I got rhy-thm?

Music LearningNeural Development
Written By Lea Faes

Do you or don’t you? Do you know someone who seems to have rhythm coming out of every part or pore and other people who couldn’t walk to a beat if their life depended on it?

How much is innate and how much is learned? Rhythm is becoming one of the most researched areas in the neuromusical field. The reason for this focus is that it is illuminating a fundamental function in the human brain, the efficient, syncronised and faster transference of information.

This study seeks to find the very place where rhythm ability could be located in the brain. They are looking specifically in the corpus callosum, the fibrous bridge between the two brain hemispheres. This bridge was one of the first areas of the brain that was found to be highly developed in musicians.

The study found that “the anterior parts of the corpus callosum may reflect innate differences in the processing of the rhythmic aspects of music”. But, with all questions in cognitive development, can that innate difference be influenced by experience and education?

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Lea Faes
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