From VOA Learning English, this is Science in the News. I’m Christopher Cruise. Today we tell about experiments at a major university1 in the United States. Northwestern2 University researchers3 are studying how music affects the human brain4. Jim Tedder has the story.
It doesn’t matter whether5 you play a guitar, a piano, a horn6, or a drum7. And what kind of8 music you play9 is not important. Maybe10 you like to play classical music like this.
Or maybe you like to play this kind of music.
Or this…
Or even11 this…
Just play it! It will do good things12 for your body because…
“We’ve known for some time that playing a musical instrument can change13 the anatomy as well as14 the function and the way the brain works15.”
Nina Kraus is a professor at Northwestern University near Chicago, Illinois. She is also the head16 of the Auditory-Neuroscience Laboratory, where she investigates how music affects the human body.
Recently17, she did tests in her lab18 using forty-five volunteers19. Some of them had taken music classes20 and played an instrument, and others had not.
“People will play and study a musical instrument for some time in their lives21 and then that’s it! And we wanted to know did this early experience22 have a lasting effect23 on the way the nervous system responded to sound.”
Professor Kraus began by24 gently placing25 electrodes onto the heads of the volunteers. The wires26 from these electrical devices27 were then connected to a computer.
“Nerves in your brain that respond to sound give off29 electricity, and we can capture that electricity, and we can determine how does your nervous system respond to speech30, to music, to elements of sound that we think are important for communication.”
One of the simplest sounds30 played for the volunteers was “da”. Listen carefully31 because the sound is very short and quick32.
Here is the sound again.
After the human brain processed the sound, it sounded like33 this.
That sound came through34 the computer and was played on a speaker35. Again…
The volunteers also heard36 other sounds, like this music from the British rock group “Deep Purple”. Here is a very small part of the song “Smoke37 on the Water.” Listen carefully.
Now, here is what it sounded like on a speaker after going through the brain of a volunteer.
The second sound is not as clear as38 the first, but it provided39 the information needed to be studied on a computer screen. Ms. Kraus says she could see an important difference in the way40 the processed sounds looked.
“These young adults who received formal music instruction as children had more robust neural responses to sound than peers41 who had never participated in music lessons.”
She says she could look at the computer screen42 and easily43 see who was a musician44, and who was not. The computer screen’s graph, or picture of the sound, was larger for the volunteers who played music.
Every sound we hear has a main45 or “fundamental” frequency. This helps us determine the “pitch46”. In music, that helps us decide if one sound, or musical note, is higher or lower47 than another. So, for a musician…
“The responses to this fundamental frequency that carries48 pitch information was simply49 larger in magnitude. The voltages, the electrical activity, was larger in response to these pitch elements.”
Professor Kraus says the people tested in the experiment could have been listening to any kind50 of sound, or any kind of music.They could even have been asleep51. She could still see how their brains were understanding and identifying what they were hearing.
So now we know that the brains of musicians are different from those of other people. “What is the big deal?52” Why is this important? According to53 Nina Kraus, that matters a lot as we get older54.
It doesn’t matter whether5 you play a guitar, a piano, a horn6, or a drum7. And what kind of8 music you play9 is not important. Maybe10 you like to play classical music like this.
Or maybe you like to play this kind of music.
Or this…
Or even11 this…
Just play it! It will do good things12 for your body because…
“We’ve known for some time that playing a musical instrument can change13 the anatomy as well as14 the function and the way the brain works15.”
Nina Kraus is a professor at Northwestern University near Chicago, Illinois. She is also the head16 of the Auditory-Neuroscience Laboratory, where she investigates how music affects the human body.
Recently17, she did tests in her lab18 using forty-five volunteers19. Some of them had taken music classes20 and played an instrument, and others had not.
“People will play and study a musical instrument for some time in their lives21 and then that’s it! And we wanted to know did this early experience22 have a lasting effect23 on the way the nervous system responded to sound.”
Professor Kraus began by24 gently placing25 electrodes onto the heads of the volunteers. The wires26 from these electrical devices27 were then connected to a computer.
“Nerves in your brain that respond to sound give off29 electricity, and we can capture that electricity, and we can determine how does your nervous system respond to speech30, to music, to elements of sound that we think are important for communication.”
One of the simplest sounds30 played for the volunteers was “da”. Listen carefully31 because the sound is very short and quick32.
Here is the sound again.
After the human brain processed the sound, it sounded like33 this.
That sound came through34 the computer and was played on a speaker35. Again…
The volunteers also heard36 other sounds, like this music from the British rock group “Deep Purple”. Here is a very small part of the song “Smoke37 on the Water.” Listen carefully.
Now, here is what it sounded like on a speaker after going through the brain of a volunteer.
The second sound is not as clear as38 the first, but it provided39 the information needed to be studied on a computer screen. Ms. Kraus says she could see an important difference in the way40 the processed sounds looked.
“These young adults who received formal music instruction as children had more robust neural responses to sound than peers41 who had never participated in music lessons.”
She says she could look at the computer screen42 and easily43 see who was a musician44, and who was not. The computer screen’s graph, or picture of the sound, was larger for the volunteers who played music.
Every sound we hear has a main45 or “fundamental” frequency. This helps us determine the “pitch46”. In music, that helps us decide if one sound, or musical note, is higher or lower47 than another. So, for a musician…
“The responses to this fundamental frequency that carries48 pitch information was simply49 larger in magnitude. The voltages, the electrical activity, was larger in response to these pitch elements.”
Professor Kraus says the people tested in the experiment could have been listening to any kind50 of sound, or any kind of music.They could even have been asleep51. She could still see how their brains were understanding and identifying what they were hearing.
So now we know that the brains of musicians are different from those of other people. “What is the big deal?52” Why is this important? According to53 Nina Kraus, that matters a lot as we get older54.
Many people notice that55, as the years go by56, their hearing gets worse57. Just hearing an old friend’s voice in a noisy place58 can be difficult. But if you have ever played a musical instrument…
“Your nervous system automatically gets good at responding to sounds that the brain has learned are important.”
VOCABULARY
1. major university = Universidade importante
2. Northwestern = região Noroeste
3. researchers = pesquisadores
4. human brain = cérebro humano
5. It doesn’t matter whether = não importa se (ou não)
6. Horn = sirene
7. Drum = bateria
8. what kind of = que tipo de
9. play = toca
10. Maybe = talvez
11. Or even = ou até mesmo
12. It will do good things = fará coisas boas
13. change = mudra
14. as well as = assim como
15. the way the brain works = a forma como o cérebro funciona
16. head = chefe, cabeça
17. Recently = recentemente
18. lab = laboratorio
19. volunteers = voluntarios
20. had taken music classes = tinham feito
21. lives = vidas
22. early experience = experiencia inicial
23. lasting effect = efeito duradouro
24. began by = começou por
25. gently placing = colocar gentilmente
26. wires = fios
27. electrical devices = dispositivos elétricos
28. give off = soltam, liberam
29. speech = fala, discurso
30. One of the simplest sounds = um dos sons mais simples
31. Listen carefully = ouça cuidadosamente
32. short and quick = curto e rápido
33. sounded like = parecia com
34. came through = veio através
35. speaker = alto-falante
36. heard = escutaram
37. Smoke = fumaça
38. is not as clear as = não é tão claro quanto
39. provided = forneceu
40. way = forma
41. peers = iguais, semelhantes
42. computer screen = tela de computador
43. easily = facilmente
44. musician = musico
45. main = principal
46. higher or lower = mais alto ou mais baixo
47. pitch = frequencia
48. carries = carrega
49. simply = simplesmente
50. any kind = qualquer tipo
51. could even have been asleep = poderia até mesmo ter estado adormecido
52. What is the big deal? = qual é o grande negocio
53. According to = de acordo com
54. that matters a lot as we get older = isso importa muito a medida em que ficamos mais velhos
55. notice that = observam que
56. as the years go by = à medida em que os anos passam
57. gets worse = piora
58. noisy place = lugar barulhento
“Your nervous system automatically gets good at responding to sounds that the brain has learned are important.”
VOCABULARY
1. major university = Universidade importante
2. Northwestern = região Noroeste
3. researchers = pesquisadores
4. human brain = cérebro humano
5. It doesn’t matter whether = não importa se (ou não)
6. Horn = sirene
7. Drum = bateria
8. what kind of = que tipo de
9. play = toca
10. Maybe = talvez
11. Or even = ou até mesmo
12. It will do good things = fará coisas boas
13. change = mudra
14. as well as = assim como
15. the way the brain works = a forma como o cérebro funciona
16. head = chefe, cabeça
17. Recently = recentemente
18. lab = laboratorio
19. volunteers = voluntarios
20. had taken music classes = tinham feito
21. lives = vidas
22. early experience = experiencia inicial
23. lasting effect = efeito duradouro
24. began by = começou por
25. gently placing = colocar gentilmente
26. wires = fios
27. electrical devices = dispositivos elétricos
28. give off = soltam, liberam
29. speech = fala, discurso
30. One of the simplest sounds = um dos sons mais simples
31. Listen carefully = ouça cuidadosamente
32. short and quick = curto e rápido
33. sounded like = parecia com
34. came through = veio através
35. speaker = alto-falante
36. heard = escutaram
37. Smoke = fumaça
38. is not as clear as = não é tão claro quanto
39. provided = forneceu
40. way = forma
41. peers = iguais, semelhantes
42. computer screen = tela de computador
43. easily = facilmente
44. musician = musico
45. main = principal
46. higher or lower = mais alto ou mais baixo
47. pitch = frequencia
48. carries = carrega
49. simply = simplesmente
50. any kind = qualquer tipo
51. could even have been asleep = poderia até mesmo ter estado adormecido
52. What is the big deal? = qual é o grande negocio
53. According to = de acordo com
54. that matters a lot as we get older = isso importa muito a medida em que ficamos mais velhos
55. notice that = observam que
56. as the years go by = à medida em que os anos passam
57. gets worse = piora
58. noisy place = lugar barulhento
