Researchers used magnetic resonance imaging to examine the brains of subjects, and discovered that brain areas that encode the sounds made by a piano are larger in musicians than in people who have never played a musical instrument. In other words, music expands the mind. The brain represents musical sounds much like a map. The younger the musicians were when they started their musical training, the bigger the area seemed to be. The findings were reported in the journal Nature.
Anecdotal reports show that many scientists are also keen amateur musicians.
Perhaps not, suggest recent studies. When music is added to the school curriculum, mathematical skills also improve. Martin Gardiner of the Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, is currently studying this relationship between music training, mathematics and reading. He speculates that the enhancement of brain maps that represent the relative pitch of notes may help us to learn about or visualize relationships in other sequences, such as numbers. This is already borne out by data compiled by the Music Educators National Conference from The College Board.