Brain researchers have long observed the positive effects music education has on a child's brain development. But youngsters who don't actively engage in a music class may not be getting all the benefits.

A new study found children who regularly attended music classes and keenly participated had larger improvements in their reading scores and speech processing skills than their peers who weren't highly engaged in the class.

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The findings also showed the neural benefits from participation occurred in the same areas of the brain commonly weak in children from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Even inside a group of highly motivated students, small variations in music engagement such as attendance and class participation predicted the strength of neural processing after training, said Dr. Nina Kraus from Northwestern University. She is also a professor of communication sciences in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences at Northwestern.

The Harmony Project, which has provided music education and instruments to disadvantaged children in Los Angeles for a decade, allowed Dr. Kraus and her team to study the brains of some of their students.

The use of data from the underprivileged students in the Harmony Project is important for the study because participants generally have lower language skills.

Growing up in a disadvantaged environment has been linked to linguistic deprivation, noisier settings and not hearing many complex words, sentences and concepts. Dr. Kraus explained that these factors may weaken the areas of the brain related to language.

By placing electrode wires with button sensors on each student's head, the team recorded different responses from the brain within the group of participating children in Harmony Project classes.

The study supports the importance of active experience and meaningful engagement with sound to stimulate changes in the brain. It also highlights the importance of music education to help the children to better differentiate similar speech sounds.

"What we do and how we engage with sound has an effect on our nervous system," said Dr. Kraus. "Spending time learning to play a musical instrument can have a profound effect on how your nervous system works."

TagsMusic, Language Skills