Music Training Improves Communication Skills, New Study Suggests

Sharon Moore September 19, 2013

American scientists say that developing music skills may help individuals improve their communication skills, particularly speech. This is because similar processes are involved in music training and learning how to speak.

Researchers at Northwestern University in Illinois investigated the link between music and language skills. More than 100 teenagers were involved in the study, and were asked to tap their fingers along to a beat. Their accuracy was measured by how closely their responses matched the timing of a metronome. The researchers also used a technique called electroencephalography to measure the brainwaves of the participants as they perform the task. This was necessary in order to examine their electrical activity in response to sound.

Analysis of the results show that the teens who had better musical training also demonstrated enhanced neural responses to speech sounds. On the other hand, those who had poor reading skills had low neural responses. “In both speech and music, rhythm provides a temporal map with signposts to the most likely locations of meaningful input," said Professor Nina Kraus, of the Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory at Northwestern University.

Prof Kraus said musical training involves putting together different kinds of information. Such process involves hearing music, looking at musical notes, touching instruments, and watching other musicians. She said this process is not much different from learning how to speak. Both involve different senses.

The team also found that the recorded brainwaves of the participants matched the recorded sound waves. "You can even take the recorded brainwave and play it back through your speaker and it will sound like the sound wave”, the professor added. She said their findings suggest that the neural responses important for reading are strengthened during musical experience. “Musicians have highly consistent auditory-neural responses.”

They also found that the longer their training was, the more sensitive they become to the sound and beat of music.

According to the researchers, musical training, with emphasis on rhythmic skills, may help exercise the auditory system, leading to less ‘neural jitter’ and stronger sound-to-meaning associations that are essential for developing reading skills.

Their findings appear in the journal Neuroscience.

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Moving to the rhythm ’can help language skills’