WEBVTT

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Did you know that every time
musicians pick up their instruments,

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there are fireworks going off
all over their brain?

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On the outside,
they may look calm and focused,

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reading the music and making the precise
and practiced movements required.

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But inside their brains,
there's a party going on.

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How do we know this?

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Well, in the last few decades,

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neuroscientists have made
enormous breakthroughs

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in understanding how our brains work
by monitoring them in real time

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with instruments like
fMRI and PET scanners.

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When people are hooked up
to these machines,

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tasks, such as reading
or doing math problems,

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each have corresponding areas of the brain
where activity can be observed.

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But when researchers got
the participants to listen to music,

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they saw fireworks.

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Multiple areas of their brains
were lighting up at once,

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as they processed the sound,

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took it apart to understand elements
like melody and rhythm,

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and then put it all back together
into unified musical experience.

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And our brains do all this work
in the split second

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between when we first hear the music
and when our foot starts to tap along.

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But when scientists turned
from observing the brains

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of music listeners to those of musicians,

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the little backyard fireworks
became a jubilee.

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It turns out that while listening
to music engages the brain

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in some pretty interesting activities,

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playing music is the brain's equivalent
of a full-body workout.

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The neuroscientists saw
multiple areas of the brain light up,

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simultaneously processing
different information

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in intricate, interrelated,
and astonishingly fast sequences.

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But what is it about making music
that sets the brain alight?

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The research is still fairly new,

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but neuroscientists
have a pretty good idea.

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Playing a musical instrument

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engages practically every area
of the brain at once,

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especially the visual,
auditory, and motor cortices.

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As with any other workout, disciplined,
structured practice in playing music

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strengthens those brain functions,
allowing us to apply that strength

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to other activities.

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The most obvious difference between
listening to music and playing it

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is that the latter requires
fine motor skills,

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which are controlled
in both hemispheres of the brain.

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It also combines the linguistic
and mathematical precision,

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in which the left hemisphere
is more involved,

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with the novel and creative
content that the right excels in.

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For these reasons,
playing music has been found

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to increase the volume and activity
in the brain's corpus callosum,

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the bridge between the two hemispheres,

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allowing messages to get across the brain
faster and through more diverse routes.

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This may allow musicians to solve problems

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more effectively and creatively,
in both academic and social settings.

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Because making music also involves
crafting and understanding

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its emotional content and message,

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musicians often have higher levels
of executive function,

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a category of interlinked tasks

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that includes planning, strategizing,
and attention to detail

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and requires simultaneous analysis
of both cognitive and emotional aspects.

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This ability also has an impact
on how our memory systems work.

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And, indeed, musicians exhibit
enhanced memory functions,

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creating, storing, and retrieving memories
more quickly and efficiently.

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Studies have found that musicians appear
to use their highly connected brains

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to give each memory multiple tags,

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such as a conceptual tag,
an emotional tag,

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an audio tag, and a contextual tag,

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like a good Internet search engine.

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How do we know that all these benefits
are unique to music,

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as opposed to, say, sports or painting?

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Or could it be
that people who go into music

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were already smarter to begin with?

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Neuroscientists have explored
these issues, but so far,

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they have found that the artistic
and aesthetic aspects

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of learning to play a musical instrument

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are different from any other activity
studied, including other arts.

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And several randomized studies
of participants,

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who showed the same levels

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of cognitive function
and neural processing at the start,

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found that those who were exposed
to a period of music learning

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showed enhancement in multiple
brain areas, compared to the others.

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This recent research about
the mental benefits of playing music

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has advanced our understanding
of mental function,

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revealing the inner rhythms
and complex interplay

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that make up the amazing
orchestra of our brain.