As music therapists we often work on cognitive skills including learning, attention, executive function, etc… The music therapy literature on these skills is in its relative infancy, so you won’t find a lot of empirical evidence directly supporting the use of MT for cognition. However, a recent publication provides some interesting information that will make you think.

Conway et al. (2009) propose that since sound is temporal and sequential, the auditory system provides a “scaffolding” (or support) for cognitive abilities that involve time-ordered information. A disruption in auditory skills could translate to a disruption in these cognitive skills – an idea that the authors support with studies showing time-ordered impairments in children who are deaf. This auditory sequential processing is thought to help with learning and cognition and occurs in neural pathways involving the auditory cortex (temporal lobe) and frontal lobe.

Take this idea and insert – MUSIC! Music is highly time-ordered, structured, and predictable. If the auditory system naturally provides “scaffolding” (i.e., foundation) for time-ordered information than music would add some extra “umph” to sequential information due to the temporal nature of rhythm and musical structure. Furthermore, if highly sequential and predictable information is presented then we may optimize learning (or make learning better, more accessible).

What cognitive skills are time-based? Most of them. Think about attention, executive function, learning, memory – these all occur over time and in sequence. When we remember events, we remember them in time; when we learn information, we often learn it in sequence (think ABCs); when we attend, we attend over time…

The Conway article doesn’t mention music, but I think we can build upon this idea to support some of the work we do in the cognitive realm. The authors of this study admit that their hypothesis is in the early stages and that there are other reasons that children who are deaf could show temporal sequencing deficits (i.e., environment). You can also find articles in the literature that propose that children who are deaf have no impairments in auditory sequential information (see MTRB Dyslexia post).

As for the clinical use of this information. I think we inherently use structure and rhythm in all of our exercises. However it is worth stopping and thinking about the structure, rhythm, and predictability of the songs/stimulus we create. Are we giving our clients “easy” access to temporal-based information or are we making it harder than it needs to be (complex rhythms, weak structure, poor quality music). Do our music exercises mimic the non-musical function that is being targeted? Designing interventions that are rhythmically strong, musically well-structured, and target the intended cognitive skill might provide the best tool for optimized learning.

References:

Conway, C., Pisoni, D., & Kronenberger, W. (2009). The importance of sound for cognitive sequencing abilities: The auditory scaffolding hypothesis. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 18(5), 275-279. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8721.2009.01651.x.