Let's begin

Egy tanulságos kis videó arról, hogy miért éri meg hangszeren játszani - kiválóan fejleszti a memóriát, ami ugye a nyelvtanulás alapja is. 

When you listen to music, multiple areas of your brain become engaged and active. But when you actually play an instrument, that activity becomes more like a full-body brain workout. What’s going on? Anita Collins explains the fireworks that go off in musicians’ brains when they play, and examines some of the long-term positive effects of this mental workout.





http://ed.ted.com/lessons/how-playing-an-instrument-benefits-your-brain-anita-collins#discussion


Think:


Neuroscientists get excited about watching the brain functions of musicians because?
a. Musicians use different parts of their brain to complete tasks
b. Musicians use more of their brain to complete tasks
c. Musicians use more parts of their brain simultaneously to complete tasks
d. Musicians use their brains surprisingly when completing tasks

Learning a musical instrument engages which different areas of the brain at the same time?
a. Visual, motor and cerebral cortices
b. Auditory, motor and visual cortices
c. Motor, cerebral and auditory cortices
d. Cerebral, motor and fine motor cortices

The bridge between the two brain hemispheres is called?
a. Corpum callum
b. Coopco coolism
c. Capum cullim
d. Corpus callosum

Learning a musical instrument teaches your brain how to create, ______ and retrieve memories more effectively?
a. Store
b. Find
c. Make
d. Erase

Executive function is a series of interlinked tasks that includes planning, strategizing, and attention to ________.
a. Habits
b. Facts
c. Features
d. Detail

Executive function is a complex combination of brain functions that requires analysis of both the cognitive and emotional aspects of a problem or situation. What type of complex problems of situations could you think of that would use your executive function capabilities?
Your answer:


Learning a musical instrument has been found to assist in our memory abilities. How does your capacity to remember facts, ideas, things you have seen and heard, impact on your ability to learn?
Your answer:


“Playing music is the brain’s equivalent of a full-body workout.” What could be some of the short and long term effects of keeping your brain in tip-top physical shape?
Your answer:

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Dig deeper -  Additional Resources for you to Explore
The connections between brain research and music have been ongoing for the past two decades, but there are actually a lot of different areas within the research, and it is easy to confuse them.

Firstly there is the area of music and the brain, which is about how we process music in our brains. Daniel Levitin wrote a great book called This is Your Brain on Music (http://daniellevitin.com/publicpage/books/this-is-your-brain-on-music/) which is all about how we process music.

Then there is the area of music therapy and the brain, which is about how we can use music to assist people who have had brain injuries, physical trauma or have been born with a disability, to improve their physical and cognitive function. It is also being used extensively with people who are suffering from dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. Oliver Sacks wrote a great book called Musicophillia (http://musicophilia.com) and Norman Doige has a book on brain plasticity called The Brain that Changes itself (http://www.normandoidge.com/normandoidge.com/MAIN.html) that talks about the power of music therapy.

Then there is the area of music education and the brain, which is about how music learning can impact on general brain development in children and adults. In the research it is called music training and is generally understood to be the formal and sequential learning of music, through playing music as well as appreciating and listening to it. There are a number of research institutes that are working in this part of the field, the Dana Foundation (http://www.dana.org), the BRAMS Institute (http://www.brams.org/en/) and the Music, Mind and Wellbeing Institute (http://cmmw.unimelb.edu.au).

Keeping up with the research is tricky if you are not a neuroscientists. Here is a resource that can keep you up to date with the research (https://www.facebook.com/BiggerBetterBrainsProject)

Sometimes it is hard to explain all of this research to someone else so here is a short video you can share with parents, teachers and students about how music education can enhance brain development (this link should be available in the next two weeks or so)

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Discussion:

Neuroscientists have found that learning a musical instrument helps our your brains to function more effectively. But is it just that smarter people are drawn to playing musical instruments, rather than it be learning music that changes our brain?