Tuning up speech with music 

A new study published in The Journal of Neuroscience used a randomized controlled design to investigate whether community music participation brings about a tangible change in auditory processing. The community music training was a longstanding program called Harmony Project that provides free music instruction to children from underserved backgrounds who are at high risk for learning and social problems. 

The sample included 44 children with a mean age of 8.25 years. All were public-school students living in Los Angeles gang-reduction zones. Subjects were randomly assigned to either defer their participation in music lessons for 1 year and then undergo training ("Group 1," N = 18, 1 year of total music), or to begin music lessons immediately ("Group 2," N = 26, 2 years of total music). To measure impact, all the children participated in a neurophysiological test battery. 

Results showed that children who completed two years of music training had a stronger neurophysiological distinction of stop consonants, a neural mechanism linked to reading and language skills. One year of training was insufficient to elicit changes in nervous system function, however, beyond one year, greater amounts of instrumental music training were associated with larger gains in neural processing. Based on this evidence, the authors suggest that community music programs enhance the neural processing of speech in at-risk children.

Johns Hopkins University 

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