Supercharge your Brain Function with Playing Music….

No doubt that the greatest scientists are artists as well. Albert Einstein, the greatest physicist of all time was the best example for who linked art and science to develop “Intuitive Art of Scientific Imagination” In his words “If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician. I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music” So what did Einstein mean and what does it tell us about the nature of creative thinking?

Einstein was not only a physicist, but also a fine amateur pianist and a violinist too. Now you may have the questions that, ‘Is there any evidence that Einstein's scientific work was directly inspired by music? Did he ever draw an explicit connection between harmonic oscillators in music and in quantum mechanics?

As same as for the artists, ‘Insight’ came to Einstein from intuition and inspiration but it did not come from logic or mathematics. Once he stated"When I examine myself and my methods of thought, I come close to the conclusion that the gift of imagination has meant more to me than any talent for absorbing absolute knowledge.All great achievements of science must start from intuitive knowledge. I believe in intuition and inspiration” Thus, his famous statement that, for creative work in science, "Imagination is more important than knowledge" (Calaprice, 2000).

Einstein differentiated art and science in a unique way. As he expressed “If what is seen and experienced is portrayed in the language of logic, then it is science. If it is communicated through forms whose constructions are not accessible to the conscious mind but are recognized intuitively, then it is art" (Calaprice, 2000).Einstein have worked with a great intuition and expressed himself logically. Thus, he believed that great scientists were also artists.Music was highly connected in many aspects of Einstein’s life. He mastered violin at age 5 and later practiced to play the Piano too. Einsteinshowed a great passion towards Mozart sonatas.He became deeply connected to harmony of music and it impressed every aspect of his life.

Once his son said about Einstein, "whenever he felt that he had come to the end of the road or into a difficult situation in his work, he would take refuge in music, and that would usually resolve all his difficulties" (Clark, 1971). It seemed that something in the music guided his thoughts in new and creative directions.Einstein recognized an unexplainable connection between music and his science, and notes that his mentor Ernst Mach had indicated that music and the aural experience were the organ to describe space" (Mueller, 1967).

For Einstein, the Theory of Relativity was directly attributed to his study of music. Music was the driving force behind his intuitive thinking. He once said that “the highest form of musicality in the realm of thought” (Paul Schilpp, 1979) as a way to explain to “mathematical” students that thought in its highest form is not mathematical, but musical. In 1919, Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity was confirmed by photographic methods. He celebrated that unique moment by purchasing a new violin. That was pleasant way to pay homage to how music made inspiration to his scientific works.

However Einstein’s musical and intuitional comments were not taken seriously by any scientist throughout the history. But his personal testimony tells something very important to be gleaned. Einstein showed us all music, mathematics and physics are connected. However, in our current education system, students do not have wide exposure to multidisciplinary learning experience that includes fine cognitive skills. Simply, they study mathematics or physics without music. They get science without creative thinking. They extract knowledge without imagination. In this way students have no way to develop their intuition.

So, how can we stimulate our cognitive skills? Do we able to create a “Full Brain Access” condition through music as Einstein did? Indeed systematic daily music practices can improve our brain activity. In the last few decades researchers have been able to make surprising discoveries on how playing a musical instrument benefits our brain. With instru- ments like Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (FMRI) and Position Emission Tomography (PET) brain’s response can be observed for different activities such as reading, mathematical problem solving, playing music, etc. Neuroscientists have showed that playing a musical instrument light-up multiple areas of the brain at once, especially the visual, auditory and motor cortices.

So, it is scientifically proved that playing music is the brain’s equivalent of a fullbody workout. Interestingly playing music and listen to music have different FMIR observations. The most noticeable difference between listen to music and playing music is that playing music requires fine motor skills which involve both hemispheres of the brain. Especially it combines the linguistic and mathematical functions which are controlled more in left hemisphere and novel and creative content which are controlled by right hemisphere.

Thus playing music has been found to increase the volume and activity in the brain’s corpus callosum-the bridge between two hemispheres which enables messages to get across the brain faster and through more diverse routes. So, musicians can solve problems more effectively and creatively in both academic and social settings.

Musicians involve in crafting and understanding of music’s emotional content and messages too. Thus, they often have higher levels of executive function. Executive function is category of interlinked tasks which includes planning, strategizing and attention to detail and requires simultaneous analysis of both cognitive and emotional aspects. This ability also affects how our memory systems work. In fact, musicians show enhanced memory functions, creating, storing and retrieving memories more quickly and efficiently. Studies have found that musicians appear to use their highly connected brains to give each memory multiple tags, such as a conceptual tag, an emotional tag, an audio tag and a contextual tag like a good internet search engine. It is proved that playing a musical instrument especially piano or violin is very unique in comparison with any other artistic activity including painting or dancing.

Now you know how playing a musical instrument benefits your brain. If you could have time to engage in disciplined and well-structured daily music practices for a long period you would definitely experience positive results in your academic career. References:

[https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/imagine/201003/einstein-creativethinking-music-and-the-intuitive-art-scientific-imagination]

[https://www.quora. com/How-did-Einsteinsmusical-practice-inform-his-scientific-work]

[https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=R0JKCYZ8hng]