Ellen Winner

Musical Training Shapes Structural Brain Development

The human brain has the remarkable capacity to alter in response to environmental demands. Training-induced structural brain changes have been demonstrated in the healthy adult human brain. However, no study has yet directly related structural brain changes to behavioral changes in the developing brain, addressing the question of whether structural brain differences seen in adults (comparing experts with matched controls) are a product of “nature” (via biological brain predispositions) or “nurture” (via early training). Long-term instrumental music training is an intense, multisensory, and motor experience and offers an ideal opportunity to study structural brain plasticity in the developing brain in correlation with behavioral changes induced by training. Here we demonstrate structural brain changes after only 15 months of musical training in early childhood, which were correlated with improvements in musically relevant motor and auditory skills. These findings shed light on brain plasticity and suggest that structural brain differences in adult experts (whether musicians or experts in other areas) are likely due to training-induced brain plasticity.

Effects of Music Training on the Child's Brain and Cognitive Development

Abstract: Research has revealed structural and functional differences in the brains of adult instrumental musicians compared to those of matched nonmusician controls, with intensity/duration of instrumental training and practice being important predictors of these differences. Nevertheless, the differential contributions of nature and nurture to these differences are not yet clear. The musician‐nonmusician comparison is an ideal model for examining whether and, if so, where such functional and structural brain plasticity occurs, because musicians acquire and continuously practice a variety of complex motor, auditory, and multimodal skills (e.g., translating visually perceived musical symbols into motor commands while simultaneously monitoring instrumental output and receiving multisensory feedback). Research has also demonstrated that music training in children results in long‐term enhancement of visual‐spatial, verbal, and mathematical performance. However, the underlying neural bases of such enhancements and whether the intensity and duration of instrumental training or other factors, such as extracurricular activities, attention, motivation, or instructional methods can contribute to or predict these enhancements are yet unknown. Here we report the initial results from our studies examining the brain and cognitive effects of instrumental music training on young children in a longitudinal study and a cross‐sectional comparison in older children. Further, we present a comparison of the results in these childrens studies with observations from our cross‐sectional studies with adults.

The point of words : children's understanding of metaphor and irony

Metaphor and Irony in Communication Philosophical and Linguistic Approaches to Metaphor and Irony Measures of Metaphor Constraints on Metaphor Comprehension Early Metaphors in Spontaneous Speech Metaphor and Cognition How Children Misunderstand Irony Constraints on Irony Comprehension Why Children Understand Metaphor before Irony References Index

Why not say it directly? The social functions of irony

In three experiments, we investigated the social payoffs of speaking ironically. In Experiment 1, participants rated videotaped ironic remarks (criticisms and compliments) as funnier than literal remarks, but no more or less status enhancing. In Experiment 2, participants listened to audiotaped ironic criticisms and compliments. Ironic compliments were rated as more insulting than literal compliments, but ironic criticisms were found to be less insulting than literal criticisms. In Experiment 3, participants read literal or ironic criticisms. Ironic comments were rated as more amusing than literal ones. When irony was directed at the addressees poor performance, it served to protect the addressees face by softening the criticism. When irony was directed at the addressees offensive behavior, it served to protect the speakers face by showing the speaker as less angry and more in control. In addition, irony damaged the speaker—addressee relationship less than did literal criticism. Taken together, these ...

Practicing a Musical Instrument in Childhood is Associated with Enhanced Verbal Ability and Nonverbal Reasoning

Background In this study we investigated the association between instrumental music training in childhood and outcomes closely related to music training as well as those more distantly related. Methodology/Principal Findings Children who received at least three years (M = 4.6 years) of instrumental music training outperformed their control counterparts on two outcomes closely related to music (auditory discrimination abilities and fine motor skills) and on two outcomes distantly related to music (vocabulary and nonverbal reasoning skills). Duration of training also predicted these outcomes. Contrary to previous research, instrumental music training was not associated with heightened spatial skills, phonemic awareness, or mathematical abilities. Conclusions/Significance While these results are correlational only, the strong predictive effect of training duration suggests that instrumental music training may enhance auditory discrimination, fine motor skills, vocabulary, and nonverbal reasoning. Alternative explanations for these results are discussed.

The Arts and Academic Achievement: What the Evidence Shows

Editor’s @ore: Below is the Executive Summrrn of the Reviewing Education and the Arts Project (REAP) Report: The Art.

Dyslexia linked to talent: Global visual-spatial ability

and Academic Achievement: What the Evidence Shows. The authors wish to (it Anowledge Ralph Smith, of the Universiti~ of Illinois, for his excellent editoriirl guidunce. The full report is published t is u special issue of the Journal of Atwhetic Education 34, no. 3/4 (FalWiti p r 2000).

The effects of musical training on structural brain development: a longitudinal study.

Dyslexia has long been defined by deficit. Nevertheless, the view that visual-spatial talents accompany dyslexia has grown, due to reports of individuals with dyslexia who possess visual-spatial strengths, findings of elevated incidence of dyslexia in certain visual-spatial professions, and the hypothesis that left-hemisphere deficits accompany right-hemisphere strengths. Studies have reported superior, inferior, and average levels of visual-spatial abilities associated with dyslexia. In two investigations, we found an association between dyslexia and speed of recognition of impossible figures, a global visual-spatial task. This finding suggests that dyslexia is associated with a particular type of visual-spatial talent-enhanced ability to process visual-spatial information globally (holistically) rather than locally (part by part).

Understanding of literal truth, ironic criticism, and deceptive praise following childhood head injury

Long‐term instrumental music training is an intense, multisensory and motor experience that offers an ideal opportunity to study structural brain plasticity in the developing brain in correlation with behavioral changes induced by training. Here, for the first time, we demonstrate structural brain changes after only 15 months of musical training in early childhood, which were correlated with improvements in musically relevant motor and auditory skills. These findings shed light on brain plasticity, and suggest that structural brain differences in adult experts (whether musicians or experts in other areas) are likely due to training‐induced brain plasticity.

Enhancing Empathy and Theory of Mind.

Children with closed head injury (CHI) have semantic-pragmatic language problems that include difficulty in understanding and producing both literal and nonliteral statements. For example, they are relatively insensitive to some of the social messages in nonstandard communication as well as to words that code distinctions among mental states. This suggests that they may have difficulty with comprehension tasks involving first- and second-order intentionality, such as those involved in understanding irony and deception. We studied how 6- to 15-year-old children, typically developing or with CHI, interpret scenarios involving literal truth, ironic criticism, and deceptive praise. Children with severe CHI had overall poorer mastery of the task. Even mild CHI impaired the ability to understand the intentionality underlying deceptive praise. CHI, especially biologically significant CHI, appears to place children at risk for failure to understand language as externalized thought.