Musical training promotes emotional growth

Musical training can positively affect a child’s emotional and behavioral growth according to a new study.

James J. Hudziak, M.D., a professor of psychiatry, medicine and pediatrics at the University of Vermont and director of the Vermont Center for Children, Youth and Families, built upon data garnered by the National Institutes of Health Magnetic Resonance (MRI) Study of Normal Brain Development.

Hudziak and a team of researchers studied the brain scans of 232 children ages six to 18, who he noted did not exhibit emotional problems or anxiety. The study showed that children with musical training experienced increased cortical thickness.

The cortex is the outer layer of the brain which grows as a child develops and is, among other things, responsible for emotional regulation, attention skills and anxiety management, he said.

“The more practice (on a musical instrument) the children engaged in, the more benefits to cortical organization,” Hudziak said.

Previous research showed that musical training helps children develop their fine motor skills.

And, with co-authors Matthew Albaugh, Ph.D. and Eileen Crehan, BA, Hudziak has also examined the link between cortical thickening in the areas of the brain affecting aggression, attention disorders and depression.

But this project was different. “There’s not a lot of science out there in this area,” Hudziak said. “but the results make sense.”

He was not surprised by the research’s outcome, but “gratified,” by it.

At the center, Hudziak’s work involves a family-based approach and uses programs that promote activities that foster positive brain development.

“The only way this country can move forward is to become more healthy in the first place,” he said.

In the future, he would like to combine neuroimaging with an existing program that offers violin lessons to at-risk individuals. And, Hudziak believes that music, combined with fitness, mindfulness and other training, could provide benefits for people with addictions and other mental health issues.

Hudziak anticipates further, similar studies to use a “more clinical trial,” approach, with repeats of neuroimaging and comparisons between subjects with and without mental health issues at the start.

The findings of this research were recently published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry.

Montreal Neurological Institute’s Alan Evans, Ph.D., and Kelly Botteron, M.D., were among his collaborators on this effort, Hudziak said.