The "Mozart Effect" refers to the belief that listening to Mozart's music, especially his Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major, can temporarily enhance cognitive performance, particularly in spatial reasoning.

This concept originated from early 1990s studies that observed modest, short-term improvements on specific tasks following brief periods of listening to Mozart.

These initial findings were widely publicized, leading to the notion that exposure to Mozart increases intelligence and academic success in children.

However, subsequent analyses and decades of further research have yielded a much more nuanced view.

Recent research suggests that listening to classical music can have positive effects on student mood, attention span, and receptivity to information, but the cognitive benefits—if present—are mild, variable, and temporary.

For example, a French study found students performed better on reading comprehension after listening to music for an hour than those who read in silence, but effects depended strongly on the context and individual characteristics.

In children and students, classroom experiences and some studies indicate that background classical music, including Mozart, may enhance focus and calmness, but not all students respond similarly, and results are inconsistent between groups.

In newborns, exposure to Mozart’s music before and after medical procedures led to reduced observed pain and quicker calming, demonstrating that Mozart can have measurable behavioral and physiological effects even at an early age.

However, such findings address pain and regulation rather than cognitive enhancement.

Research into the mechanisms behind the Mozart Effect finds that any cognitive benefit likely stems not from unique properties of Mozart’s music, but from more general features such as emotional arousal and mood regulation.

Instrumental music that is calming and emotionally positive—traits found in various classical and non-classical genres—can help some individuals to focus and may facilitate memory or learning.

The key is that the music should not be distracting; lyrical or highly dramatic music can reduce performance.

Evidence from animal studies similarly suggests that classical music broadly, rather than only Mozart, can affect physiology.

Concerning specificity and magnitude, the cognitive improvements from listening to Mozart are modest and short-lived, if they occur at all.

Systematic reviews and recent studies in both adults and children have found no reliable or substantial effect on memory, learning, or spatial reasoning tasks.

When gains are observed, they tend to be individualized, temporary, and context-dependent—a possible mild boost in performance that fades soon after the music stops.

Claims that the Mozart Effect can mitigate conditions like epilepsy have not held up in rigorous research, and animal studies, while demonstrating physiological changes, do not clarify cognitive effects in humans.

Practical evidence from music interventions in educational settings supports the role of music in improving school engagement, emotional health, and certain academic skills, but these benefits are not unique to Mozart.

Access to music education, including regular lessons, ensemble participation, and music breaks, is consistently associated with improved memory, attention, reading ability, emotional regulation, and classroom behavior.

Large school district evaluations have found that children involved in music programs often have better reading scores, greater graduation likelihood, and stronger listening skills than peers without music education.

Integrating music with the curriculum, such as using rhythm exercises to teach math, yields the largest academic gains, most strongly in younger children and for foundational skills.

Structured music activities also support social and emotional development, reduce anxiety, and improve classroom climate.

However, critical analysis warns against overstating the original claims of the Mozart Effect.

Effects are not guaranteed, not all children benefit equally, and there is no evidence supporting large or enduring cognitive improvements simply from passive listening.

Teachers who wish to use music to improve student performance should prioritize high-quality, instrumental selections—classical or otherwise—that suit the learning atmosphere, encourage experimentation to find what works for their class, and integrate music with a variety of teaching and self-regulation strategies.

Music in the classroom is best understood as a valuable complement to educational practice, supporting both cognitive and emotional development, instead of a direct or exclusive route to higher intelligence.

The "Mozart Effect" refers to the belief that listening to Mozart's music, especially his Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major, can temporarily enhance cognitive performance, particularly in spatial reasoning.

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The Sound of Success: Ideas in Music for Concentration and Productivity

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Does music help you concentrate? Since we spend a lot of time in front of computers trying to finish our work, wouldn’t it be nice to listen to some of music to help concentrate? Well, music lovers, it seems like Mozart and Beethoven could actually help you with your productivity. Beethoven once said: «Music is where the spirit lives, thinks and invents.»

This relationship between music and the brain is an area that has been intensively explored in research. Many studies point to the ability of music to help employees be more productive and help children in their learning process more effectively. University research in France found that students who listened to music for an hour while reading, scored significantly higher on a questionnaire compared to a group of students who read without music.

Your attention span is better when listening to music

It seems that music for concentration puts students in a heightened emotional state, so that they can be more receptive to information. «It is possible that music causes a change in the learning environment and influenced students’ motivation to stay focused while reading, which led to better performance on a multiple-choice questionnaire,» concluded the french research team in a recent article.

But before you start playing any type, you have to find the music that works better for the type of work you are trying to carry do. For example, the classic from the Baroque period is said to do wonders for brain activity when you are studying or writing. But not all classical music is created equal, so dramatic changes and complicated fugue changes may not be as conducive as a smooth piano piece. So if you have to choose a composer, we would say Mozart. There seems to be evidence that Mozart’s improves mental performance: it is called «The Mozart Effect”.

Build a harmonious space

If you don’t like classical, the discreet sound found in ambient music may work well for you instead. What is the purpose of this if you are not at the airport, you ask? Well, for creative purposes, it’s better than emptiness and silence. According to one of its pioneers, musician Brian Eno: “Background music must be able to accommodate many levels of attention when listening, without forcing one in particular. It must be as ignorable as it is interesting ”.

In fact, researchers have shown that a moderate level of noise, such as that found in the environment, can actually get creative juices flowing. Music with especially low-lows or especially high-highs should be avoided. Certain types of jazz instrumental melodies can also get your brain working.

Music without lyrics

In general, if you are doing work that requires writing, you should avoid listening to music with lyrics as the words in a song are especially destructive to your concentration. Since hearing words activates the brain’s language center, attempting to perform tasks related to another language would be like trying to have a conversation while someone else is speaking to you. But, if you are a cartoonist, and you don’t deal with sentence construction, hearing letters may not have the same effect.

Finally, studies show that listening to music you’re already familiar with may be better if you really need to focus. New songs take you into the unknown and your brain will want to listen closely to see what comes next. With the music you are familiar with you know what to expect, so it doesn’t distract you from your work. And if you like the tune you’re listening to try not to whistle it while you work, as that will only distract you.

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This concept originated from early 1990s studies that observed modest, short-term improvements on specific tasks following brief periods of listening to Mozart.

These initial findings were widely publicized, leading to the notion that exposure to Mozart increases intelligence and academic success in children.

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Scientists have dispelled the myth that Mozart ’ s music helps with epilepsy
Scientists from the University of Vienna have dispelled the myth that Mozart ’ s major sonata KV448 can alleviate the symptoms of epilepsy.
The results of the study are presented in the journal Scientific Reports.
According to the authors of the work, they could not find evidence of the above theory.
In the past, it was believed that Mozart ’ s music had many positive effects on a person, for example, it increases the intelligence of the fetus if a pregnant woman listened to it.
Recently, a number of studies have shown that KV448 sonata alleviates symptoms in patients with epilepsy.
In their work, scientists analyzed these studies, as well as other scientific literature.
As it turned out, there is no reliable evidence of the beneficial effect of the melody.
According to the authors, erroneous results could have been obtained due to selective reporting and small samples.
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However, subsequent analyses and decades of further research have yielded a much more nuanced view.

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Content: Explain the relationship between autism and gut microbiome more than ever!
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The link between autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and the body ’ s “second brain ” is becoming clearer than ever.
A new paper, written by at least 43 scientists from different disciplines, found the strongest link to date between gut microbes, host immunity, nervous system gene expression, and dietary patterns.
The new analysis does not confirm the underlying causes of autism, nor does it identify specific subtypes as other research has attempted, but reveals a more general gut profile that seems consistent among people with autism.
If this crucial biomarker can be elucidated in further research, it could one day be used to diagnose ASD and explore potential treatments.
Microbiologist Rob Knight, from the University of California, San Diego, said: "Before that, we had smoke indicating that the microbiome was involved in autism, and now we have a fire.
“We can apply this approach to many other areas, from depression to Parkinson ’ s disease and cancer, where we believe the microbiome plays a role, but where we don ’ t yet know exactly what the role is. ”
Scientists know that people with autism are more likely to have digestive problems, such as constipation, diarrhea, bloating and vomiting.
What ’ s more, in recent years, researchers have begun to find links between microbial synthesis and neurodevelopmental disorders, such as ASD.
However, this association is not always consistent, and some experts have argued that it is not gut bacteria that cause autism spectrum disorder, necessarily; children with autism can be more likely to restrict their diets due to “selective ” eating, which in turn affects the types of bacteria present in the digestive tract.
The new study includes 10 existing data sets on autism and microbiome, as well as 15 other data sets related to dietary patterns, metabolism, immune cell profiles, and gene expression profiles of the human brain.
The authors of the analysis say their findings enhance "statistical strength and biological insight" in the gut and brain axis behind ASD, and provide "stronger associations between gut microbes, host immunity, brain expression and dietary patterns than previously reported."
The fundamental relationship between the gut and the brain is itself a relatively new frontier in science.
In 1992, a researcher called the gut a “neglected human organ, ” and it took until the 21st century for the term“ human microbiome ” to be properly conceptualized.
In the years since, research has flourished on the trillions of individual microbes found in our guts, yet experts are still not really sure what to do with their findings.
So far, it ’ s not clear what a healthy microbiome looks like, let alone an unusual microbiome.
There are a lot of variables to consider, especially since the connection between the gut and the brain seems to be a two-way street, and because diet can quickly change the mix of gut bacteria.
In 1998, a scientist named E.R. Bolt hypothesized that abnormal gut microbes could be involved in the development of ASD.
Those with autism, for example, showed more types of Clostridium bacteria and rheumatic streptococci in their faeces than those in the control group.
But these early studies were generally considered to be of "low to medium quality, mostly due to small sample sizes" and "insufficient or no explanation of the sources of stool samples and possible biases," according to three Dutch nutrition experts.
Even today, it is difficult to obtain carefully designed long-term studies.
Current analysis attempts to fill this gap by comparing data on the gut and ASD.
For each data set, the research team designed an algorithm to match the best pairs of individuals with autism and neurological pattern by age and gender, two confounding factors common in autism studies.
Instead of analyzing the study ’ s averages, each of the 600 pairs served as a single data point, allowing researchers to simultaneously analyze gut microbial differences across more than 1,000 individuals.
Ultimately, the researchers found key signs of autism in certain metabolic pathways linked to diet, gene expression, and certain gut microbes.
What ’ s more, these microbes match those identified by a recent long-term study of fecal transplants among 18 autistic children.
In a two-year follow-up, participants showed continuous improvement in gastrointestinal and behavioral symptoms, based on the most common measure to assess ASD symptoms.
Together, the findings point to a possible role for the microbiome in improving autism symptoms, although how those underlying intestinal changes relate to actual brain changes remains unclear.
Jamie Morton, who co-authored the paper as a biostatistician at the Simons Foundation, a charity that funds biomedical research, explains: “We were able to coordinate seemingly disparate data from different studies and find a common language that unites them.
Through this, we have been able to identify a microbial fingerprint that distinguishes autistic individuals from neurotypical individuals across several studies.
But the bigger point is that from now on, we need robust long-term studies that look at as many datasets as possible and understand how it changes when there is a therapeutic intervention. ”
The study was published in the journal Nature Neuroscience.
Source: Science Alert
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Recent research suggests that listening to classical music can have positive effects on student mood, attention span, and receptivity to information, but the cognitive benefits—if present—are mild, variable, and temporary.

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Content: 4/25/23 · Research

The beneficial effects of music on memory may depend on how it is listened to

The initial results of the study of the 'Mozart effect' on neurodegeneration show that listening to classical music in the background has no benefits for learning
The research has been carried out with people experiencing mild cognitive impairment, and it did find individual differences when listening to 'high-arousal' music

Listening to 'high-arousal' music could have a positive effect on memory for people who are accustomed to using music as an emotional regulator (Image: Clem Onojeghuo, Unsplash)

Given the lack of effective treatments to counteract cognitive impairment, background music has traditionally been proposed as a possible therapeutic alternative for improving memory-related tasks. Its effect has long been the focus of debate, but this relationship has now been found to be possibly determined by new interindividual parameters, which means that it may be more complex than was previously thought. This is shown by research led by Marco Calabria, a researcher in the Cognitive Neurolab group of the Faculty of Health Sciences at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC), who is now considering new experiments.

The initial results of the Mozart effect and memory in patients with cognitive impairment (MEM-COG) study, funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, suggest that listening to background classical music while performing memory tasks neither improves nor impairs learning levels among people with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). However, listening to more 'high-arousal' music was found to have a possible positive effect on people who are accustomed to using music as an emotional regulator in their everyday lives, which suggests there is potential for further hypotheses and research.

The study, which has been published as open access in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, was carried out with patients at the neuropsychology unit of Barcelona's Hospital de Sant Pau, and involved researchers at the hospital, Montreal's Concordia University and Madrid's Gregorio Marañón Health Research Institute.

There is no universal effect

"We found no general impact concerning the effect of music in terms of whether it had positive or negative effects on learning in cases of MCI, but we did find that it would be modulated for each individual. If people regularly use music as an emotional regulator in their daily life, such as to help them remain calm or for company, they will find it easier to obtain further benefits from music when they have to learn something new," explained Calabria, who has a PhD in Psychobiology.

The subjects of the study were people with mild amnestic cognitive impairment, i.e. they have memory problems as a result of an onset of neurodegeneration that is more specific in the parts of the brain dealing with aspects of learning and memory. The experiments consisted of observing 24 photographs of human faces. Participants were instructed to memorize them, and 10 minutes later, they were asked to look at a new series containing the previous 24 images and 24 new ones, in order to attempt to identify the ones that they had already seen.

A classical choice

The first test was performed with the subjects listening to classical music in the information consolidation phase but not in the recovery phase, while in the second exercise it was repeated with the auditory stimulus during both phases. However, no significant differences were observed in terms of results.

Classical music was used in these exercises because "it's a type of music that falls between relaxing and arousing, and has proven to be the most effective for enhancing memory". Furthermore, the fact that it is instrumental reduces the interference (that can come from lyrics) with the content that the participants have to learn in the memory task.

A ray of light

However, Calabria's team wanted to carry out a third experiment using popular music which was considered arousing rather than relaxing, and after a preliminary study, they used an instrumental version of Un rayo de sol (A ray of light), by the group Los Diablos. In that experiment, according to Calabria, the results suggested that "the use of music as a strategy for mood regulation is associated with better performance in memory tasks."

Ongoing research

This finding opens up the possibility of further research to continue exploring the role of interindividual preferences and attitudes towards music among patients with MCI. The group plans to continue the project until late 2024.

During this time, it will investigate whether background music could be more useful in other cognitive domains, such as in attention and concentration in patients with Parkinson's disease. The experiments will also involve the use of a new infrared spectroscopy device in the Neuro Lab, one of the recently opened new laboratories at the UOC, which will show the activation at the cerebral level while cognitive processes are taking place. This will help to determine whether or not there are any alterations in the brain's modulation, in which areas this takes place, and whether it depends on the type of person studied, regardless of the level of response to music.

In overall terms, this will help to find a type of marker which determines the people most likely to benefit from music in cognitive tasks. "The more we know about how background music shapes cognitive processes, the better the use we can make of music as a therapeutic tool in cognitive stimulation," concluded Calabria, an expert in the study of cognitive processes and a member of teaching staff on the UOC's Master's Degree in Neuropsychology.

This research project receives funding from the Ministry of Science and Innovation of the Government of Spain, and contributes to Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) number 3, Good health and well-being.

Reference article:

Calabria, Marco et al. 'Background Music and Memory in Mild Cognitive Impairment: The Role of Interindividual Differences'. 1 Jan. 2023: 815 – 829. DOI: 10.3233/JAD-221051

Press contact

Sònia Armengou Casanovas
sarmengouc@uoc.edu
+34 619 413 823

UOC R&I

The UOC's research and innovation (R&I) is helping overcome pressing challenges faced by global societies in the 21st century by studying interactions between technology and human & social sciences with a specific focus on the network society, e-learning and e-health.

Over 500 researchers and more than 50 research groups work in the UOC's seven faculties, its eLearning Research programme and its two research centres: the Internet Interdisciplinary Institute (IN3) and the eHealth Center (eHC).

The university also develops online learning innovations at its eLearning Innovation Center (eLinC), as well as UOC community entrepreneurship and knowledge transfer via the Hubbik platform.

Open knowledge and the goals of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development serve as strategic pillars for the UOC's teaching, research and innovation. More information: research.uoc.edu.

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For example, a French study found students performed better on reading comprehension after listening to music for an hour than those who read in silence, but effects depended strongly on the context and individual characteristics.

In children and students, classroom experiences and some studies indicate that background classical music, including Mozart, may enhance focus and calmness, but not all students respond similarly, and results are inconsistent between groups.

In newborns, exposure to Mozart’s music before and after medical procedures led to reduced observed pain and quicker calming, demonstrating that Mozart can have measurable behavioral and physiological effects even at an early age.

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Content: Mozart ’ s music eases babies ’ pain during medical procedures, study finds
29 August, 2023 Tuesday
12: 09 PM
Researchers have found that the soothing background music of composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart during medical procedures may somewhat relieve pain in newborns
This is reported by Science Alert.
It is noted that the test team from Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia was the first of its kind.
Scientists conducted a study among 100 infants at a hospital in New York.
Each child was born full-term, and at the time of the test he was about 2 days old.
Before medical workers took blood using the standard heel prick procedure, more than half of the babies listened to the soothing instrumental lullaby of the famous musician Mozart for twenty minutes.
At the same time, the other half waited silently.
As a rule, when newborns intend to conduct a small medical procedure, they are given sugar.
Two minutes before the heel injection, the babies were given sucrose to ease the pain a little.
The lullaby sounded during the injection and lasted about five minutes after that.
Parents were not allowed to physically hug their children during the study.
The team regularly assessed the babies ’ pain using facial expressions, crying, breathing, limb movements, and alertness as indicators.
The researchers were wearing noise-cancelling headphones, so they didn ’ t know if the music was playing or not.
Eventually, newborns exposed to Mozart showed a "statistically and clinically significant" decrease in scores on the Neonatal Pain Scale (NIPS), and this was true before, during, and after heel injection.
The authors conclude that "musical intervention is a light, reproducible and inexpensive tool for pain relief during minor procedures in healthy, full-term newborns."
Also today, there is a lot of evidence suggesting that music can significantly reduce pain in adults.
Research among newborns is a good opportunity for further research, especially because painkillers often cannot be used in infants.
According to American scientists, such results of the experiment may be a consequence of the fact that music distracts children from pain.
Previous studies among adults have shown that live, pleasant music eases pain more than gloomy and sad music.
This means that distraction cannot fully explain the results.
Perhaps there is something in the tempo, harmony or melody of a song that numbs a person ’ s brain, even if they ’ ve heard very little music before.
Scientists working on the current study say they are now interested in whether parental voices can calm newborns as much as Mozart.
Earlier, physicists from Finland conducted a study and found that sound can propagate through a perfect vacuum, but this requires appropriate conditions.
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However, such findings address pain and regulation rather than cognitive enhancement.

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Content: Mushrooms that produce psilocybin, like LSD, seem to shut down a "decompression valve" in our consciousness.
Photo Credit: iStock
What we want you to know is
In the book, Merlin describes his research on fungi in the jungles of Panama and other places, exploring the development of fungi in different time and space contexts, cultures, and various fields (including the use of psychedelic mushrooms in person), documenting how scholars of fungi intersect, and describing the amazing achievements of fungi in technology.
Text: Merlin.
by Merlin Sheldrake
The fungus that controls the mind.
Serpentine Wormwood is the inspiration for at least two fictional monsters — the ogre in the video game The Last of Us, and the zombie in the movie The Girl with All the Gifts.
However, serpent wormwood is only one example that has been well studied.
This kind of manipulation is not a special case.
Manipulation behavior has evolved several times in unrelated lineages in the fungal world, and many non-fungal parasites are also able to manipulate the mind of their host.
Fungi use a variety of ways to fine-tune biochemical controllers and regulate the behavior of their hosts.
Some use immunosuppressants to replicate the insect's defense response.
Two of these compounds have thus become mainstream drugs.
Cyclosporin is an immunosuppressant that allows humans to perform organ transplants.
Myriocine, the popular multiple sclerosis drug fingolimod, was originally extracted from fungal wasps; in some parts of China, it is the secret to eternal youth.
In 2018, researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, published a report documenting the amazing techniques used by Entomophthora, which causes fly infections and has similarities to serpentine worms.
Infected flies climb high. When they reach out to eat, the fungus produces a glue that sticks the fly to any surface they touch.
The fungus starts from the fatty parts of the fly ’ s body and ends up with vital organs. When the fungus eats the fly ’ s body, it will stick out a stalk from the fly ’ s back and spray the spores into the air.
The researchers were surprised to find that the fungi of the genus Cytomycetes carry a class of viruses that infect insects rather than fungi.
The study's lead author noted that it was "one of the weirdest discoveries" of his career in science.
Oddly enough, the implication is that fungi use viruses to control the minds of insects.
This is only a hypothesis at the moment, but it is possible.
Some related viruses are good at changing the behavior of insects.
A similar virus is injected by a parasitic bee into a ladybug, which trembles, remains in place, and eventually becomes the guardian of the parasitic egg.
Another type of virus can make bees more hostile.
Using viruses that manipulate the mind, fungi do not need to evolve the ability to change the mind of the host insect.
Research by Matt Kasson and his team at West Virginia University adds a more unexpected twist to the zombie fungus story.
Carson studied the fungi of the genus Massospora, which infect cicadas and cause a third of the cicada's lower body to decompose, allowing cicadas to expel cicadas spores from the broken tail.
The infected cicada (what Carson calls the "flying death saltwater"), although the genitals have long since broken down, has become hyperactive and sexually active, proving that fungi can skillfully regulate the decline of cicada. Although their bodies are rotting, their central nervous system is intact.
In 2018, Carson and his team analyzed the chemical composition of the cicada cicada germinated with bacteria.
They were surprised to find that the fungus produces cathinone, an amphetamine in the same class as the recreational drug mephedrone.
Kasiketone is naturally found in the leaves of the Arabic tea (Catha edulis, also known as Chatgrass), a plant that has been cultivated in the Horn of Africa and the Middle East in East Africa.
Cassiketone has never been found outside of plants.
What ’ s even more striking is psilocybin, one of the most abundant chemicals in fungi — but it takes hundreds of infected cicadas to begin to feel any effects.
This is surprising because the fungus, which is known to produce psilocybin, belongs to a completely different "door" in the fungal world, with a gap of hundreds of millions of years.
Few would have thought that psilocybin would show up so far away on the fungal evolutionary tree, playing a role in changing behavior in a very different story.
What exactly does it do to confuse a host with psychedelics and amphetamines? Researchers speculate that these drugs play a role in fungi ’ s control of insects.
Exactly how this was done, however, is unclear.
Descriptions of psychedelic experiences often include four distinct creatures, and inter-species transitions.
Mythology and fairy tales are also full of complex animals, from werewolves, man-horses, man-faced sphinxes to Chimera.
The Roman poet Ovid ’ s Metamorphoses records the transformation of one creature into another, even in a land where “men grow out of rain-soaked fungi. ”
Many traditional cultures believe that complex organisms exist and that the boundaries between organisms are fluid.
Anthropologist Eduardo Viveiros de Castro notes that shamans in Amazonian indigenous societies believe they can exist temporarily in the minds and bodies of other animals and plants.
Anthropologist Rane Willerslev writes that the Yukaghir people in Northern Siberia dress and behave like moose when hunting moose.
These narratives seem to stretch the limits of biological possibilities, but are rarely taken seriously in modern scientific circles.
However, symbiotic studies have shown that organisms are full of hybrid forms of life (such as lichen), made up of several different organisms.
All plants, fungi, animals, and even ourselves are indeed complex organisms to some extent – eukaryotic cells are hybrids, and the body we live in is shared by us and a large number of microbes, without which we cannot grow, act, and pass on generations as we do today.
These beneficial microbes may indeed share some control abilities with parasites like Serpentine.
A growing body of research links animal behavior to the trillions of bacteria and fungi in the animal gut, many of which produce chemicals that affect the animal ’ s nervous system.
The interaction between gut microbes and the brain (the microbiome-gutbrain axis) has far-reaching implications, and even spawned a new field, neuromicrobiology.
However, fungi that affect the mind are still some of the most dramatic examples of complex organisms.
To quote Hughes, infected ants are “fungi wearing ant skins. ”
Within the scientific framework, it may be possible to understand such transformations.
As Richard Dawkins points out in The Extended Phenotype, genes provide instructions not only for building biological bodies, but also for building certain behaviors.
Bird nests are an outward expression of a part of the bird genome; beaver dams are an outward expression of the beaver genome; and ant bites are an outward expression of the serpentine wormwood genome.
Dawkins argues that the outward expression of biological genes (called phenotype) extends into the world through hereditary behavior.
Dawkins is careful to set “strict conditions ” for the concept of extended expressionism. While this is the concept of speculation, Dawkins is responsible for reminding us that it is“ extremely limited speculation. ”
There are three key criteria that must be met to prevent over-expression (if a beaver dam is the result of beaver genome expression, what about the pond upstream of the dam?)
What about the fish in the pond? And...).
First, the extended traits must be hereditary — for example, serpents inherit a pharmacological gift to infect and manipulate ants; second, the extended traits differ from generation to generation — some serpents more accurately manipulate ant behavior than others; third, and most importantly, differences must affect the ability of animals to survive and reproduce. Fit – The more accurately the serpent wormplant controls insect activity, the more it can spread spores.
As long as all three conditions are met (there must be hereditary traits, there must be diversity, and differences must affect the adaptability of an organism), then the extended traits are subject to natural selection and evolve like their physical traits.
Beavers with well-built dams are more likely to survive, passing on the ability to build a good dam.
But human dams (or any human building) are not an extended representation of us, because we don ’ t have the innate intuition to build specific buildings that directly affect our fitness.
On the other hand, ascent and dying bites are fully eligible for fungal behavior, not ant behavior. Serpent wormwood does not have a contracting, muscular animal body, does not have a centralized nervous system, and is unable to walk, bite, or fly.
So the serpent wormwood uses other creatures.
This strategy is so effective that serpents cannot even survive without this strategy, and must be covered with ants for part of their lives.
In nineteenth-century spiritual circles, it was believed that the human psychic medium would be possessed by the soul of the dead. The soul had no body or voice of its own, and it was said that it needed to borrow the human body to speak and act.
Similarly, mind-manipulating fungi are attached to the insects they infect.
Infected ants no longer behave like ants and become fungal agents.
This is why Hughes refers to ants infected with serpent wormwood as "fungi dressed in ants".
Ants are worn by the fungus and deviate from their evolutionary story (which guides the behavior of ants, the relationship of ants and the world to other ants) and embark on the trajectory of the serpentine wormwood evolution story.
From the point of view of physiology, behavior, and evolution, ants have become fungi.
Psychedelic drugs: the magic solution to human psychic symptoms
Serpentine and other fungi that manipulate insects have evolved extraordinary abilities to harm the animals they affect. A growing body of research has shown that psilocybin mushrooms have evolved magical abilities to solve a variety of human problems.
In a way, this is new — tightly controlled trials and the latest brain scanning techniques since the 2000s have helped researchers interpret the psychedelic experience in modern scientific terms — and it was this new wave of psychedelic research that brought me to the hospital for LSD research.
These recent findings generally confirm what many researchers in the 1950s and 1960s believed that LSD and psilocybin were the magic antidote to a wide variety of mental conditions.
However, from another perspective, it is not known how long some traditional cultures have used psychoactive plants and fungi as drugs and neuropsychic tools, and most of the research carried out in the context of modern science has largely confirmed what these cultures are familiar with.
From this perspective, modern science is just catching up.
Many of the recent findings are surprising by the standards of traditional drug intervention.
In 2016, two sister studies from New York University and Johns Hopkins University gave psilocybin and a psychotherapy course to patients suffering from anxiety, depression and “existential distress ” after the diagnosis of cancer.
After one dose of psilocybin, 80% of patients experienced a significant reduction in their mental symptoms, lasting at least six months after taking the drug. Psilocybin can reduce “feelings of loss and despair, improve mental health, and improve quality of life. ”
Participants described “heightened feelings of happiness, joy, and love ”,“ from feelings of separation to feelings of connection. ”
More than 70% of the participants rated their experiences as the top five most meaningful experiences in life.
“You might ask, what does that mean? ” said Roland Griffiths, a senior researcher on the study, in an interview.
“At first, I wondered if their lives were boring.
But I was wrong. ” The subjects compared these experiences to those of the birth of their first child or the death of their parents.
These studies are regarded as some of the most effective psychiatric interventions in the history of modern medicine.
There are few profound changes in the mind and personality of a person; it is incredible that such a thing should happen in such a short experience.
However, these findings are not unusual.
Several recent studies have shown that psilocybin has a dramatic effect on the mind, outlook, and outlook.
Many studies have used some of the psychological questionnaires I have worked with to find that psilocybin can accurately trigger experiences classified as “mysterious. ”
Mysterious experiences include a sense of awe, the feeling that everything is connected, transcending time and space, a deep intuitive understanding of the nature of reality, a deep feeling of love, peace and joy.
This often includes the loss of a well-defined sense of self.
Psilocybin may leave a lasting impression in the human brain, like the Cheshire cat in Alice in Wonderland, “after the rest is gone, stay for a while. ”
In one study, researchers found that a high dose of psilocybin increased the willingness of healthy volunteers to accept new experiences, mental health, and life satisfaction, a change that lasted for almost a year.
Some studies have found that the experience of psilocybin helps people who smoke or drink alcohol break their addiction.
Other studies have shown that the durability of the effect increases with the participants ’ sense of connection to the natural world.
In recent research on psilocybin in a colony of bees, certain topics have begun to emerge.
One of the most interesting topics was the way psilocybin test subjects understood their experience.
Michael Pollan writes in How to Change Your Mind that most people who take psilocybin do not interpret their experience from the mechanistic point of view of modern biology (molecules running around their heads).
Quite the opposite.
Pollan found that many of the people he interviewed “were originally downright materialists or atheists … but a few had had ‘ mystical experiences ’ and were convinced that there was something we didn ’ t know existed – something ‘ beyond the physical universe ’. ”
These effects are a mystery.
Chemical substances can trigger profound mystical experiences that seem to support the prevailing scientific view that our subjective world is based on the chemical activity of our brain; that the world of spiritual beliefs and divine experiences may originate from material, biochemical phenomena.
However, Pollan points out that these experiences are too strong to even make people believe that there is an immaterial reality (which is the basic material for religious belief).
Serpent wormwood and the microorganisms that live in the intestines affect the mind of animals by living in the body and instantly fine-tuning the secretion of compounds in the animals.
We can inject a single dose of synthetic psilocybin into a person, triggering a full psychosocial effect.
How did this work?
When psilocybin enters the human body, it is converted into a chemical called psilocybin. Psilocybin stimulates receptors (which are usually stimulated by serotonin) that affect brain functioning. Psilocybin mimics our most commonly used chemical transmitters, and infiltrates our nervous system like LSD, directly interfering with electronic signaling throughout our bodies. Change the growth and structure of neurons.
Until the late 2000s, it was not known exactly how psilocybin altered patterns of neural activity.
Researchers at the Beckley / Imperial Psychedelic Research Programme gave subjects psilocybin to monitor their brain activity.
What they found was astonishing. Psilocybin can have a dramatic effect on people ’ s minds and cognition, which should have been expected to increase brain activity, but the scan turned out to be the opposite, reducing activity in certain key areas.
The type of brain activity that is reduced by the naked mushroom base forms what is known as the default mode network (DMN).
What we ’ re not so focused on, thinking, remembering, or planning for the future is our default mode network.
The researchers describe the default model network as the "capital" or "business manager" of the mind.
Any time the brain process of a riot continues, the default mode network maintains some order — like a teacher in a chaotic classroom.
Studies have shown that participants reported the strongest sense of "loss of self" (loss of self-awareness) after psilocybin use, and the strongest reduction in activity in the default mode network.
Turn off the default mode network and let go of the restrictions on the brain.
Brain connections explode, creating a chaotic new neural pathway.
The network of activities that had been far away from each other was connected.
To paraphrase Aldous Huxley in his seminal exploration of the psychedelic experience, The Doors of Perception, psilocybin seems to shut down a “decompression valve ” in our consciousness. The result?
The authors conclude that the ability of psilocybin to change the human mind is related to the state of brain flow.
Brain imaging studies provide an important description of how psychedelics work on our bodies, but they do not explain how subjects feel. After all, it is the person who experiences the experience, not the brain. The basis of psilocybin ’ s treatment seems to be the human experience.
Some studies have measured the effects of psilocybin on patients with end-stage cancer, with those with the strongest mystical experience experiencing the most significant reduction in symptoms of depression and anxiety.
Similarly, in a study of psilocybin and tobacco addiction, the patients with the best results were those who had the most intense mystical experiences. The way psilocybin works, it seems, is not by pressing a set of biochemical buttons, but by letting the patients ’ minds go and allowing them to think about their lives and behaviors in new ways.
In the "first wave" of modern psychedelic drug research in the mid-20th century, most of the research on LSD and psilocybin was echoed in this finding.
Abram Hoffer, a Canadian psychiatrist who worked on the effects of LSD in the 1950s, said: “We started off thinking that the key to treatment was not chemicals, but the experience. ” It sounded like common sense, but from the standpoint of mechanistic medicine at the time, it was a radical concept.
The traditional practice is to treat what constitutes the body with something (whether a drug or surgical appliance), as we do with a tool to repair a machine; this is still common today.
Medications are thought to operate through a pharmacological circuit that completely avoids the conscious mind — a drug that affects the recipient and causes the symptoms to change.
In contrast, psilocybin, like LSD and other psychedelic drugs, appears to act on the symptoms of mental illness through the mind.
The standard circuit is expanded — the drug affects a receptor that triggers a mental change that triggers a change in symptoms.
The patient ’ s psychedelic experience appears to be a therapy in itself.
Matthew Johnson, a psychiatrist and researcher at Johns Hopkins University, puts it in Johnson ’ s words that psychedelic drugs like nakedine “pull people out of their narrative. ”
The psychedelic drug opens a window into psychological resilience, allowing people to let go of the mental models we use to organize reality. ”
Obstinate habits (such as those that lead to substance addiction) or “rigid pessimism ” that develop into depression become more relaxed.
Psilocybin and other psychedelic drugs soften areas that organize human experience, opening up entirely new possibilities for cognition.
Our strongest mental model is the mental model of the self.
Psilocybin and other psychedelic drugs seem to disrupt this sense of self.
Some call it self-destruction.
Some simply say that they are no longer sure where their boundaries end and where their surroundings begin.
The clearly defined “I ” on which humanity depends so heavily may disappear altogether, or simply shrink and gradually blur into the other.
The result? The feeling of blending with something bigger, the feeling of re-imagining people ’ s relationship with the world.
In many cases, from lichen to mycelia, fungi challenge our stale notions of identity and individuality.
Mushrooms that produce psilocybin, like LSD, also do this, but in the most intimate of scenarios — in our own brains.
Book Introduction
This excerpt is from “Fungal Microcosmos: How Ecological Alchemists Drive the World, Promote Life, and Connect Everything on Earth ”, Goli Culture Publishing
Author: Merlin.
by Merlin Sheldrake
Translator: Zhou Peiyu
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Fungi,
It is the most elegant strategy of life on Earth.
It is also the most detailed and universal existence.
• 2017 Frankfurt Book Fair Highlights
• Time Magazine, BBC Science Focus, The Daily Mail, The Times, The Daily Telegraph
• More than 2,800 Amazon readers in the United States and 2,700 Amazon readers in the United Kingdom recommended five stars
• First place in the Amazon mushroom fungi category and second place in the environmental ecology category
• Chang Tung-chu, Forest Conservation Section, Forestry Research Institute, Council of Agriculture, Executive Yuan
Whenever we talk about fungi, we are often dominated by mushrooms.
However, mushrooms are only the child entities of fungi (like fruits), and the true majority of fungi live in places where we can ’ t see them.
We know very little about fungi, more than 90% of which have not been recorded by humans, but silently constitute a vast and diverse kingdom of life that sustains almost all living systems on Earth.
From the deepest sediments on the seabed, to the surface of the desert, the frozen valleys of the Antarctic, and even our stomachs … there are very few fungi on this planet that can ’ t reach the corners.
PhD in Ecology, Cambridge University, Merlin.
Shedrick, a popular British biologist in recent years, is the muse of fungi in his life and the reason for his academic career, in order to explore this world that has always existed around us, but seems to be as big as parallel time.
Maybe no one's ever told you that before, but Merlin.
Shedrick is trying to tell you that fungi are the key to understanding the planet and environment we inhabit, and why we think, feel, and behave as we do.
Pushing life to the front of the land
In those long years when life on land was not yet there, fungi were the first to combine algae and become lichens to push life into the scorched and desolate land.
The first soil was born, and nutrients and minerals locked in the rock were able to enter the metabolic cycle of living organisms.
To this day, the most desolate land on the land is still occupied by lichens, creating a new ecological system.
Fundamentals of plants: Fungi
Six hundred million years ago, green algae landed in shallow water, and without roots, they were able to transport water and extract nutrients from the earth by linking fungi, the earliest plant form.
This long-standing alliance has evolved into the current "mycorrhizal relationship".
Today, more than 90% of plant species still rely on mycorrhizal bacteria, and these countless tiny interactions are also reflected in the shape, growth, taste and flavor of plants.
And scientists have discovered that beneath the forest, there is a mysterious network of plants and fungi: the All Forests Information Network.
Inseparable fungi
The Fermented Bible says, “In a way, the microbes we eat determine our metabolic capacity. ”
By microorganisms, I mean fungi.
Humans have a close relationship with fungi, and microorganisms in the body or gut are the best evidence.
Not only that, but we also use various fermentation equipment to work with fungi to produce the alcohol, soy sauce, vaccines, penicillin, or citric acid in carbonated drinks that we are familiar with, and we have established close cooperative behavior with fungi from the inside out.
Blood and Flesh of the Gods: Medications for the Soul
The chemical that has evolved from the fungus, psilocybin, has been classified as a psychedelic or religious hallucinogen, and has been incorporated into the rituals and spiritual teachings of human society since ancient times. The earliest use of this mushroom is currently recorded in Mexico, where monks presented this mushroom, known as the "flesh of gods", to the Emperor Aztec at the time of coronation.
This psychedelic mushroom can be used to relax the boundaries of our minds, soften the rigid habits of the mind, and even, scientists have found, contain active ingredients that can reduce severe depression and anxiety in patients with terminal cancer.
Eat Anything! Decomposed Artist
The space in which we now breathe and live is the space vacated by the decomposition of various biological remains by the fungus; if the fungus stops decomposing, the remains of the earth can accumulate to a depth of several kilometers.
The diverse metabolic capacity of fungi is the art of chemical transformation, capable of breaking down many of the most stubborn substances on Earth.
Wooden quality in wood is one of the most difficult substances to decompose, but for white rot, decomposition is a breeze.
Scientists are also trying to use the fungi ’ s good appetite to train them to break down cigarette butts, pesticides, diapers, PU plastics and deadly nerve gases, and even radioactive materials from nuclear waste — scientists have discovered that a “radiation-nourishing fungus ” that absorbs the energy emitted by radioactive particles thrives in the waste of Chernobyl, and Hiroshima is said to be the first organism to grow after the atomic bomb.
In the book, Merlin describes his research on fungi in the jungles of Panama and other places, exploring the development of fungi in different time and space contexts, cultures, and various fields (including the use of psychedelic mushrooms in person), documenting how scholars of fungi intersect, and describing the amazing achievements of fungi in technology.
Solid academic training, coupled with delicate observations and humanistic perspectives, has shown a more ambitious pattern and ambition for Fungi Microcosmos, and also depicts a more moving world.
Ultimately, what Merlin is trying to make us understand is that in this world, only fungi can connect all kinds of life together.
"We're alive, we're all breathing fungi!
Fungi make the world,
But it can also disintegrate the world. "
Editor-in-Chief: Weng Shihang
Editor ： Ding Zhaojiu
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Research into the mechanisms behind the Mozart Effect finds that any cognitive benefit likely stems not from unique properties of Mozart’s music, but from more general features such as emotional arousal and mood regulation.

Instrumental music that is calming and emotionally positive—traits found in various classical and non-classical genres—can help some individuals to focus and may facilitate memory or learning.

The key is that the music should not be distracting; lyrical or highly dramatic music can reduce performance.

Evidence from animal studies similarly suggests that classical music broadly, rather than only Mozart, can affect physiology.

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The doctor ’ s words / When the mentally retarded person meets the familiar sound
In 2023, an estimated 6.7 million Americans aged 65 and older have Alzheimer ’ s disease.
Dementia in the elderly is an incurable disease. It is easy for patients to become isolated, because they will feel isolated and helpless about their own uselessness, and they are used to being alone in order to avoid embarrassment.
In the latter stages, they often lose the ability to communicate with people around them.
It is very painful for the patients themselves and the caregivers and family members who care for them.
In recent years, it has been found that music therapy can intervene and make up for this lack of progress.
It also increases the patient ’ s engagement with the surrounding environment and reduces many neurological symptoms, such as anxiety, depression, and unexplained tantrums.
In other words, when people with dementia are unable to connect with their loved ones, that is, when they are unable to speak their language, music is the last bridge to interact with each other.
Q1: Do people with dementia have special feelings about music?
A1: According to nearly a decade of research by the Department of Neurology at Northwestern University, it has been found that even though people with dementia lose language and other memories, memories related to music often remain in the brain.
This is because areas of the brain involved in musical memory (e.g., the cerebellum) are not affected until late in the disease process.
Familiar music can help people with dementia recover certain aspects of their memory, make them feel calm, and greatly improve their mood.
Q2: Why do people with dementia remember their favorite songs?
A2: Although suffering from severe dementia, it means that a person has very little memory of their past.
Even if you can ’ t remember your son ’ s name, familiar songs that you ’ ve heard and sung will always come to mind.
Q3: In addition to music, is listening to the radio good for elderly people with dementia?
A3: In fact, the radio can not only provide good music, but also play emotional dialogue, which can truly relieve the loneliness of the dementia patient and bring comfort and peace.
Q4: How do people with dementia react to music?
A4: According to the research of clinical psychiatrists, it is found that people with dementia who are generally slow to respond to music, especially to their favorite music.
Hearing a familiar concert naturally shows a pleasant response, such as smiling or moving your body or even starting to dance.
And it seems to produce a unique and powerful stimulus response to familiar music that awakens the patient ’ s past personal and social connections.
In theory, if music can evoke memories, it may also help patients evoke other memories or related memories of that period.
In several studies, it has been consistently found that music tends to evoke more positive and positive memories from life than other clues.
Q5: Can music also prevent cognitive decline?
A5: Playing and listening to music can help slow the decline of cognitive function in older adults, according to a new study in Medical Journal Today.
Active note vibrations increase gray matter in certain areas of the brain and increase the plasticity of brain cells. Although music does not reverse or prevent brain cell shrinkage due to aging, it can slow cognitive decline.
Q6: What kind of music is most helpful?
A6: Studies have proved that classical music is the best choice.
The International Institute of Science calls this phenomenon the "Mozart effect."
It is recommended to listen to classical music such as Mozart, Bach, Beethoven and other famous composers.
Classical music seems to move the brain more easily than other music, is best suited for concentration, and is more able to produce substantial effects in absorbing new information.
Q7: Do musicians suffer from dementia?
A7: According to the International Institute of Science, a study of twins reported that musicians have a 64% lower risk of developing mild cognitive impairment or dementia.
The analysis of two other studies found that musicians had an average 59% lower risk of dementia.
Training and performance, which can be attributed to music, stimulates the brain and improves its ability to respond to the outside world.
Q8: Which organ is most stimulated by music?
A8: Although most activities such as visual art, computing, and language are mainly only half of the brain.
But music is one of the few that can pass through the auditory nerve and stimulate neurons on both sides of the brain at the same time.
Q9: How does music react in the brain?
A9: Music can promote the production of hormones dopamine and serotonin in the brain.
These are neurotransmitters that increase the sense of pleasure and ease.
There is also the so-called love hormone - oxytocin.
At the same time, research evidence shows that music can help reduce levels of the stress hormone cortisol, instantly relieving feelings of anxiety and depression.
Q10: How long does the music last?
A10: It ’ s a concern that in people with dementia, music can improve mood, behavior, and in some cases cognitive function, which, according to the Clinical Psychiatric Society, lasts for hours or even days after the music stops.
Q11: Can people without dementia benefit from music?
A11: A recent study suggests that playing an instrument and actively listening to music can help slow cognitive decline in people aged 62-78.
This study once again determined that musical activity increases the gray matter in many areas of the brain. Gray matter is an essential nerve tissue in the brain and spinal cord.
In particular, it plays an important role in psychology, memory, mood and movement. The increase in gray matter also increases the plasticity of the brain ’ s nerves – the brain ’ s ability to reconnect itself, which is important for learning cognition and memory preservation.
In addition to actively playing music, the 2023 study also showed that long-term music training, regardless of the age of the participants, can bring potential functional benefits to the brain and help keep the brain young and slow down aging.
(The author is a practicing physician in the Greater Washington area)
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Concerning specificity and magnitude, the cognitive improvements from listening to Mozart are modest and short-lived, if they occur at all.

Systematic reviews and recent studies in both adults and children have found no reliable or substantial effect on memory, learning, or spatial reasoning tasks.

When gains are observed, they tend to be individualized, temporary, and context-dependent—a possible mild boost in performance that fades soon after the music stops.

Claims that the Mozart Effect can mitigate conditions like epilepsy have not held up in rigorous research, and animal studies, while demonstrating physiological changes, do not clarify cognitive effects in humans.

Practical evidence from music interventions in educational settings supports the role of music in improving school engagement, emotional health, and certain academic skills, but these benefits are not unique to Mozart.

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“Music Inspiration Education ” Program Brings Music Lessons to Public Schools
Many capable parents send their children to study art or music, but music classes in schools can also foster students' confidence and improve academic performance; the Education Through Music program, which advocates education through music, is currently being promoted throughout the city, with more than 50 schools participating in the program, hoping to improve education through music.
Music Inspiration Education began more than 30 years ago with a program dedicated to recruiting music teachers for New York City public schools that lack funding to support arts education.
The founders found that if students don ’ t have access to music classes on campus, they may struggle to interact with music for life.
“We need to introduce music lessons on campus, which is good for students ’ growth, future development, motivation and their future, ” said Janice Weinman, CEO of the program.
According to education experts, music helps develop students ’ confidence and improve their academic performance.
Pamela Gathers-Bullard, principal of 154th Primary School in Queens, who participated in the project, said: “In music education, mathematics is the most important thing, and students must master the skills of counting the beat.
Second is the ability to read, students must learn to read notebooks.
Math and reading practice are key elements of what students and music teachers learn together.
We can clearly see that these students are making progress in their studies, "he said.
Music lessons also help both students and teachers express themselves better.
“At my school, music lessons allowed me to express my emotions through bands, ” says Keefe Martin, a teacher.
Many students who participate in Music Inspiration Education say they can ’ t imagine a school without music.
Not long ago, the 154th elementary school in Queens held a concert at the Perelman Performing Arts Center in Lower Manhattan, which was well received by the audience.
Currently, the majority of Math schools in which the Music Inspiration Education program and collaborates are located in the Bronx area.
In the vicinity of the Chinese community, in addition to Queens No. 154 Primary School in Fresh Meados, Queens Valley School of the Arts in Flushing and P.S. 958 Primary School in Sunset Park in Brooklyn are involved.
On May 26 next year, Music Inspiration Education will hold a student concert at 583 Park Avenue.
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Access to music education, including regular lessons, ensemble participation, and music breaks, is consistently associated with improved memory, attention, reading ability, emotional regulation, and classroom behavior.

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Content: How the difference between sound and noise can influence our ability to learn

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Of the five senses, the ability to sense sound is “undervalued and underappreciated,” and yet inextricably tied to our understanding of the world, says neuroscientist Nina Kraus.

“We live in a visually-oriented world,” says Kraus. Visual objects have “ingredients” such as size, texture and color. “So does sound. Sound is invisible but consists of so much information: pitch, timing, rhythm, timbre and phrase."

Kraus’s new book, "Of Sound Mind: How Our Brain Constructs a Meaningful Sonic World,” is her love letter to sound. Drawing on decades of research from her Brainvolts auditory neuroscience laboratory, she offers compelling insights for parents and teachers as they think about children’s sonic environment – and how everything from background noise to music lessons can influence brain development.

"Sound is easily overlooked, and yet it has a huge impact on who we are and how we engage with the world. Sound is a tremendously powerful force in our lives.”

Noise vs. sound

Put simply, noise is unwanted sound. While loud noises can damage our ears, Kraus is also concerned about so-called “safe noise” and its effects on children. “We live in a pretty noisy world,” says Kraus, and these constant, moderate amounts of noise “don't hurt our ears, but they hurt our brain.”

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Think about that moment when the dishwasher finishes its cycle or the neighbor shuts off the lawnmower. “You hadn't even noticed that those sounds were there. But when they are turned off, we breathe the sigh of relief because, from an evolutionary standpoint, sound is our alerting sense.” There’s a reason we are attuned to sounds at night, says Kraus. Our ancestors needed to be able to detect threats in the darkness. Noises, whether we are consciously aware of them, tax our brains because they keep us in a state of alert.

Shaping a Healthier Sonic World for Kids

There are things we can do to control and shape our sonic environment, says Kraus. First, we need to pay more attention to the noises that fill our homes and classrooms and think about which are and are not necessary. For example, do we need a ping every time we get a notification on our phone or computer? Does that iPad app your child is playing need the sound on to function, or are the beeps simply noise? We are, she says, too “cavalier about the sounds that we salt and pepper our lives with.”

Noise is almost always human-made, so spending time in nature offers children and adults a rejuvenating auditory experience. “You can go into a forest, and it's teeming with sound. There are brooks running, birds tweeting and animals moving around in the thicket.” These sounds help us connect to our environment and experience multi-sensory beauty. Silence, also, is part of a healthy sonic diet. “Quiet is part of sound. It's the space between the notes,” says Kraus, and removing noisy distractions and stimuli allows our brains to relax and wander to new places.

The effect of noise on children’s learning is a factor that must be considered in the efforts to increase educational equity. For example, studies have found that children whose classrooms were nearest the subway tracks – leading to higher decibel levels and more interruptions – underperformed on testing when compared to peers in classrooms on the opposite side of the school.

“We've done a number of studies of children in low-income areas,” says Kraus, “and we've found that there is a biological signature of poverty.” In these high-noise environments, sound processing in the brain can become diminished, and there can also be increased neural noise – or “background static in the brain.”

While teachers can’t control the external noise environment, they can do more to create auditory choices in the classroom. Anita Collins, a music educator and author of “The Music Advantage,” says that teachers often create classrooms that work best for them. “If teachers find a busy auditory environment stimulating, they create that in their classroom. But not all children will learn well in that environment.” During work-time, she recommends creating both collaborative learning spaces and quiet learning spaces, including access to noise-canceling headphones. And for whole-class experiences, balance moments of high auditory stimulus with moments of quiet. “Building in those tiny little changes in our teaching can be powerful. It lets kids say ‘I can control my environment and make choices that make me as productive as possible,’ and that’s a wonderful skill to take into adulthood,” says Collins.

The ameliorating effects of music and language learning

Music and learning an additional language both have a powerful effect on cognition. Kraus notes that for low-income children who are bilingual, the “neural signature of poverty is lessened.” For all children, “learning another language as early as possible has a tremendous benefit in strengthening the sound mind, reading skills and the kinds of processing skills that children need to learn.”

In addition, music education – from beat-keeping to note-reading – offers clear cognitive benefits to children. “In my view,” says Kraus, “music should be a part of every child's education. It should be a priority as important as learning to read and write. And in fact, playing music will help the reading, writing and arithmetic, in addition to the other ways that it strengthens brain development.”

Adults have a responsibility to create nourishing sound experiences for children, says Kraus. “If we are aware of our sonic environment, and the environment that we create in our homes, in our schools and in our communities, we can work towards doing our part of getting rid of unnecessary sounds and stimulating children to listen to birds, to listen to each other, to honor the wonderful and rich information that is contained in sound.”

Large school district evaluations have found that children involved in music programs often have better reading scores, greater graduation likelihood, and stronger listening skills than peers without music education.

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Baltimore County Public Schools’ music education program earns national recognition for 17th consecutive year

NottinghamMD.com
 3 days ago

TOWSON, MD— Baltimore County Public Schools has been honored with the Best Communities for Music Education designation from The NAMM Foundation for its outstanding commitment to music education. This is the 17th consecutive year that BCPS has earned this recognition.

Now in its 24th year, the Best Communities for Music Education designation is awarded to school systems that demonstrate outstanding achievement in efforts to provide music access and education to all students. To qualify for the Best Communities designation, BCPS answered detailed questions about funding, graduation requirements, music class participation, instruction time, facilities, support for the music program, and community music-making programs. Responses were verified with school officials and reviewed by The Music Research Institute at the University of Kansas.

“Music education is alive and well in Baltimore County Public Schools,” said Sherri Fisher, director of BCPS Career & Technical Education and Fine Arts. “Receiving this national recognition for the 17th consecutive year is evidence of the remarkable collaboration and commitment exemplified by the music education community in BCPS.”

“I am so proud that BCPS offers such a challenging and engaging music education experience for our students,” said BCPS Superintendent Dr. Darryl L. Williams. “We know that this program is essential to their overall success as students and to their wellbeing and personal development. I salute our outstanding music educators and students for continuing our legacy of excellence in music education.”

BCPS students can choose among extensive offerings including courses in music and audio technology, world music, and Advanced Placement Music Theory. Students perform throughout the community in choral groups, jazz ensembles, steel pan ensembles, orchestras, marching bands, ukulele, and student composition. In addition, partnerships with the area’s leading arts organizations provide opportunities to see and interact with professional musicians.

Research into music education continues to demonstrate educational/cognitive and social skills benefits for children who make music. Researchers found that participants with two years of music education showed more substantial improvements in reading scores than their less-involved peers and that students who are involved in music are more likely to graduate high school and attend college. Everyday listening skills are stronger in musically trained children than in those without music training. Significantly, listening skills are closely tied to the ability to perceive speech in a noisy background, pay attention, and keep sounds in memory.

Experts say music education has shown to be critical to engaging students, building relationships, and creating a foundation for academic learning.

The post Baltimore County Public Schools’ music education program earns national recognition for 17th consecutive year appeared first on Nottingham MD .

Integrating music with the curriculum, such as using rhythm exercises to teach math, yields the largest academic gains, most strongly in younger children and for foundational skills.

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Content: Saturday, July 1, 2023
The main theme of our lives is music.
Is it the solution to be stronger in mathematics?
The music...
Is it the solution to be stronger in mathematics?
“Encouraging math and music teachers to plan to present their lessons together can help reduce students ’ anxiety about math. ”
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Studies have shown that listening to music helps children improve their math scores, especially when music is an integral part of their lessons.
What if music makes math more fun?
This was suggested by researchers from the University of Antalya (Turkey) in a study, in which researchers analyzed academic databases, a research on the link between music and math scores, published between 1975 and 2022, and tracked participants from children ’ s homes to the university.
Three types of musical interventions were included in the meta-analysis: standard musical interventions (typical music lessons, where children sing, listen to and compose music), musical interventions (lessons where children learn to play an instrument, either individually or in a group) and integrated interventions in mathematics and music, where music is integrated into math lessons.
Before and after participating in these interventions, students took math tests, and their results were compared to those of young people who did not participate in the course.
According to work published in the journal Educational Studies, the use of music, either in separate lessons or as part of math classes, has been associated with greater improvement in math over time.
Moreover, classes that combine math and music have the most impact.
About 73% of students who received integrated interventions performed significantly better than those who did not receive the same interventions.
69% of students who learned to play an instrument and 58% of students who took regular music lessons improved more than students who did not participate in any musical intervention.
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The authors added that music makes arithmetic easier when learning compared to other types of math, and has a greater impact on younger students and those learning basic math concepts.
Common points between mathematics and music
According to Ayça Akın, author of the study, “Mathematics and music have many commonalities, such as the use of symbols and symmetry.
Both subjects also require abstract thinking and quantitative thinking.
Computation especially allows people to learn it through music, because basic concepts, such as fractions and proportions, are also essential materials for music. ”
“Encouraging math and music teachers to plan to deliver their lessons together can help reduce students ’ anxiety about math, while improving outcomes. ”
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Structured music activities also support social and emotional development, reduce anxiety, and improve classroom climate.

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Content: Music is not only great for listening to, but it’s great for you. No matter if it is choir, band, orchestra or a mix of them all, musical interaction is wondrous for mental health, cooperation and social skills, and it can an lessen anxiety and depression. These courses are great for improving the human logical and learning mind, as well.

When young children are introduced to music, it positively affects their mental health and improves cognitive and social skills. These kids learn how to work in teams and sections, yet stay independent.

In middle and high school, when these courses proceed to get more challenging, teenagers figure out more problem-solving abilities and how to perform and behave in front of hundreds of people. They learn skills that assist with hand-eye coordination, like being able to read a sheet of music, tap your foot, control your breath or bow, and move both of your hands separately, yet at the same time.

We, as a community, should implement more music courses in our schools, from elementary on up. It needs to be a requirement.

Naomi Rupe

Pioneer Middle School

Walla Walla

However, critical analysis warns against overstating the original claims of the Mozart Effect.

Title:

Content: 13 April 2022, 20: 25
Musician from Karelia played on the washing board on the show “Talent ”
Vladimir Ryokhov is convinced that amateurish music is a good thing!
Text: Helga Belyantseva
Petrozavodsk resident Vladimir Ryokhov took part in the show "Talent" on the channel "Friday".
The issue, in which the 30-year-old musician “lit up ”, was released on April 8.
In the show, he was presented as a "musical inventor".
Vladimir demonstrated the game on unusual tools - a washing board, a suitcase and a bagpipe made of rubber gloves.
Members of the jury – Olga Buzova, Karina Cross and Vladimir Marconi – appreciated the performance of the Karelian nugget.
Vladimir received two votes out of three and was allowed to vote for the audience (see the video below).
At the show, the musician performed under his real name - Natalchuk, but he is better known under the pseudonym Ryokhov.
In Petrozavodsk, Vladimir was a member of two musical groups: Tin Hills and Koromyslo.
And thanks to the game on the washing board, the records of which he posted on the Internet, he was recognized far beyond Karelia.
“Since childhood, I loved to whistle, squeak and extract various sounds from various objects, ” Vladimir said during the broadcast. – Whistle on birch bark, blades of grass, made firecrackers.
And the more non-standard the subject, the more interesting I was...
I love all kinds of experiments.
I came to the show to show that music is not just Bach and Stravinsky, it's ordinary people like you and me, and that music is everywhere.
Three notes is music. ”
About his attitude to music, passion for unusual musical instruments, as well as participation in the show “Talent ” Vladimir Ryokhov told the portal“ Petrozavodsk says ”.
— I am an ethnomusicologist, graduated from the Petrozavodsk Conservatory, studied Finno-Ugric music.
In music school I studied to play the accordion, now sometimes I take it in my hands, played in a band on a mandolin, I have a little bit of a harmonica.
I also play various flutes, Irish whistle.
“Recently, I tried myself as a music teacher in one of the Petrozavodsk schools, and realized that this is not mine at all.
I just can ’ t give what I don ’ t volunteer. ”
I ’ m currently working on robotics for kids.
This is a very useful activity not only for the guys, but also for me.
Based on the constructor, we create first non-programmable, and then programmable models.
And the rudiments of programming are a very important skill in our time.
I myself delve more and more into this topic – and how interesting it is, so many creative opportunities!
I also make folk instruments, different pipes, flutes, sell to musicians.
Why are you called a “musical inventor ”?
I don ’ t invent anything myself.
There is a common image of the instrument, and I recreate it.
Take, for example, a bagpipe from a glove.
I looked at how our torpias work (Torpias – Karelian, Finnish and Estonian instrument, a kind of bagpipe. – Ed.), and made something similar from a rubber glove.
In fact, all the inventions that are now being made are combined from what already exists.
Rubber glove bagpipes have existed before, but they are usually either bulky or don ’ t sound good.
For my bagpipes, I made sticks of balloons.
I don't think anyone's ever done that before.
And these cakes turned out in the image and likeness of Finno-Ugric bagpipes, which are different from the Scottish and Irish ones.
How did you come up with the idea of playing on the washing board?
A long time ago I read in a book about the Beatles that they had a washing board in the early members of The Quarrymen, until John Lennon smashed it against the head of one of the band members.
And when I saw the cool blues musician Washboard Chaz playing it, I was so impressed that I decided to try it myself.
And this has led to the fact that my creativity, at least at the local level, became interested.
Thanks to the social network TikTok, which is now, unfortunately, closed to us, there were connections with musicians from other countries.
“This is a very special environment – there people who are interested in the same topic can find each other.
For example, some musician placed his composition on the banjo, I played him on the washing board, and then someone played me and so on. "
What did you do on the talent show?
- I was asked to show all the most interesting things that can be combined into one number.
I took a kalyuk (overtone flute) of my own making, a washing board, a suitcase and a bagpipe from a rubber glove.
Played on everything in turn.
How did you get on the show?
- When I posted a video with a bagpipe made of rubber gloves in TikTok, a girl from the Friday channel wrote to me in the comments and invited me to participate in the program.
So I decided to go for an interest.
That was back in November last year.
And in February-March there was a shooting.
— And the results when it became clear — during the filming or after the release of the program?
- Who was allowed to participate in the audience vote, we learned already during the filming, when we spoke before the jury.
They let me in.
But I immediately decided that I would not fight for votes.
There were numbers more worthy of attention.
What was the cost of a pole dance performed by a woman of 68 years!
And it was just amazing.
I was sorry that the guy who made the cotton candy figurines didn't turn out very well.
The conditions in the studio were not perfect.
There were still interesting people who participated in other releases - an ensemble of drummers, for example.
What emotions did you get from participating in the show?
Was there excitement?
Of course I had to worry.
I never took a bagpipe out of the house before.
And so, at the rehearsal before shooting, I unpack the suitcase, collect all the accessories, inflate the bagpipe, go to the shooting pavilion - and she plays incomprehensible.
I tell the director: “I warned you that the instrument is unstable.
I ’ ll fix it tomorrow. ”
Then I was sitting in the dressing room with a knife for an hour or a half, cutting something out, plucking.
And it turned out that the glove itself just stretched out, lost its elasticity, because I brought it into the room from the frost and began to inflate immediately.
Good thing I got a second spare bagpipe.
Did you make any special sense in your performance at the competition?
What were you trying to convey to the audience?
“I went to the competition with the message that music is easy.
I think anyone can be a musician.
When you can even play music a little, you can hear it much better.
It is transformed from just aesthetic pleasure into mathematical - not one hemisphere works, but both at once.
This is confirmed by research. ”
Do you think that this theory fits the idea that listening to music can affect mental development?
For example, it is recommended to give listening to Mozart to young children.
- Maybe...
But it seems to me that Mozart is too much extolled.
They underestimate other music.
Now in the school music textbook it is written that pop music is bad, that amateurs filled everything.
In another technique, Dr. Bloch is quoted as saying that rock music destroys the brain, affects the genetic code...
It's all rubbish.
Dilettante music is good!

Effects are not guaranteed, not all children benefit equally, and there is no evidence supporting large or enduring cognitive improvements simply from passive listening.

Teachers who wish to use music to improve student performance should prioritize high-quality, instrumental selections—classical or otherwise—that suit the learning atmosphere, encourage experimentation to find what works for their class, and integrate music with a variety of teaching and self-regulation strategies.

Music in the classroom is best understood as a valuable complement to educational practice, supporting both cognitive and emotional development, instead of a direct or exclusive route to higher intelligence.