Musicians think differently from us

When thinking, most of us only use one side of the brain. Meanwhile, both the musician's right and left cortex are active when they process the information.

To learn how to recognize and handle the problems of creative thinking individuals, three Vanderbilt University psychologists (USA) recruit 20 students in a conservatory and 20 people have never been trained. music. All students from the conservatory have undergone at least 8 years of training. They know how to play the piano, string instruments, all kinds of instruments and blow. All members of the two groups scored well for high-thinking subjects in high school.

"We choose musicians trained for creative thinking as their daily activity," explains Dr. Bradley Folley, a member of the expert team.

The team conducted two tests to compare the process of creative thinking between musicians and ordinary people. In the first experiment, experts showed both groups a wide variety of household items and asked them to think of new functions for them. The study subjects then conducted a test on the ability to find words that are related to each other.

The results show that musicians think of more new functions for household items and their number of correct answers in the test is much higher than that of the other group.

In the second experiment, both groups were asked to find new functions for household items and to find words that were related to each other. While they were thinking, experts monitored the blood oxidation in the frontal lobe thanks to a special brain scanning technique.

"When we measured changes in blood oxygen levels in the cortex of the study subject, we found that both sides of the frontal lobe of the musician's group were active, but in the other group, oxygen changes only occurred at One side, " Folley said.

One of the acceptable explanations is: Musicians have the ability to use two frontal lobes in the process of thinking because they often use both hands during the instrumental process. We all know each side of the hemisphere controls the operation of an arm on the opposite side.

Scientists also found that the average intelligence index of the musicians' group was higher than the other group. This finding is consistent with the results of many recent studies whereby long-term music training increases intelligence index.