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The Mozart Effect: A Note of Truth 104

Great to be back. Hope everyone had a relaxing holiday break. Hard to believe it is February. Andy and I thought this month’s column should focus on “The Mozart effect.” The term was coined by the media to describe the findings of a study published in 1993 in the prestigious journal Nature (1). The media attention has taken the term well beyond the short‐term effects described. A Mozart Effect industry was born: Parenting books now admonished expectant mothers to play Mozart for their unborn, legislation was introduced in at least one state to augment classical music in the lives of infants and children, an iTunes app (iLuvMozart ─ Boost your IQ) became available and a multitude of discussions blazed the media. But along the way, the facts were lost. This month’s column will sift through the morass and leave you with what you need to know.

What were the findings that led to “The Mozart effect”?

A research group at the Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory (University of California at Irvine; UC Irvine) reported that listening to 10 minutes of Mozart’s sonata for two pianos in D major ─K448, transiently increased the score on a set of tasks from a robust intelligence test for 15‐20 minutes. In comparison, listening to a relaxation track had only minimal effects on these tasks and 10 minutes of silence had no effect. The set of tasks assessed visual spatial reasoning skills (pattern analysis, matrices, paper folding and cutting) from the Stanford‐Binet intelligence scale. This intelligence test, which includes four other subtests, was first developed in 1905, has been updated several times and continues to be widely used.

The media widely reported on the study authors’ translation of the scores on the visual spatial reasoning skills into a spacial IQ. Headlines along the likes of “Listening to Mozart boosts your brain power” dotted the landscape.

The authors probably had no idea what attention their relatively small study in a group of 36 college students would receive. The original publication in Nature was only 500 words.

The Reality

The methodology and interpretations of the UC Irvine study came under much criticism. Several other groups replicating the study had different or mixed results. An analysis of over 40 comparable studies concluded that there is essentially no Mozart effect (2).

What are we to conclude? Listening to 10 minutes (or more!) of Mozart is good because it is soothing, pleasant and very satisfying but not likely to increase IQ. So, let’s enjoy our music ─ whether Mozart or something else; for what it is.

Summary Comments

It should not come as a surprise that listening to 10 minutes of Mozart does not effect on our cognition. We know from earlier “Your Brain on Music Education” columns that listening to music probably only engages one brain region ─ the temporal lobes. In contrast, the study we summarized in our last column (3) reported that receiving several years of formal instrumental education at an early age and continuing to play an instrument on a regular basis appears to have an effect on cognition throughout one’s life. Formal instrumental education and regularly playing an instrument engages and stimulates multiple brain areas on an ongoing basis. Perhaps this is what we should call the Mozart Effect.

By the way, there are excellent discussions on the Mozart effect in Daniel Levitin’s “This is Your Brain on Music” (Plume, 2007, pp. 225‐6)(4) and Oliver Sacks’ “Musicophelia” (Vintage Books, 2008, pp. 101‐ 2)(5). Cover to cover, both books provide excellent overviews and discussions on the complex interface between the brain and music and should be on the Music Empowers Foundation must‐read list.

I hope you enjoyed this fourth column. We really appreciate your comments and questions. Keep them coming. And if they are suggestions for future articles, please let us know. See you next month.

References

  1. Rauscher, F.H., Shaw, G.L. and Ky, K.N. 1993. Music and spatial task performance. Nature 365:611.
  2. Pietschnig, J., Voracek, M. and Formann, A.K. Mozart effect-Shomozart effect: A meta-analysis. Intelligence. 38:314-323.
  3. Hanna-Pladdy B and MacKay A. The Relation between Instrumental Musical Activity and Cognitive Aging. Neuropsychology. 2011; 25(3):378-386.
  4. Daniel J. Levitin. 2007. This is Your Brain on Music, New York, New York: Plume.
  5. Oliver W. Sacks. 2008. Musicophelia: Tales of Music and the Brain, New York, New York: Vintage Books.