The Neurosciences and Music Education: An Online Database of Neuromusical Brain Imaging Research

The purpose of this study was to create an online database to organize and summarize the field of neuromusical research (i.e., the study of brain processes involved with musical experiences). The guiding principles of this dissertation were to (1) assess and clarify the current state of neuromusical research, and (2) explore how this research relates to the pedagogical, psychological and philosophical foundations of music education. Given the rise of brain-imaging neuromusical research in the last two decades, in conjunction with a lack of holistic efforts to evaluate these studies, there is a clear need to compile and summarize neuromusical research into a summative database. Until this time, no such resource has existed. The resulting database of this project has been titled the Musical Brain Imaging Research Database (MusicBIRD) and currently holds 473 studies of neuromusical research available online at http://www.uncg.edu/mus/mri/neuromusical.html. Qualifying neuromusical studies were identified with a keyword search for "music" and "brain" in leading electronic research databases (e.g., PubMed and RILM). After reviewing each study, summative information was entered into an electronic storage format within the following data fields: Title, Author(s), Date, Keywords, Source, Volume, Issue, Online Source, and Abstract. A content analysis of the studies in the final database was conducted to reveal trends in neuromusical research and insights for music educators about the role of neuroscience in music teaching. Among the leading trends in neuromusical research identified in the content analysis were the most frequently used brain imaging device (EEG in 28.8% of all MusicBIRD studies), the most common research methodologies - evaluating changes in brain activity due to music processing (35.57% of all MusicBIRD studies), and comparisons between musically and non-musically trained subjects (25.57% of all MusicBIRD studies). The implications of neuromusical research for music educators include a strengthening of the belief that the potential for music processing is ubiquitous to all humans, and that until more longitudinal studies can be conducted, a clear understanding of whether musical training does or does not have an effect on non-musical brain processes (e.g., language skills) is not possible at this time. Based on a review of neuromusical research through 2006, several recommendations for future research include brain imaging scans associated with effective pedagogical music learning practices, longitudinal studies of brain development during periods of musical training (e.g., preschool to adulthood), and investigating the potential for shared, proximal, or distinct neural networks dedicated to music and non-music systems

The influence of music in the development of reading in foundation phase learners: a socio-cultural case study of a South African primary school

Includes bibliographical references.As a music educator actively involved in teaching learners from ages five to seventeen years over the past nineteen years, the researcher has noted the reading abilities of the learners drop over the years. This could be due to various factors such as large class sizes, changes in curriculum, teacher inadequacy and parents’ lack of involvement due to work commitments. It is for this reason that it is important for the educator to be able to use various methods to help with reading development, especially in the young learner. Growing research has indicated that music activities may be beneficial for other academic studies and in this study the focus will be on the reading development of the Foundation Phase learner. There is a relationship between music skills and reading, and studies have proved that increased learning in one area may increase outcomes in another. This study will evaluate whether the learner involved in various music activities has shown an improvement in reading scores from Grade One through to Grade Three

The Role of Speech Rhythm Sensitivity in Children's Reading Development

This thesis examines whether speech rhythm sensitivity is related to children's reading development, phonological awareness, and non-speech rhythm sensitivity, whether children at risk of reading difficulties have a specific speech rhythm sensitivity deficit, and whether speech rhythm sensitivity is predictive of children's reading development over time. Study One investigated the relatedness of speech rhythm, non-speech rhythm, reading ability and phonological awareness. A hierarchical regression analysis revealed that non-speech rhythm sensitivity was unable to predict unique variance in reading attainment after controlling for speech rhythm sensitivity and phonological awareness. In contrast, sensitivity to speech rhythm was able to predict a significant amount of unique variance in reading attainment after age, vocabulary, phonological awareness, short-term memory, and non-speech rhythm had been accounted for. These results suggest that speech rhythm sensitivity is not merely an aspect of general phonological awareness or rhythmic appreciation; it is a skill that is explaining new variance in reading ability. Study Two investigated whether a measure of speech rhythm sensitivity administered to 5 to 7-year-old children could predict the different components of reading ability one year later. A series of hierarchical regression analyses revealed that speech rhythm sensitivity was able to predict a significant amount of unique variance in word reading, reading comprehension, and the phrasing component of a reading fluency measure after controlling for receptive vocabulary, age and phonological awareness. Study Three investigated whether apparent speech rhythm sensitivity deficits in young poor readers represent a specific deficit in these children who were at risk of reading difficulties. It was found that after controlling for receptive vocabulary and phonological awareness, the 'at risk' children were outperformed by their chronological-age matched controls. but not by their reading-age matched controls on measures of speech rhythm sensitivity. This is suggestive of a maturational lag as opposed to a specific deficit in speech rhythm sensitivity. The overall findings from these concurrent, longitudinal, and cross-sectional data suggest that speech rhythm sensitivity is an important, yet neglected aspect of English-speaking children's phonological representations, which needs to be incorporated into theoretical accounts of reading development