Did
you
know
that
every
time
musicians
pick
up
their
____________________
,
there
are
fireworks
going
off
all
over
their
brain
?
On
the
outside
,
they
may
look
calm
and
focused
,
reading
the
music
and
making
the
precise
and
practiced
____________________
required
.
But
inside
their
brains
,
there's
a
party
going
on
.
How
do
we
know
this
?
Well
,
in
the
last
few
decades
,
____________________
have
made
enormous
breakthroughs
in
understanding
how
our
brains
work
by
____________________
them
in
real
time
with
instruments
like
fMRI
and
PET
scanners
.
When
people
are
hooked
up
to
these
machines
,
tasks
,
such
as
____________________
or
doing
math
problems
,
each
have
corresponding
____________________
of
the
brain
where
activity
can
be
observed
.
But
when
researchers
got
the
participants
to
listen
to
____________________
,
they
saw
fireworks
.
Multiple
areas
of
their
brains
were
lighting
up
at
once
,
as
they
processed
the
____________________
,
took
it
apart
to
understand
elements
like
____________________
and
rhythm
,
and
then
put
it
all
back
together
into
unified
musical
experience
.
And
our
brains
do
all
this
work
in
the
split
second
between
when
we
first
____________________
the
music
and
when
our
foot
starts
to
tap
along
.
But
when
____________________
turned
from
observing
the
brains
of
music
listeners
to
those
of
____________________
,
the
little
backyard
fireworks
became
a
____________________
.
It
turns
out
that
while
listening
to
music
____________________
the
brain
in
some
pretty
interesting
activities
,
playing
music
is
the
brain's
equivalent
of
a
full
-
body
____________________
.
The
neuroscientists
saw
multiple
areas
of
the
____________________
light
up
,
simultaneously
processing
different
information
in
intricate
,
interrelated
,
and
astonishingly
fast
sequences
.
But
what
is
it
about
making
music
that
sets
the
brain
alight
?
The
research
is
still
fairly
new
,
but
neuroscientists
have
a
pretty
good
____________________
.
Playing
a
musical
instrument
engages
practically
every
area
of
the
brain
at
once
,
especially
the
visual
,
____________________
,
and
motor
cortices
.
As
with
any
other
workout
,
disciplined
,
structured
practice
in
playing
music
strengthens
those
brain
functions
,
allowing
us
to
apply
that
strength
to
other
activities
.
The
most
obvious
difference
between
listening
to
music
and
____________________
it
is
that
the
latter
requires
fine
motor
____________________
,
which
are
controlled
in
both
hemispheres
of
the
brain
.
It
also
combines
the
linguistic
and
mathematical
precision
,
in
which
the
left
____________________
is
more
involved
,
with
the
novel
and
creative
content
that
the
right
excels
in
.
For
these
reasons
,
playing
music
has
been
found
to
increase
the
volume
and
____________________
in
the
brain's
corpus
callosum
,
the
bridge
between
the
two
hemispheres
,
allowing
messages
to
get
across
the
brain
faster
and
through
more
diverse
routes
.
This
may
allow
musicians
to
solve
____________________
more
effectively
and
____________________
,
in
both
academic
and
social
settings
.
Because
making
music
also
involves
crafting
and
understanding
its
emotional
content
and
message
,
musicians
often
have
higher
levels
of
executive
____________________
,
a
category
of
interlinked
tasks
that
includes
____________________
,
strategizing
,
and
attention
to
detail
and
requires
simultaneous
analysis
of
both
cognitive
and
emotional
____________________
.
This
ability
also
has
an
impact
on
how
our
memory
systems
work
.
And
,
indeed
,
musicians
exhibit
enhanced
memory
functions
,
creating
,
storing
,
and
retrieving
memories
more
quickly
and
efficiently
.
Studies
have
found
that
musicians
appear
to
use
their
highly
connected
brains
to
give
each
memory
multiple
____________________
,
such
as
a
conceptual
tag
,
an
emotional
tag
,
an
audio
tag
,
and
a
contextual
tag
,
like
a
good
Internet
search
engine
.
How
do
we
know
that
all
these
benefits
are
unique
to
music
,
as
opposed
to
,
say
,
sports
or
____________________
?
Or
could
it
be
that
people
who
go
into
music
were
already
smarter
to
begin
with
?
Neuroscientists
have
explored
these
____________________
,
but
so
far
,
they
have
found
that
the
artistic
and
aesthetic
aspects
of
____________________
to
play
a
musical
instrument
are
different
from
any
other
____________________
studied
,
including
other
arts
.
And
several
randomized
studies
of
participants
,
who
showed
the
same
levels
of
____________________
function
and
neural
processing
at
the
start
,
found
that
those
who
were
exposed
to
a
period
of
music
learning
showed
____________________
in
multiple
brain
areas
,
compared
to
the
others
.
This
recent
research
about
the
mental
benefits
of
playing
music
has
advanced
our
understanding
of
____________________
function
,
revealing
the
inner
rhythms
and
complex
interplay
that
make
up
the
amazing
orchestra
of
our
____________________
.
