MUSIC TRAINING CAUSES LONG-TERM ENHANCEMENT OF PRESCHOOL CHILDRENS SPATIAL-TEMPORAL REASONING

Predictions from a structured cortical model led us to test the hypoth esis that music training enhances young children's spatial-temporal re asoning. Seventy-eight preschool children participated in this study. Thirty-four children received private piano keyboard lessons, 20 child ren received private computer lessons, and 24 children provided other controls. Four standard, age-calibrated, spatial reasoning tests were given before and after training; one test assessed spatial-temporal re asoning and three tests assessed spatial recognition. Significant impr ovement on the spatial-temporal test was found for the keyboard group only. No group improved significantly on the spatial recognition tests . The magnitude of the spatial-temporal improvement from keyboard trai ning was greater than one standard deviation of the standardized test and lasted at least one day, a duration traditionally classified as lo ng term. This represents an increase in time by a factor of over 100 c ompared to a previous study in which listening to a Mozart piano sonat a primed spatial-temporal reasoning in college students. This suggests that music training produces long-term modifications in underlying ne ural circuitry in regions not primarily concerned with music and might be investigated using EEG. We propose that an improvement of the magn itude reported may enhance the learning of standard curricula, such as mathematics and science, that draw heavily upon spatial-temporal reas oning.