
Focus student
attention
Relax
(reduce impulsiveness)
Listen to others
Understand their
emotions
Slow the listener’s
heart
Activate thinking
(helps to retain information
This study confirms importance of music in learning methods.
The music is an important tool in education. This reduces stress and
facilitates the development of the child

15. Adolescence:
(Cabanac 2013)
• Relationship between musical education and academic
performance.
• Music is related to cognitive skills.
Music helps us to overcome stress due to cognitive dissonance
(accumulate more knowledge and facilitate learning).

16. Adolescence:
(Cabanac 2013)
• High school students (third year-196; fourth year-184; senior
class 180) of the Honor’s program, between the ages of 14 and
17.
• Investigators evaluated the academic achievement of the
subjects taking music courses and those students who choose
another elective.
• Results confirm that…
Students taking music courses achieved better academic grades in all
subjects.
Learning of students taking courses in music is better. They have better
academic achievement in their other subjects.

17. Adulthood:
(Parbery-Clark 2011)
• Physical and mental conditions arise during human aging
Hearing loss (difficult understanding speech in noise).
• In a study conducted in North Western University at Illinois in
United States, the implications of cognitive abilities and hearing
speech in noise were analyzed.

18. Adulthood:
(Parbery-Clark 2011)
Thirty seven subjects
(45 to 65) with normal
hearing, English
speakers and did not
have neurological or
learning disorders
19 – musicians
18 – not musicians
Different tests that
measured the
auditory working
memory, words and
speech perception
in noise.
• Hearing in Noise
Test
• Quick Speech-inNoise Test
• Words in Noise
Test

19. Adulthood:
(Parbery-Clark 2011)
• Results
 Auditory-perceptual and cognitive (memory) measures reveal that
musicians showed greater competition than non-musicians.
It has been found that older adults with musical training are better
equipped to handle auditory perceptual needs in real-world situations.
It is necessary to continue to investigate the impact of musical training
in aging processes.
Researchers expressed that musical training during developmental
years can reduce the impact of hearing loss related with age.

20. Conclusion:
• Music has a positive implication at all stages of human life,
specifically in the areas of development, behavior and learning.
• Music has been part of human evolution and it is important that
we take advantage of its beneficial aspects.
• It is also important to conduct further studies about music and
its effects, mainly long-term investigation.

21. References:
Arya R, Chansoria M, Konanki R, & Tiwari DK. 2012. Maternal music exposure during pregnancy influences
neonatal behavior: an open-label randomized controlled trial. International Journal Of Pediatrics. 2012: 901812.
[cited on 2013 October 2]. Available from: http://web.ebscohost.com.uprcdb.cayey
upr.edu:2048/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=457a8ec4-6ca7-4f7f-81d32446ce1d8781%4
0sessionmgr111&vid=10&hid=114
Cabanac A, Perlovsky L, Bonniot Cabanac MC, Cabanac M. 2013. Music and academic performance. Behavioral
Brain Research. 256: 257-260. [cited on 2013 October 2]. Available from:
http://www.sciencedirect.com.uprcdb.cayey.pr.edu:2048/science/article/pii/S016643281005093?np=y
Collins English Dictionary [Internet]. [2009]. 10th Edition. HarperCollins Publishers; [cited on 2013 November 1].
Available from: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/MUSIC

22. References:
Mattar J. 2013. The effect of Mozart’s music on child development in a Jordanian Kindergarten. Education.
133(3): 370-377. [cited on 2013 September 30]. Available from:
http://web.ebscohost.com.uprcdb.cayey.upr.edu:2048/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=457a8ec4-6ca7-4f7f-81d32446ce1d8781%40sessionmgr111&vid=6&hid=28
Parbery-Clark A, Strait DL, Anderson S, Hittner E, Kraus N. 2011. Musical Experience and the Aging Auditory
System: Implications for Cognitive Abilities and Hearing Speech in Noise. Plos one. 6(5): e180182. [cited on 2013
September 30]. Available from:
http://web.ebscohost.com.uprcdb.cayey.upr.edu:2048/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=457a8ec4-6ca7-4f7f-81d32446ce1d8781%40sessionmgr111&vid=8&hid=28
Thiessen ED, Saffran JR. 2009. How the melody facilitates the message and vice versa in infant learning
and memory. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. 1169: 225-233. [cited on 2013 October 2].
Available from:
http://web.ebscohost.com.uprcdb.cayey.upr.edu:2048/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=a7f1233c-6cbf-48c08126-9329d79ccc05%40sessionmgr112&vid=6&hid=113