Short-Term Orchestral Music Training Modulates Hyperactivity and Inhibitory Control in School-Age Children: A Longitudinal Behavioural Study

Survey studies have shown that participating in music groups produces several benefits, such as discipline, cooperation and responsibility. Accordingly, recent longitudinal studies showed that orchestral music training has a positive impact on inhibitory control in school-age children. However, most of these studies examined long periods of training not always feasible for all families and institutions and focused on children’s measures ignoring the viewpoint of the teachers. Considering the crucial role of inhibitory control on hyperactivity, inattention and impulsivity, we wanted to explore if short orchestral music training would promote a reduction of these impulsive behaviors in children. This study involved 113 Italian children from 8 to 10 years of age. 55 of them attended 3 months of orchestral music training. The training included a 2-hour lesson per week at school and a final concert. The 58 children in the control group did not have any orchestral music training. All children were administered tests and questionnaires measuring inhibitory control and hyperactivity near the beginning and end of the 3-month training period. We also collected information regarding the levels of hyperactivity of the children as perceived by the teachers at both time points. Children in the music group showed a significant improvement in inhibitory control. Moreover, in the second measurement the control group showed an increase in self-reported hyperactivity that was not found in the group undergoing the music training program. This change was not noticed by the teachers, implying a discrepancy between self-reported and observed behavior at school. Our results suggest that even an intense and brief period of orchestral music training is sufficient to facilitate the development of inhibitory control by modulating the levels of self-reported hyperactivity. This research has implications for music pedagogy and education especially in children with high hyperactivity. Future investigations will test whether the findings can be extended to children diagnosed with ADHD

"Marrying Out" for Love: Women's Narratives of Polygyny and Alternative Marriage Choices in Contemporary Senegal

This article examines the ways in which childhood and youth experiences of living in polygynous households shape the aspirations of middle-class Muslim Senegalese women to companionate marriage. Increasingly, such aspirations are fulfilled through marriage with European men. In contrast to an enduring popular discourse according to which women live happily with polygyny throughout the Senegambian region, this article shows how some middle-class women’s choice to “marry out” is explicitly linked to family narratives and personal experiences of suffering. In a context in which many of these women face strong familial opposition to marriage with non-Muslim European men, this article suggests that the women’s narratives provide moral legitimacy to their “alternative” choices

Choreographic Performance, Generations And The Art Of Life In Post-colonial Dakar

This article looks at three generations of choreographic performers in urban Senegal to examine the creative ways in which people develop their bodily skills, not only for the pleasure of innovation, but also to ‘make their way into the world’. In so doing, they produce new social spaces and engage with a multiplicity of existing ones. I suggest that this multiple engagement characterizes contemporary urban Africa, where social mobility is conceived of as multiplying the possibilities of building a decent life in spite of economic hardship. In West Africa, this is in continuity with a long history of social mobility achieved through travel and the acquisition of new skills. Through a multiple engagement with different genres, performers also experiment with new ways of producing choreographic work. At every juncture, the social spaces thus produced either intensify or reduce the connections with global spaces already laid out by previous generations

The paradox of parallel lives: immigration policy and transnational polygyny between Senegal and France

In Dakar, everyday conversations are filled with entertaining stories about the adventures of returning migrants. One common theme involves the visit of a Senegalese man who has returned from Europe with a foreign spouse. The most entertaining part of the story comes when the man’s family and friends go to great pains to conceal the existence of another wife and children in Senegal. In one version, the Senegalese wife is introduced to the European one as the husband’s “sister” or “cousin,” thereby deceiving the European wife into believing that the children in the household are her husband’s nieces and nephews whereas in fact they are his own children (see also Salomon 2009). The most appreciated elements of the story are usually the tricks deployed by various family members to maintain the illusion of a biological relationship between the husband and his “sister.” The truth is finally revealed when, for example, a child, a family member, or a jealous rival reveals who really is who

Learning to Change

A paper published over 20 years ago by Susan Iversen and Mortimer Mishkin on reversal learning continues to inform cognitive neuroscience toda

DEVELOPMENT AND PLASTICITY IN THE BRAIN

This paper examines different aspects of the development of the brain before birth, and the subsequent plasticity after birth. First, rough outlines of the pre-natal formation of the neural structures are presented: cell identity, neuron migration, axon formation and initial synapse formation. Second, the paper looks at the post-natal plasticity with regard to critical periods. A short introduction to the visual system serves as a starting point for a description of Hubel and Wiesel’s pioneering experiments on cats and monkeys. In addition, Harlow’s experiments with sensory deprivation of monkeys are described. This leads to an attempt to link these results to a computational strategy for the analysis and representation of the connections between sensory input and motor output: feed-forward neural units that are dynamically re-grouped by reciprocal connections. The conclusion attempts to place development and plasticity in a broader context within the brain.This paper examines different aspects of the development of the brain before birth, and the subsequent plasticity after birth. First, rough outlines of the pre-natal formation of the neural structures are presented: cell identity, neuron migration, axon formation and initial synapse formation. Second, the paper looks at the post-natal plasticity with regard to critical periods. A short introduction to the visual system serves as a starting point for a description of Hubel and Wiesel’s pioneering experiments on cats and monkeys. In addition, Harlow’s experiments with sensory deprivation of monkeys are described. This leads to an attempt to link these results to a computational strategy for the analysis and representation of the connections between sensory input and motor output: feed-forward neural units that are dynamically re-grouped by reciprocal connections. The conclusion attempts to place development and plasticity in a broader context within the brain

Introduction : dance in Africa and beyond : creativity and identity in a globalized world

In this introduction to the special issue on dance in Africa and beyond, we review the anthropological study of dance in Africa since the 1920s and introduce the seven contributions, organized around the key themes of transformed identities (both contemporary and historical), decoloniality, new media, morality, and the problematic representations of African diasporic identities in contemporary Europe. With this special issue, we argue that the study of dance and music provides an important window into the myriad creative ways in which people in Africa and in the African diaspora deal with problematic situations, generate new artistic forms, engage with questions of ethics, and carve out spaces in which they experiment with novelty and reinvigorate their lives