Is Music a Luxury?

During the expert session, Artur engages the audience through a Q&A session, demonstrations of music's impact on different brain regions using examples from various musical genres, and interactive exercises with the Mentimeter app to explore personal musical preferences and associations. These activities help participants understand the role of attention and engagement in music, appreciate its diverse effects on the brain, and discover new musical experiences.

• Discovering the Brain-Music Connection: Understanding how musical training activates various brain regions and improves cognitive functions, such as patience, focus, memory, language development, and mathematical abilities, is essential for appreciating its far-reaching benefits.
• Exploring Diverse Genres: Embracing different music genres can lead to greater brain stimulation by engaging distinct areas of the brain and nervous system. Being open-minded and challenging oneself to try new styles can result in significant cognitive benefits.
• Neuromarketing and Music Association: Familiar sounds or jingles in music can be strongly linked to specific feelings or actions through repetition and exposure, making them powerful tools for marketing campaigns and highlighting the importance of neurlinguistic programming.

In this expert session, Artur Jaschke delved into the intricacies of the human brain's relationship with music, emotions, memories, and the body. He began by introducing the audience to the complex network of regions in the brain, including the frontal, parietal, temporal, and occipital lobes, which work together to process information from different senses and create connections between the brain and the body.

Artur also explored the idea of active versus passive listening, using a restaurant setting as an example, where recognizing a familiar song is a deliberate choice made by the brain. He highlighted the importance of understanding that the brain and body are interconnected and both essential for cognitive functions. Furthermore, he emphasized the long developmental process of the human brain, with the frontal lobe maturing around age 30, and the significance of providing opportunities to stimulate brain development through various experiences and interests.

One research study Artur discussed investigated the impact of structured arts and music education on children's cognitive functions. The study involved 230 children divided into four groups: muziek, muziek plus, visual arts, and no arts control. While all groups continued to receive some exposure to arts and music in their regular school curriculum, researchers found that the muziek plus group showed significant improvements in inhibition, planning, working memory, and visuospatial working memory after one year compared to the other groups. These findings suggest that providing children with structured arts and music education can lead to essential skill development for everyday life.

Artur further discussed the far transfer effect of musical training, which extends beyond the domain of music itself, improving patience, focus, memory, language development, and mathematical abilities. He also shared insights into comparative studies in other fields like martial arts and chess, noting their unique benefits but emphasizing music's advantageous effects on cognitive development through far transfer.

Addressing a question from the audience, Artur acknowledged that the three years of active music engagement can indeed lead to significant improvements in various areas related to music training and beyond. However, he also reminded us that these improvements depend on individual commitment and engagement with the activity. Moreover, Artur touched upon the perception of music as a luxury and explored cultural differences in how music is perceived and approached.

In conclusion, Artur Jaschke's expert session provided valuable insights into the complex relationship between music, emotions, memories, the brain, and the body, emphasizing their intricacies and the importance of understanding the whole system rather than individual components. The findings from the research discussed in the session suggest that providing opportunities for structured arts and music education can lead to essential cognitive skill development for children, making it a worthwhile investment.

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• I want more of this. More from Antonia Forster!
• Really engaging and informative session - thank you so much Antonia for your time and passion.
• Completely fascinating!
• Great session. Really inspiring. Thanks and congratulations to Antonia and to the HR team for this session.
• Keep informing people.
• Thanks for having it.
• This was a very interesting talk, thanks for hosting it.