音樂(lè)和非文字記憶
Even if you haven’t touched a piano in years, if you suffered through music lessons as a kid you may have benefited from those lessons in ways you wouldn’t expect. When you train on a musical instrument your brain is stimulated and changes and develops as a result. Because the parts of the brain are interconnected this stimulation doesn’t affect musical ability only.
Psychologists have discovered that the stimulation musical training enacts on the left temporal region of your brain enhances verbal memory. People with musical training are significantly better at recalling words from a list and learning new words. What’s more, the longer the duration of musical training, the better the verbal memory.
So while children who study music for two years demonstrate better verbal memory than children who have not studied music, children who continue to study music
continue to improve their verbal memory. The good news for those of us who trained on musical instruments but quit at some point is that we don’t seem to lose the verbal benefits we gain from this training.
Scientists are particularly interested in what this suggests about the interconnectedness of the brain and thus the predictability of the effects of stimulation to a brain area on cognitive functions located in that area. Further research may lead to developments in cognitive rehabilitation for people with brain injuries. For example, in order to rebuild verbal memory in patients with injury to that part of the brain, doctors may prescribe music lessons.
即使你已經(jīng)很久沒(méi)有彈鋼琴,但只要你小時(shí)候?qū)W過(guò)鋼琴,你就能在各個(gè)意想不到的方面受益于這些鋼琴課。當(dāng)你在訓(xùn)練一種樂(lè)器時(shí),大腦受到刺激而變化生長(zhǎng)。由于大腦的各個(gè)部分是相互連接的,這種刺激不會(huì)只影響到音樂(lè)能力。
心理學(xué)家還發(fā)現(xiàn),這種音樂(lè)刺激訓(xùn)練擔(dān)當(dāng)大腦的左顳區(qū)可以提高非文字記憶。接受過(guò)音樂(lè)訓(xùn)練的人能夠更容易記住單詞,學(xué)習(xí)新的單詞也更容易。更重要的是,音樂(lè)訓(xùn)練的時(shí)間越久,非文字記憶能力越強(qiáng)。
因此,學(xué)過(guò)兩年音樂(lè)的孩子,他們的非文字記憶比沒(méi)學(xué)過(guò)音樂(lè)的孩子要強(qiáng)得多,而繼續(xù)學(xué)習(xí)音樂(lè)孩子的記憶會(huì)隨之提高。有個(gè)好消息,對(duì)于那些學(xué)過(guò)樂(lè)器后來(lái)又放棄的同學(xué),你們并不會(huì)失去這種訓(xùn)練的好處。
科學(xué)家們對(duì)大腦的這種相互連接特別感興趣,從而預(yù)測(cè)音樂(lè)刺激對(duì)大腦認(rèn)知能力的影響就在這個(gè)區(qū)域。進(jìn)一步的研究可能導(dǎo)向?qū)δX損傷病人在認(rèn)知康復(fù)的發(fā)展。例如,為了重建病人大腦受損的非文字記憶部分,醫(yī)生也許會(huì)開(kāi)設(shè)音樂(lè)課。