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This week I read an article in the New York Times called Skilled Ear for Music May Help Language.  The article described a study performed to determine the impact that music training has on those learning Chinese.  The study asked 20 non Chinese speakers, half of which had no music background and half who had at least 6 years of musical training, to listen to three pronounciations of the Chinese word mi which has three different meanings.  The brain activity showed that those with music training responded better to the Chinese sounds and were able to process the difference in sounds better.  Some believe that this works in reverse too.  In other words, native speakers of tonal languages may learn instruments better for the same reasons.

I wrote my first web paper about the impact of music therapy on Autism, so this article was particularly interesting to me.  It seems like music can profoundly impact our brains in many different ways.  It is evidence like this that makes me wonder how the brain interprets and reacts to music differently from other sounds, words, or languages.  In a broader sense, it makes me curious about how we are able to impact and strengthen different areas of the brain.  If musically trained people are able to learn Chinese faster, what other activities strengthen certain areas of the brain?  Are there activities that can weaken parts of the brain?