A man plays the saxophone in New York's Central Park October 12, 2007.Learning to play a musical instrument can change your brain, with a US review finding music training can lead to improved speech and foreign language skills. |
Learning to play a musical instrument can change your brain, with a US review finding music training can lead to improved speech and foreign language skills. Although it has been suggested in the past that listening to Mozart or other classical music could make you smarter, there has been little evidence to show that music boosts brain power. But a data-driven review by Northwestern University has pulled together research that links musical training to learning that spills over into skills including language, speech, memory, attention and even vocal emotion. Researcher Nina Kraus said the data strongly suggested that the neural connections made during musical training also primed the brain for other aspects of human communication. "The effect of music training suggests that, akin to physical exercise and its impact on body fitness, music is a resource that tones the brain for auditory fitness and thus requires society to re-examine the role of music in shaping individual development," the researchers said in their study. Kraus said learning musical sounds could enhance the brain's ability to adapt and change and also enable the nervous system to provide a scaffolding of patterns that are important to learning. The study, published in Nature Reviews Neuroscience, looked at the explosion of research in recent years focused on the effects of music training on the nervous system which could have strong implications for education. The study found that playing an instrument primes the brain to choose what is relevant in a complex process that may involve reading or remembering a score, timing issues and coordination with other musicians. "A musician's brain selectively enhances information-bearing elements in sound," Kraus said in a statement. "In a beautiful interrelationship between sensory and cognitive processes, the nervous system makes associations between complex sounds and what they mean." The study reviewed literature showing, for example, that musicians are more successful than non-musicians in learning to incorporate sound patterns for a new language into words. (Read by Lee Hannon. Lee Hannon is a journalist at the China Daily Web site.) (Agencies) |
美國(guó)一項(xiàng)研究發(fā)現(xiàn),學(xué)習(xí)樂(lè)器能夠使大腦發(fā)生變化,音樂(lè)訓(xùn)練能夠提高演講和外語(yǔ)水平。 盡管過(guò)去有人認(rèn)為聽(tīng)莫扎特或其他古典音樂(lè)可以讓人變得更聰明,但是并沒(méi)有足夠的證據(jù)證明音樂(lè)能提高智力。 如今,美國(guó)西北大學(xué)的一項(xiàng)研究以數(shù)據(jù)為支持,對(duì)探討音樂(lè)訓(xùn)練對(duì)語(yǔ)言、演講、記憶力、注意力甚至情感抒發(fā)等能力的影響的相關(guān)研究進(jìn)行了分析。 研究人員妮娜?克勞斯說(shuō),這些數(shù)據(jù)充分表明,音樂(lè)訓(xùn)練過(guò)程中所產(chǎn)生的神經(jīng)元連接能增強(qiáng)大腦在人際交流其它方面的能力。 研究人員在研究報(bào)告中說(shuō):“音樂(lè)訓(xùn)練所產(chǎn)生的這種影響表明,與體育鍛煉對(duì)身體健康的影響一樣,音樂(lè)能夠增強(qiáng)大腦活力,使聽(tīng)覺(jué)更加敏銳。所以我們的社會(huì)有必要重視音樂(lè)在個(gè)人發(fā)展中所起的作用?!?/p> 克勞斯說(shuō),學(xué)習(xí)聲樂(lè)能夠提高大腦的應(yīng)變能力,也可以讓神經(jīng)系統(tǒng)建立起一個(gè)有利于學(xué)習(xí)的結(jié)構(gòu)。 這一在《神經(jīng)系統(tǒng)科學(xué)自然評(píng)論》上發(fā)表的研究對(duì)近幾年來(lái)該領(lǐng)域新增的大量研究進(jìn)行了回顧和分析,這些研究主要關(guān)注的是音樂(lè)訓(xùn)練對(duì)神經(jīng)系統(tǒng)的影響及其可能會(huì)對(duì)教育產(chǎn)生的重要影響。 研究發(fā)現(xiàn),演奏樂(lè)器能增強(qiáng)大腦在復(fù)雜的過(guò)程中分辨有價(jià)值信息的能力,這一復(fù)雜的過(guò)程可能包括看譜、記譜,計(jì)時(shí)或與其他樂(lè)師配合等。 克勞斯在一項(xiàng)聲明中說(shuō):“一個(gè)音樂(lè)家的大腦能夠有選擇性地分辨出聲音中含有信息的元素。在感覺(jué)和認(rèn)知過(guò)程的相互作用下,神經(jīng)系統(tǒng)能把復(fù)雜的聲音和它們所表達(dá)的意思聯(lián)系起來(lái)。” 研究人員對(duì)以往的研究資料進(jìn)行分析后發(fā)現(xiàn),懂音樂(lè)的人將一種新的語(yǔ)言的發(fā)音拼寫(xiě)成單詞的能力強(qiáng)于未接受過(guò)音樂(lè)訓(xùn)練的人。 相關(guān)閱讀 嬰兒哭聲藏玄機(jī) 聲調(diào)不同因在母語(yǔ) (中國(guó)日?qǐng)?bào)網(wǎng)英語(yǔ)點(diǎn)津 陳丹妮 編輯蔡姍姍) |
Vocabulary: spill over into sth.: 發(fā)展成(Her sympathy for him spilled over into love. 她對(duì)他的同情發(fā)展成為愛(ài)情。) vocal: 用語(yǔ)言表達(dá)的 prime: to make something ready for use or action 把(事物)準(zhǔn)備好 akin to: 類(lèi)似于 scaffolding: 骨架,框架 explosion: a large, sudden or rapid increase in the amount or number of something(突增;猛增;激增) relevant: having ideas that are valuable and useful to people in their lives and work(有價(jià)值的;有意義的) |