LISTENING TO MOZART ENHANCES SPATIAL-TEMPORAL REASONING - TOWARDS A NEUROPHYSIOLOGICAL BASIS

Motivated by predictions of a structured neuronal model of the cortex, we performed a behavioral experiment which showed that listening to a Mozart piano sonata produced significant short-term enhancement of sp atial-temporal reasoning in college students. Here we present results from an experiment which replicates these findings, and shows that (i) 'repetitive' music does not enhance reasoning; (ii) a taped short sto ry does not enhance reasoning; and (iii) short-term memory is not enha nced. We propose experiments designed to explore the neurophysiologica l bases of this causal enhancement of spatial-temporal reasoning by mu sic, and begin to search for quantitative measures of further higher c ognitive effects of music.