Children’s brains develop faster with music training
音乐训练可使儿童大脑发育得更快
By Emily Gersema︱ June 20, 2016
Five-year USC study finds significant differences between kids who learned to play instruments and those who didn’t
南加州大学五年的研究发现，学习乐器的孩子和没有学乐器的孩子之间有显著差异。
Music instruction appears to accelerate brain development in young children, particularly in the areas of the brain responsible for processing sound, language development, speech perception and reading skills, according to initial results of a five-year study by USC neuroscientists.
根据南加州大学神经科学家的一项为期五年的研究初步结果显示，音乐教育似乎加速了少儿的大脑发育，特别是在大脑负责处理声音、语言发展、言语感知和阅读技巧的区域。
perception：知觉，观念，觉察（力）
The Brain and Creativity Institute (BCI) at USC began the five-year study in 2012 in partnership with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association and the Heart of Los Angeles (HOLA) to examine the impact of music instruction on children’s social, emotional and cognitive development.
南加州大学大脑与创造力研究所（BCI）与洛杉矶爱乐协会和洛杉矶之心（小编注：为低收入家庭的孩子免费提供艺术及体育等学习课程的组织）合作，于2012年开始为期五年的研究，以研究音乐课程对于儿童的社交、情绪和认知方面发展的影响。
These initial study results, published recently in the journal Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, provide evidence of the benefits of music education at a time when many schools around the nation have either eliminated or reduced music and arts programs. The study shows music instruction speeds up the maturation of the auditory pathway in the brain and increases its efficiency.
最近发表在《发展认知神经科学》杂志上的这一研究的初步结果，在全国许多学校取消了或减少音乐和艺术课程时，为音乐教育的好处提供了佐证。研究表明，音乐教学可以加速大脑中听觉通路的成熟，并可提高听觉通路的效率。
“We are broadly interested in the impact of music training on cognitive, socio-emotional and brain development of children,” said Assal Habibi, the study’s lead author and a senior research associate at the BCI in the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. “These results reflect that children with music training, compared with the two other comparison groups, were more accurate in processing sound.”
“音乐训练对儿童认知、社交、情绪、以及脑部发展的影响，是大家都非常关注的，“该研究的主要作者和南加州多伦西弗大学文学、艺术和科学学院BCI的高级研究助理Assal Habibi说。“这些结果表明，与另外两个对照组相比，接受过音乐训练的儿童在处理声音方面更准确。”
For this longitudinal study, the neuroscientists are monitoring brain development and behavior in a group of 37 children from underprivileged neighborhoods of Los Angeles.
在这项纵向研究中，神经科学家们仍在持续监测来自洛杉矶贫困社区的37名儿童的脑部发育和行为。
Thirteen of the children, at 6 or 7 years old, began to receive music instruction through the Youth Orchestra Los Angeles program at HOLA. The community music training program was inspired by the El Sistema method, one that LA Philharmonic conductor Gustavo Dudamel had been in when he was growing up in Venezuela.
13名个孩子，从6岁或7岁开始在来自洛杉矶之心的洛杉矶青年管弦乐团接受音乐学习。社区音乐培训计划的灵感是受到El Sistema方法的启发，洛杉矶爱乐团指挥Gustavo Dudamel在委内瑞拉长大时曾参与过这种方法。
Learning the violin
学习小提琴
The children learn to play instruments, such as the violin, in ensembles and groups, and they practice up to seven hours a week.
孩子们学习演奏乐器，如小提琴，他们每周在合奏和小组里练习长达七个小时。
The scientists are comparing the budding musicians with peers in two other groups: 11 children in a community soccer program, and 13 children who are not involved in any specific after-school programs.
科学家们将这些初次接触音乐的孩子和其他两组的同龄人进行比较：社区足球项目的11名儿童，以及没有参与任何特定课外活动的13名儿童。
The neuroscientists are using several tools to monitor changes in them as they grow: MRI to monitor changes through brain scans, EEG to track electrical activity in the brains, behavioral testing and other such techniques.
神经科学家们使用了几种工具来监测他们成长过程中的变化：通过核磁共振扫描脑部并监测它的变化、跟踪大脑电波活动的脑电图、行为测试，以及其他类似的技术手段。
MRI：核磁共振
EEG：脑电图
Within two years of the study, the neuroscientists found the auditory systems of children in the music program were maturing faster in them than in the other children. The fine-tuning of their auditory pathway could accelerate their development of language and reading, as well as other abilities – a potential effect which the scientists are continuing to study.
在研究的两年中，神经科学家们发现学习音乐的儿童的听觉系统比其他儿童成熟得更快。听觉通路的微调可以加速他们的语言和阅读以及其他能力的发展 — 科学家们正在继续研究这种潜在的影响。
The enhanced maturity reflects an increase in neuroplasticity – a physiological change in the brain in response to its environment – in this case, exposure to music and music instruction.
这种加速的成熟度反映了神经元可塑性的增加——大脑对周围环境反应的一种生理变化 — 这里，就是对于音乐的接触，以及音乐教学。
“The auditory system is stimulated by music,” Habibi said. “This system is also engaged in general sound processing that is fundamental to language development, reading skills and successful communication.”
“听觉系统受到了音乐的刺激，”Habibi说。“这个系统还参与正常的声音处理，而这正是语言发展、阅读技巧和成功沟通的基础。
Ear to brain
从耳朵到大脑
The auditory system connects our ear to our brain to process sound. When we hear something, our ears receive it in the form of vibrations that it converts into a neural signal. That signal is then sent to the brainstem, up to the thalamus at the center of the brain, and outward to its final destination, the primary auditory cortex, located near the sides of the brain.
听觉系统将耳朵和大脑连接起来，来处理声音。当我们听到某种声音时，我们的耳朵会接收到振动，并将其转换成神经信号。然后，这个信号被发送到脑干，一直到大脑中心的丘脑，再向外到达其最终目的地，即位于大脑两侧附近的初级听觉皮质。
The progress of a child’s developing auditory pathway can be measured by EEG, which tracks electrical signals, specifically those referred to as “auditory evoked potentials.”
儿童发展听觉通路的进展可以通过EEG来测量，EEG跟踪电子信号，特别是那些被称为“听觉诱发电位”的电子信号。
In this study, the scientists focused on an evoked potential called P1. They tracked amplitude – the number of neurons firing – as well as latency – the speed that the signal is transmitted. Both measures infer the maturity of the brain’s auditory pathways.
在这项研究中，科学家们专门观察了一个被称为P1的诱发电位。他们跟踪了信号的振幅——神经元放电的数量——以及等待的时间——信号传输的速度。这两种测量方法都推断了大脑听觉通路的成熟度。
infer：推断
amplitude：振幅
latency：等待时间
As children develop, both amplitude and the latency of P1 tend to decrease. This means that that they are becoming more efficient at processing sound.
随着儿童的成长，P1的振幅和潜伏期都趋于减少。这意味着它们在处理声音方面变得更加高效。
At the beginning of the study and again two years later, the children completed a task measuring their abilities to distinguish tone. As the EEG was recording their electrical signals, they listened to violin tones, piano tones and single-frequency (pure) tones played.
在研究开始、和两年后，为孩子们分别测量他们辨识音调的能力。在他们听小提琴音、钢琴音和单频（纯）音调演奏时，记录他们的脑电波。
The children also completed a tonal and rhythm discrimination task in which they were asked to identify similar and different melodies. Twice, they heard 24 melodies in randomized order and were asked to identify which ones differed in tone and rhythm, and which were the same in tone and rhythm.
孩子们还完成了一个音调和节奏辨别任务，要求他们识别相似和不同的旋律。他们两次、随机听取24个旋律，并被要求他们来辨识哪些旋律的音调和节奏不同，哪些旋律的音调和节奏相同。
discrimination：歧视；区别，辨别（力）
Children who were in the youth orchestra program were more accurate at detecting pitch changes in the melodies than the other two groups. All three groups were able to identify easily when the melodies were the same. However, children with music training had smaller P1 potential amplitude compared to the other children, indicating a faster rate of maturation.
参加青年管弦乐队研究项目的儿童在鉴别旋律的音高变化方面比其他两组更准确。当旋律相同时，三组都能很容易地识别出来。然而，与其他儿童相比，接受音乐训练的儿童P1电位振幅较小，表明其成熟速度更快。
“We observed a decrease in P1 amplitude and latency that was the largest in the music group compared to age-matched control groups after two years of training,” the scientists wrote. “In addition, focusing just on the (second) year data, the music group showed the smallest amplitude of P1 compared to both the control and sports group, in combination with the accelerated development of the N1 component.”
科学家们写道：“我们发现，经过两年的训练后，与年龄匹配的对照组相比，音乐组的P1波幅和等待的时间下降幅度最大。此外，单看第二年的数据，加上N1成分的加速发展，音乐组与对照组和运动组相比，P1的振幅最小，同时N1部分的发展更快。”
The study was funded by Brain and Creativity Research Funds.
这项研究是由大脑和创造力研究基金资助的。
Co-authors of the study were BCI neuroscientists B. Rael Cahn, and co-directors of BCI Antonio Damasio and Hanna Damasio.
研究的共同作者是BCI神经科学家B.Rael Cahn，以及BCI副主任安东尼奥·大马西奥和汉娜·大马西奥。
不具备这些技能，你的孩子何以面对未来？英语读头条（第454期）
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