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- 15. Are the horizontal lines parallel or do they slope?
- 26. Language
- 29. What do you notice?
- 41. Music Activity
Editor's Notes
- CAT - Computed Tomography (CT) or Computed Axial Tomography (CAT) scanning uses a series of x-rays of the head taken from many different directions. Typically used for quickly viewing brain injuries, CT scanning uses a computer program that performs a numerical integral calculation (the inverse Radon transform) on the measured x-ray series to estimate how much of an x-ray beam is absorbed in a small volume of the brain. Typically the information is presented as cross sections of the brain.[1] In approximation, the denser a material is, the whiter a volume of it will appear on the scan (just as in the more familiar "flat" X-rays). CT scans are primarily used for evaluating swelling from tissue damage in the brain and in assessment of ventricle size. Modern CT scanning can provide reasonably good images in a matter of minutes. [edit]
- (MRI) uses magnetic fields and radio waves to produce high quality two- or three-dimensional images of brain structures without use of ionizing radiation (X-rays) or radioactive tracers. During an MRI, a large cylindrical magnet creates a magnetic field around the head of the patient through which radio waves are sent. When the magnetic field is imposed, each point in space has a unique radio frequency at which the signal is received and transmitted (Preuss). Sensors read the frequencies and a computer uses the information to construct an image. The detection mechanisms are so precise that changes in structures over time can be detected. Using MRI, scientists can create images of both surface and subsurface structures with a high degree of anatomical detail. MRI scans can produce cross sectional images in any direction from top to bottom, side to side, or front to back. The problem with original MRI technology was that while it provides a detailed assessment of the physical appearance, water content, and many kinds of subtle derangements of structure of the brain (such as inflammation or bleeding), it fails to provide information about the metabolism of the brain (i.e. how actively it is functioning) at the time of imaging. A distinction is therefore made between "MRI imaging" and "functional MRI imaging" (fMRI), where MRI provides only structural information on the brain while fMRI yields both structural and functional data. DOESN”T USE XRAYS LIKE CT MRI technology is based on nuclear magnetic resonance in liquids and solids, first reported in 1946.
- The ability to measure brain function (instead of the static anatomy imaged with traditional MRI) gives fMRI its name and is the key scientific reason for its growing popularity Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is a diagnostic imaging technology that uses a strong magnet and radiofrequency waves to produce high quality images of neuroanatomy and disease processes. In an fMRI examination, you will perform a particular task during the imaging process, causing increased metabolic activity in the area of the brain responsible for the task. This activity, which includes expanding blood vessels, chemical changes and the delivery of extra oxygen, can then be recorded on MRI images. The ability to measure brain function (instead of the static anatomy imaged with traditional MRI) gives fMRI its name and is the key scientific reason for its growing popularity, but more pragmatic factors are also important. Chief among these is the availability of more than 13,000 clinical MR scanners, primarily located in North America, Europe and Asia. Of the 3,700 scanners in the United States, 58% are of sufficiently high field strength (1.5 Tesla) to allow imaging of the changes in cerebral vasculature related to neural activity that are the physiological basis for fMRI. The previous state of the art in functional brain imaging, positron emission tomography (PET), offers spatial and temporal resolution that is an order of magnitude poorer than that of fMRI. In addition, there are relatively few PET scanners because of their limited clinical utility and the need for nearby cyclotrons to generate the short-lived injected radioactive tracers used to measure brain activity. Whereas technical, geographic and bureaucratic obstacles often prevented neuroscientists from testing their theories using PET, the wide availability of MR scanners has democratized imaging. Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) relies on the paramagnetic properties of oxygenated and deoxygenated hemoglobin to see images of changing blood flow in the brain associated with neural activity. This allows images to be generated that reflect which brain structures are activated (and how) during performance of different tasks. Most fMRI scanners allow subjects to be presented with different visual images, sounds and touch stimuli, and to make different actions such as pressing a button or moving a joystick. Consequently, fMRI can be used to reveal brain structures and processes associated with perception, thought and action. The resolution of fMRI is about 2-3 millimeters at present, limited by the spatial spread of the hemodynamic response to neural activity. It has largely superseded PET for the study of brain activation patterns. PET, however, retains the significant advantage of being able to identify specific brain receptors (or transporters) associated with particular neurotransmitters through its ability to image radiolabelled receptor "ligands" (receptor ligands are any chemicals that stick to receptors). As well as research on healthy subjects, fMRI is increasingly used for the medical diagnosis of disease. Because fMRI is exquisitely sensitive to blood flow, it is extremely sensitive to early changes in the brain resulting from ischemia (abnormally low blood flow), such as the changes which follow stroke. Early diagnosis of certain types of stroke is increasingly important in neurology, since substances which dissolve blood clots may be used in the first few hours after certain types of stroke occur, but are dangerous to use afterwards. Brain changes seen on fMRI may help to make the decision to treat with these agents. With between 72% and 90% accuracy where chance would achieve 0.8%,[2] fMRI techniques can decide which of a set of known images the subject is viewing.[3] [edit]
- Unlike X-rays and traditional MRI, PET does not produce a picture of the "structure" or anatomy of the brain, but rather it gives an image of brain "function" or physiology. In other words, it can be used to image what the brain is doing. rr Cancer uses glucose at a higher rate and that is how they can use this to check for cancer. Positron Emission Tomography (PET) measures emissions from radioactively labeled metabolically active chemicals that have been injected into the bloodstream. The emission data are computer-processed to produce 2- or 3-dimensional images of the distribution of the chemicals throughout the brain (Nilsson 57). The positron emitting radioisotopes used are produced by a cyclotron, and chemicals are labelled with these radioactive atoms. The labeled compound, called a radiotracer, is injected into the bloodstream and eventually makes its way to the brain. Sensors in the PET scanner detect the radioactivity as the compound accumulates in various regions of the brain. A computer uses the data gathered by the sensors to create multicolored 2- or 3-dimensional images that show where the compound acts in the brain. Especially useful are a wide array of ligands used to map different aspects of neurotransmitter activity, with by far the most commonly used PET tracer being a labeled form of glucose (see FDG). The greatest benefit of PET scanning is that different compounds can show blood flow and oxygen and glucose metabolism in the tissues of the working brain. These measurements reflect the amount of brain activity in the various regions of the brain and allow us to learn more about how the brain works. PET scans were superior to all other metabolic imaging methods in terms of resolution and speed of completion (as little as 30 seconds), when they first became available. The improved resolution permitted better study to be made as to the area of the brain activated by a particular task. The biggest drawback of PET scanning is that because the radioactivity decays rapidly, it is limited to monitoring short tasks (Nilsson 60). Before fMRI technology came online, PET scanning was the preferred method of functional (as opposed to structural) brain imaging, and it still continues to make large contributions to neuroscience. PET scanning is also used for diagnosis of brain disease, most notably because brain tumors, strokes, and neuron-damaging diseases which cause dementia (such as Alzheimer's disease) all cause great changes in brain metabolism, which in turn causes easily detectable changes in PET scans. PET is probably most useful in early cases of certain dementias (with classic examples being Alzheimer's disease and Pick's disease) where the early damage is too diffuse and makes too little difference in brain volume and gross structure to change CT and standard MRI images enough to be able to reliably differentiate it from the "normal" range of cortical atrophy which occurs with aging (in many but not all) persons, and which does not cause clinical dementia. [edit]
- SPECT looks at blood flow and activity patterns. SPECT is different than CAT scans and MRIs, those are anatomy scans. They show what the brain actually, physically looks like. SPECT looks at how the brain functions. SPECT stands for single photon emission computed tomography. It is a nuclear medicine study that uses radioisotopes as tracking devices to look at living brain tissue. The radiation exposure from one SPECT study is 1/3th the level of radiation from an abdominal CAT scans, a very common procedure in medicine. SPECT gives a three dimensional view of brain activity. Basically, SPECT measures three things: * areas of the brain that work well, * areas of the brain that are low in activity and * areas of the brain that are high in activity. Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT) is similar to PET and uses gamma ray emitting radioisotopes and a gamma camera to record data that a computer uses to construct two- or three-dimensional images of active brain regions (Ball). SPECT relies on an injection of radioactive tracer, which is rapidly taken up by the brain but does not redistribute. Uptake of SPECT agent is nearly 100% complete within 30 – 60s, reflecting cerebral blood flow (CBF) at the time of injection. These properties of SPECT make it particularly well suited for epilepsy imaging, which is usually made difficult by problems with patient movement and variable seizure types. SPECT provides a "snapshot" of cerebral blood flow since scans can be acquired after seizure termination (so long as the radioactive tracer was injected at the time of the seizure). A significant limitation of SPECT is its poor resolution (about 1 cm) compared to that of MRI. Like PET, SPECT also can be used to differentiate different kinds of disease process which produce dementia, and it is increasingly used for this purpose. Neuro-PET has a disadvantage of requiring use of a tracers with half-lives of at most 110 minutes, such as FDG. These must be made in a cyclotron, and are expensive or even unavailable if necessary transport times are prolonged more than a few half-lives. SPECT, however, is able to make use of tracers with much longer half-lives, such as technetium-99m, and as a result, is far more widely available. Picture: Spect scans of the author's brain taken at Amen Clinic in Newport Beach, California. In the four surface views on the right, the less active regions of the brain show up as holes or dents. The scans on the left show the most active 15 percent of the brain in red and white. Photo: Daniel Amen
- In the first image, the highest activity is in the sensorimotor cortex, in the second image in the amygdala (top arrow) and brainstem (bottom arrow), and in the third image in the hippocampus (top arrow) and cerebellar vermis (lower arrow). At one month a good deal of the infant brain’s activity is in the area of the brain stem and occipital lobes By 8 months, most parts of the brain are active. It is especially interesting to not that the prefrontal lobe (which is the imagining, planning and rehearsal part of the brain, is quite active. The area is also involved in connecting to the limbic system to development he volume control to regulate emotions. These types of scans are demonstrating that all of this brain development is occurring much earlier than we first thought.
- Constructed from MRI scans of healthy children and teens, the time-lapse "movie", from which the above images were extracted, compresses 15 years of brain development (ages 5 - 20) into just a few seconds. Red indicates more gray matter, blue less gray matter. Gray matter wanes in a back-to-front wave as the brain matures and neural connections are pruned. Areas performing more basic functions mature earlier; areas for higher order functions mature later. The prefrontal cortex, which handles reasoning and other "executive" functions, emerged late in evolution and is among the last to mature. Studies in twins are showing that development of such late-maturing areas is less influenced by heredity than areas that mature earlier. (Source: Paul Thompson, Ph.D., UCLA Laboratory of Neuroimaging)
- “ while we are perceiving a unified scene, the brain is dissecting the view into many parts, each of which triggers a different set of neurons called a visual map. One map responds to color and form, another only to motion. There are at least five such maps in the visual system alone, and recent work is showing that other senses are similarly encoded in the brain” New research shows that everyone sees a different palette. The ability to see color begins with cells in the back of the eyeball called cones. Two red cone subtypes have been found. People with one type see red differently from those with the second. That’s why people argue about adjusting the color on the RV set.” US New and World Report
- Implications for application: Regular eye exams, starting as early as two weeks of age are advised. Surgeons now remove congenital cataracts as early in infancy as possible. If they wait until children are older the neural connections between the eyes and the brain will fail to develop and they’ll never be able to see - two years old is too late. There is no need to buy high-contrast black and white toys to stimulate vision. Do visual activity on video brain sees what it looks for.
- The act of being touched increases production of a specific hormone within the brain, Nerve Growth Factor (NGF), which activates greater nervous system development. (smart moves pg 39, 40)
- If these nerve endings are not activated it can lead to impaired muscular movements, curtailed sensory intake, and a variety of emotional disturbances and learning defects Implications for application children need positive touch as much as they need vitamins - they need a steady diet of being hugged, stroked, held and snuggled. For children who are sensitive to touch refer to the work of Jean Ayers She discovered a link between touch sensitivity (inability to tolerate touch) and learning disorders in children. Her highly successful program for learning disorders deals with waking up the sensory system by appropriately activating all the touch receptors. She uses touch, pressure, fine brushes and ball rolled across the skin surface, especially on the arms, legs and back, all integrated with movement” Sensory defensive or sensory integration
- This original Artwork was done by a SPD parent, Melissa Zacherl. Copyright 2004 by Melissa Zacherl. Used by permission.
- Infants - University of Miami study on preemies massaged 15 minutes 3 X a day compared to regular nursery treatment gained weight 47% faster than control group processed food more efficiently, more alert and aware of surroundings and sleep deeper and more resortative Lowered stress hormone levels; cried less and showed greater improvement in measure of emotionality, sociability and soothability Rocking did not do much for the babies Adults Office workers who received a 15 minute massage began emitting higher levels of brain waves associated with alertness. After their massage, the workers executed a math test in 1/2 their previous time with 1/2 the errors Give self a massage
- It takes up to two years for cells in the cerebellum, which controls posture and movement, to form functional systems Motor development happens gradually from large, global movements to the fine muscle control.
- Map of sensory and motor cortex
- Implications for Application It is essential to the learning process to allow children to explore every aspect of movement and balance in their environment, whether walking on a curb, climbing a tree, or jumping on furniture Physical exercise is needed to stimulate the growth of developing brains and prevent the deterioration of older brains In a study of more than 500 Canadian children, students who spent an extra hour each day in gym class performed notably better on exams than less active children. Similarly, men and women in their 50’s and 60’s put on a four month aerobic training program of regular brisk walking increased their performance on mental tests
- Limit the use of baby carrying seats As a baby’s repertoire of movements grows, each development places the sensory apparatus, especially the ears, mouth, hands, nose and eyes in an increasingly advantageous place for environmental input The vestibular system is tied to the core muscles of the abdomen and back and it is these muscles that first work to lift the head. As neck muscles strengthen, the child is able to lift the head to hear the world with two ears and start to see it with two eyes. Being held upright on the mother’s back or front, as well as lying on the ground, allows the baby to actively work and strengthen its neck muscles. Baby seats keep baby at 45 degree angle that inhibits active muscular movements either of the neck or core muscles. Even though the baby’s eyes are forward, because movement is inhibited the baby is not as actively developing vision Encourage crawling and other cross lateral movements; discourage baby walkers We have know for years that children who miss the vitally important crawling stage may exhibit learning difficulties later on (although many of these kids find other ways to crawl in play later) Cross lateral movements, like a baby’s crawling activate both hemispheres in a balanced way. These activities work both sides of the body evolve and involve coordinated movements of both eyes, both ears, both hands and feet are being used equally, the corpus collosum orchestrating these processes between the two hemispheres becomes more fully developed. Because both hemispheres and all four lobes are activated, cognitive function is heightened and ease of learning increases Do cross lateral marching
- There is an enormous activity going on in infant and toddler brains as language is learned Hearing processed in temporal lobe Seeing - occipital Speaking - temporal and motor area of frontal Planning what to ay and generating works - prefrontal
- The window of opportunity for language is in-utero to 10 years attempts to communicate through gestures sounds and eventually words are some of the prominent milestones for the child’s first two years of life.
- The sound of words builds up neural circuitry that then can absorb more words One study found that when mothers frequently spoke to their infants, their children learned almost 300 more words by age two than did their peers whose mothers rarely spoke to them Study suggested that mere exposure to language such as listening to the television or to adults talking amongst themselves provided little benefit. Rather infants need to interact directly with other human beings to hear people talk to them about what they are seeing and experiencing in order for their brains to develop optimal language skills
- What is not happening in the brain.
- You tube 1: 4 year old American, whose first language is English, singing a Mandarin song. You Tube 2: The readers are born in the USa and English is their primary language but they aren't too bad at reading and speaking Mandarin Chinese either!
- Brain expert Dr. Patricia Kuhl, co-director of the Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences at the University of Washington, talks about the innate learning ability of infants and children. Internationally recognized for her research on early language and brain development, Dr. Kuhl focuses on language and social interaction in the learning process. 38:20-45:00 maderine chinese experiment 53:16-56:34 hearing and seeing language experiement Implications If a child is hearing impaired the normal progression of language development is sidetracked It is crucial to test for hearing early in a child's life Treat ear infections promptly Talk to a child a lot Don’t be embarrassed to talk parentese to children Exaggerated the way you pronounce words and spoke brightly, about an octave higher in pitch than in usual adult speech. High pitch got babies attention. After hearing and watching mothers form hyper articulated vowel sounds, babies learned how to form similar vowel sounds by the time they were about 20 weeks. Read aloud to young children regularly Young children learn through repetition; repeat favorite stories, poems and phrase's If you want them to master a 2nd language introduce by age 10 Sign language has been shown to improve language skills
- Few concert-level performers begin playing later than 10 Like other circuits formed early in life, the ones for music endure, much like the “muscle memory” for riding a bicycle” Learn to play a guitar as a child and pick it up years later and your fingers will still remember how to play. You tube; 1. 4yo music prodigy Shuan Hern Lee Plays Waltz by Beethoven. Dad Yoon Sen Lee has been teaching him since he was 2 & half yo. He plays violin as well 2. Ehan on Jay Leno start on 4:45 for music. Him talking about starting out and cancerts 2:04
- 76-Year-Old in the Band (reprinted with permission of The Associated Press) Eugene, Ore. Through the blare of rowdy kids tuning their instruments, the 76-year-old man with regal white hair, a black cane, and a tarnished French horn slowly makes his way to his seat in the brass section. Retired pipe fitter John Suta is in his third year with the Roosevelt Middle School band. The eight-graders he plays with no longer see him as an oddity, but as an inspiration who plays with a passion for music and thick fingers gnarled by a lifetime of hard work. "He is exactly like a middle school band player, even though he is older," said 13-year-old Anna Richardson. "Without music I would just as soon be dead," Suta said, summing up a philosophy that through the years has led him to take up opera, the piano, and the harmonica. And it was what drove him to walk into the middle school's beginning band class and ask for a chance to learn how to play a horn he had always loved. Without hesitating, the teacher told him, "Take a seat." Since then, Suta has advanced from "Mary Had a Little Lamb" to Beethoven, from sixth-grade to eighth-grade band. Josh Mack took over leadership of the band program this year and inherited Suta. "I just knew he had to be there," Mack said. Suta's love for music goes back to his childhood in Aurora, Ill., when his mother would sing songs in her native Hungarian. He grew up studying singin with an accompanist for the Chicago Opera and speaking German, Hungarian, Romanian, and Italian in his immigrant neighborhood. After World War II, he studied to become an opera singer, but soon discovered his love for music wasn't enough to pay the bills, so he raised two sons on a pipe fitter's wages. But music never left Suta's life. After he retired, he teamed with a friend on piano and sang at weddings, picnics, and senior centers. And on his own he even sang the national anthem at a few University of Oregon basketball games. Through the years, he always remembered the days when his brother and a friend would go house to house at Christmas, playing carols on a violin and French horn. Those memories came flooding back four years ago when he spotted an old French horn in a Salvation Army store. "I had that horn in my ear," Suta said. "I saw the tag. It said 85 bucks. I said to the lady, 'What's your best price? I don't have 85 bucks in my budget. Will you go for $75?' She said, 'Yes.'" He tried a few adult classes to learn the instrument but they were all too advanced. That's what led him to Roosevelt. Despite heart trouble and nerve damage in his legs that make it difficult to walk, Suta rarely misses practice and is at every concert. The young horn players look to him for guidance and, in turn, they help him. About a year ago, he stumbled in the small cluttered house where he lives alone, falling on his French horn and crushing the bell. He dropped the instrument off at a local music store, not knowing how he would afford to pay for the repairs. When Suta returned to the store the next day, the horn was fixed--the Roosevelt Middle School band members had pitched in to pay for the work. "It almost knocked me over," Suta said, crying. "You hear about all the things youngsters do, all this and that. But you don't hear [enough about] the beauty of children." Study at University of California-Irvine: A specific types of music training can enhance certain intellectual skills. The study took seventy-eight three and four year olds form working -class families and divided them into four groups. One group had six months of private piano lessons, another got computer lessons, a third got singing lessons and the fourth no training. Unlike the kids who learned piano, those given singing lessons were taught little about musical concepts. By the end of the study, the piano students scored 34% higher than the others on a test of spatial-temporal reasoning as shown in their ability to work mazes, draw geometric figures and copy patterns of two-color blocks. They suspect that this is also strengheens circuits used for mathematical reasoning. 4/97 .
- Mozart was composing at age 3, he wrote down whole compositions without changing a note! Francis Rauscher and Gordon Shaw at the U of CA Irvine have done numerous studies on the Mozart Effect Their studies have found that ADULTS listening to Mozart can improve spatial-temporal reasoning. Although the effect is short term, the team concluded that the relationship between music and spatial reasoning was so strong that simply listening to music can make a difference. Mozart’s music may warm up the brain suggested Shaw. We suspect that complex music facilitates certain complex neuronal patterns involved in high brain activities like math and chess 2. Alfred Tomatis, MD a French physician famous for his wrok on sound, found that tapes of Mozart played for premature babies (with the low frequency sounds filtered out) has a positive effect on their pulse rate and breathing. Campbell.pg. 22
- Adapted from "Music of the Hemispheres," by Mark Jude Tramo; Science, Jan. 2001 | By Patterson Clark, The Washington Post; U.S. Senate And Library Of Congress Photos - January 22, 2007 Enlisting the Whole Brain Different aspects of music activate different regions and can act as a key to unlock memory Point: The College Board, sponsor of the SAT tests, reports that students who’ve studied music score higher than average on both the verbal and math parts of the test. “on some level language and music lay claim to separate domains, but there are apparently shared cerebral circuits as well. Language and music are both forms of communication that rely on highly organized variations in sound pitches, stress and rhythm”
- He may have won top regional and state science-fair honors, but probably at least some of his friends aren't talking to him. Sixteen-year-old David Merrill, a student at Nansemond River High School in Suffolk, Va., thought that the loud sounds of hard-rock music must have a bad effect on its devoted fans and came up with a way to test that damage. Merrill got 72 mice and divided them into three groups: one to test a mouse's response to hard rock, another to the music of Mozart and a control group that wouldn't listen to any music at all, rock or classical. The young vivisectionist got all the mice accustomed to living in aquariums in his basement, then started playing music 10 hours a day. Merrill put each mouse through a maze three times a week that originally had taken the mice an average of 10 minutes to complete. Over time, the 24 control-group mice managed to cut about 5 minutes from their maze-completion time. The Mozart-listening mice cut their time back 8-and-a-half minutes. But the hard-rock mice added 20 minutes to their time, making their average maze-running time 300 percent more than their original average. Need we say more? Well maybe we do. Merrill told the Associated Press that he'd attempted the experiment the year before, allowing mice in the different groups to live together. "I had to cut my project short because all the hard-rock mice killed each other," Merrill said. "None of the classical mice did that." Music | Mice and Music Experiment Washington Times, 29 July 97, page C3
- No evidence that just listening to music will make kids smarter Do sing songs to and with children If a child shows any musical aptitude or interest get an instrument into her hands early Play structured, melodic music music with a 60 second beat per minute induces alpha waves - relaxed alertness (Paccelbel’s Cannon in D Do mice succumb to Mozart? March 25, 2006 Special to World Science The idea is at least as controversial today as it was when an attention-grabbing 1993 study suggested it: listening to Mozart makes you smarter, at least temporarily. Some researchers say the notion is outright debunked by now, though that hasn’t shut down a booming industry in Mozart CDs marketed as brain-boosters. Into this mess, a set of even more startling findings has crashed through the door. Few if any people would claim rodents appreciate classical music, yet studies from three laboratories have found this much: Mozart does something for them. The research found that a Mozart sonata improves maze performance in rats and mice. Some findings also pointed to accompanying biochemical changes. The studies have given a confidence boost to longtime proponents of the so-called “Mozart effect,” who say the agreement of three “independent” studies starts to approach something that could be called rock-solid evidence. But with skeptics continuing to dispute the results, the only certainty is that the debate isn’t over. Doubters point out that among other problems, rats and mice can’t even hear much of Mozart’s music. The pitches are too low for them. “It’s important to approach these studies with a critical eye and not be dazzled by the big claims being made,” wrote Harvard University’s Christopher Chabris in an email. The 1993 study with humans reported that listening to 10 minutes of Mozart boosted college students’ “spatial reasoning” abilities on tests for the next 10 to 15 minutes. Attempts to replicate the finding gave mixed results. Chabris analyzed 16 studies and in 1999 concluded there was no “Mozart effect,” except possibly an improvement on one test involving ability to transform visual images, with even that result falling short of statistical significance. Chabris attributed any effect to “enjoyment arousal” in his analysis, published in the Aug. 26, 1999 issue of Nature, the same research journal that published the original finding. His work led to responses and counter-responses, along with contentions that the “Mozart effect” might last longer than originally reported. As the debate raged, seeds of an even stranger finding had begun to sprout. In the July 1998 issue of the journal Neurological Research, Frances Rauscher of the University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh, and colleagues reported a study in which rats were exposed to Mozart while in the womb and for 60 days after birth. The rats completed a maze faster and with fewer errors than rats exposed instead to simpler music, silence, or a static-like noise, according to Rauscher, who had led the original study in humans. Chabris and others disputed that report, too. But two more studies with similar results have appeared in scientific journals in recent months: one in the December 2005 Neurological Research and the other in the latest issue of Behavioral Brain Research, dated May 15. Both were designed to replicate Rauscher’s findings, with some key differences. The first omitted the in-uterus music exposure. The second studied mice instead of rats. Both found that the Mozart-exposed rodents made fewer errors on mazes than others, though only the first study found that they also completed the mazes faster. “ Continuous exposure to music during the perinatal [before-and-after birth] period enhances learning performance in mice as adults,” concluded the authors of the second, Sachiko Chikahisa and colleagues at Tokushima University in Tokushima, Japan. They found the improvement was associated in increased levels of a molecule associated with “neural plasticity”—a sort of flexibility in brain circuit wiring, believed to facilitate learning. The molecule, a protein, is called TrkB. Thus, “at this time I would say there are two independent replications of my original” finding, wrote Rauscher in an email. But Kenneth M. Steele of Appalachian State University in Boone, N.C., a past critic of Mozart-effect findings, said the new studies also appear flawed. He said Chikahisa’s paper exhibits some wrong statistical techniques and some of the numbers presented suggest possible selective use of data. Also, the data show the Mozart mice were on average “a little heavier than the other groups. This may indicate greater maturity,” Steele wrote in an email. Moreover, “this study suffers from the same flaw as the Rauscher et al. study: lack of random assignment. The mothers were randomly assigned to a group. But the assignment of the offspring was determined by their mother.” While Steele said he hadn’t yet read the study in Neurological Research in full, he suggested its authors might not have been objective, having supported the Mozart effect previously. A major problem, he said, is that rats can’t even hear most of the notes in the Mozart music played in the studies, and mice may hear none of them. Both animals’ hearing range only covers much higher pitches than human hearing does. Mice and rats are also born deaf, Steele added. But Chikahisa and colleagues argued that mice can hear some of the higher pitches in the music. Also, they wrote, “there are some studies that music influences behavior, brain function, immunity and blood pressure in rodents.” Tokushima University’s Hiroyoshi Sei, one of the co-authors, said in an interview that mice might feel vibrations of music without hearing notes. Peter Aoun and colleagues at the MIND Institute of Costa Mesa, Calif., authors of the Neurological Research study, wrote that rodents needn’t enjoy the music for it to have an effect. Some researchers have argued that certain music may produce benefits simply by stimulating natural patterns of brain activity. Sei said that to clarify such questions, he’s testing the effect of music on totally deaf mice. He’s not sure, he added, what about the music may have influenced the rodents. But “it definitely something affects something in their behavior,” he said.
- Play a charged, high energy piece of music (hooked on classics 2 a night at the opera) Have people notice energy level Have them stand and close their eyes. They imagine they are conductor of orchestra and have them conduct using just left elbow, right elb oe etc. end with whole body conducting Ask them to notice energy level again, has it gone up? Brain and body are in sync with the music. Aerobic exercise increased oxygen and blood flow to the brain. Conductors have one of the longest life expectancies! Listen to hard rock and classical and draw or notice in body.