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I’m always fascinated by brain studies that confirm long-held (but previously unprovable) hunches, like the idea that musicians’ brains are different than regular folks’. As an amateur musician myself (Higgins actually taught me to play guitar when we were teenagers), I know there’s something going on when I’m burnin’ up the fretboard; for one thing, like many guitarists I get “guitar face” — a strange kind of grimace overtakes my features, and it’s really tough to control. (Witness BB King’s trademark guitar face at left.) So what in Sam Hill’s going on in my brain?
Recently, two very different studies were conducted on musicians’ cognition. The first one stuck jazz musicians in MRI machines and had them play — while trapped in the most unpleasant, claustrophobic tube imaginable. What they found was that “large areas of the brain responsible for monitoring ones own behavior” all but shut down — which helps explain both guitar face, and the lack of inhibition that “in the zone” musicians seem to experience. Other brain patterns seemed to emulate a kind of dream state. Most interestingly, the researchers were able to conclude that there is no single area of the brain responsible for creativity — instead they saw “a strong and consistent pattern of activity throughout the brain that enables creativity.”
That last analysis very much supports the results of the second study, which compared to sticking sax players in MRI machines was pretty low-tech: researchers asked a group of piano, string wind and percussion players in invent “new uses for everyday household objects” — and on average, they came up with 14 more uses than nonmusicians did. (Then just for good measure, they decided to stick ‘em in an MRI anyway.) What they discovered was pretty fascinating: musicians use more of both hemispheres, more frequently than regular folks do — which explains why they can read notes on a page (a left-brain activity) and immediately turn them into music (a right-brain activity).
So it turns out rock ‘n’ roll doesn’t kill your brain after all!
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interesting article! i never considered myself much of a creative person, but since playing instruments comes fairly easily to me, i guess i am!
posted by kelly on 10-7-2008 at 10:39 am
As a musician myself, I concur with these studies. It’s been said that the average person uses 10% of their brain (at any one time, if your whole brain was functioning all at once, you’d be experiencing a grand mal seizure), but musicians use 20% of their brain whilst performing.
posted by Amy D on 10-7-2008 at 12:03 pm
Now I know why I can’t read sheet music and play at the same time. It’s because just because I play music doesn’t mean I am a musician.
posted by Marty on 10-7-2008 at 12:36 pm
i just read B. B. King’s autobiography (very interesting read, btw). he says that one of his wives used to call him “Ol’ Lemon Face” due to the faces he would make while playing.
posted by the creature on 10-7-2008 at 1:37 pm
Awesome post. Glad to see that first study get some more attention, it’s one of the coolest experiments done this year. My name links to a write-up of the study I did when the research was published.
posted by Matt Soniak on 10-7-2008 at 3:01 pm
My boyfriend will love this article! My friends and I are Phish fans, and love the ‘autistic’ face that Trey makes while jamming, the better the face the better the jam
posted by Dayna on 10-7-2008 at 3:02 pm
But duuuude, surely you don’t read _notes_ when playing rock’n'rollah?
posted by jabsonik on 10-8-2008 at 5:01 am
Great article! Increasingly, science proves music to be more than just a fluffy human by-product!
Amy D. – The 10% brain thing is a myth. (No biggie; I used to think the same thing too, but what a relief, no?) Check it on Snopes!
posted by tona b. on 10-8-2008 at 8:04 pm
*wanders in*
Actually, part of the reason musicians, especially guitar players, make faces is because of overflow. Specifically, the the parts of the brain where the nerve signals from the hands and mouth wind up are next to each other. When most of us do something requiring concentration/intense focus with our hands, the messages often overflow to the mouth area. Tis why many people stick out their tongues when writing; overflow.
posted by Alli on 10-11-2008 at 9:16 pm
Interesting article. My husband and I are both musicians and live in an area when the musician population seems to flourish. We spend time jamming with our friends on a weekly basis. Many of the people in our group of friends are extremely talented musicians, however, not one of us reads music. We simply determine the key the music is being played in and go from there. Based on our festival travels, this seems to be a popular method for a lot of musicians since you can’t carry 20 books of sheet music with you wherever you go. So I wonder where we stand? Perhaps this is an idea for another study…
posted by Stevie on 10-13-2008 at 1:06 pm
“What they found was that “large areas of the brain responsible for monitoring ones own behavior” all but shut down — which helps explain both guitar face, and the lack of inhibition that “in the zone” musicians seem to experience.”
Finally…someone’s able to explain my ex…LOL!
posted by Hippie Chick on 10-13-2008 at 6:20 pm