Bridging the gap: musical training and literacy in underserved adolescents

Northwestern University, Evanston IL

Investigators

Abstract

What is the impact of musical training on brain development? This project will determine how the subcortical transcription of speech and cortical attention indices are affected by musical training during adolescence and how these neural processes drive language, learning and literacy abilities. Music's inherent activation of neural attention mechanisms provides a distinct advantage for engendering subcortical and cortical plasticity and learning. However, children from low-income families have little access to musical training. The researchers thus hypothesize that by undergoing musical training to boost processes of auditory attention, low-SES youths will demonstrate improved educational performance and underlying neural processes. Specifically, musical training may close the gap between students of low- and high-SES by strengthening neural underpinnings of language, learning and language development. Scientific partnerships with educational institutions can be difficult to form. Through a relationship with local high schools this project provides the opportunity to produce longitudinal findings as the investigators follow students throughout their four years of high school. By defining the impact of musical experience in shaping language and literacy skills this work could provide objective biological evidence for the support of music education delivered in schools that serve low-SES populations. Educators and policy makers, in the face of tough fiscal decisions, may be encouraged to maintain and promote, rather than cut, musical education at the secondary school level, potentially decreasing the prevalence and economic stresses of language, learning and literacy impairment.