Babies’ brains benefit from music lessons, researchers find

After completing the first study of its kind, researchers at McMaster have discovered
that very early musical training benefits children even before they can walk or talk.

They found that one-year-old babies who participate in interactive music classes with
their parents smile more, communicate better and show earlier and more sophisticated
brain responses to music.

The findings were published recently in the scientific journals Developmental Science
and Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.

“Many past studies of musical training have focused on older children,” said Laurel
Trainor, director of the McMaster Institute for Music and the Mind. “Our results suggest
that the infant brain might be particularly plastic with regard to musical exposure.”

Trainor, together with David Gerry, a music educator and graduate student, received an
award from the Grammy Foundation in 2008 to study the effects of musical training in
infancy. In the recent study, groups of babies and their parents spent six months
participating in one of two types of weekly music instruction.

One music class involved interactive music-making and learning a small set of lullabies,
nursery rhymes and songs with actions. Parents and infants worked together to learn to
play percussion instruments take turns and sing specific songs.

In the other music class, infants and parents played at various toy stations while
recordings from the popular Baby Einstein series played in the background.

Before the classes began, all the babies had shown similar communication and social
development and none had previously participated in other baby music classes.

“Babies who participated in the interactive music classes with their parents showed
earlier sensitivity to the pitch structure in music,” said Trainor. “Specifically, they
preferred to listen to a version of a piano piece that stayed in key, versus a version that
included out-of-key notes. Infants who participated in the passive listening classes did
not show the same preferences. Even their brains responded to music differently.
Infants from the interactive music classes showed larger and/or earlier brain responses
to musical tones.”

The non-musical differences between the two groups of babies were even more
surprising, say researchers.

Babies from the interactive classes showed better early communication skills, like
pointing at objects that are out of reach, or waving goodbye. Socially, these babies also
smiled more, were easier to soothe, and showed less distress when things were
unfamiliar or didn't go their way.

While both class types included listening to music and all the infants heard a similar
amount of music at home, a big difference between the classes was the interactive
exposure to music.

“There are many ways that parents can connect with their babies,” said study
coordinator Andrea Unrau. “The great thing about music is, everyone loves it and
everyone can learn simple interactive musical games together.”