Klarinet Archive - Posting 000794.txt from 2002/06

From: Robyn Brown <rjbrown@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: [kl] Fwd: Brains
Date: Mon, 24 Jun 2002 01:21:43 -0400

I recently completed a biology project on how the brain is affected by
music. I learned many things about which areas of the brain are activated
by music as well as the differences between the brain function of musicians
and non-musicians. One of the things that I learned is that some parts of
the musician's brain are indeed larger and more developed than
non-musician's brains. For example, the corpus callosum, which connects
the two halves of the brain is larger in musicians than non
musicians. Unfortunately, I can't say whether it is larger from birth or
becomes larger as one learns music. However, it has been proven that
musician's brains are indeed larger in places. Incidentally, in a
psychology class earlier in the year, we learned that the portion of the
motor cortex that is responsible for finger movement is larger in musicians
and other people who practice finger dexterity. It seems to me that
portions of our brains are indeed bigger and more developed to be
customized to the things we have learned. Just my 2 cents.

Robyn

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