. EMusic

26/06/02 The musicians have more gray matter.
Professional musicians have a larger mass of gray matter than other people, in the area of ​​the brain devoted to the elaboration of music. The part of the cerebral cortex, the so-called 'aural', in fact, would increase for repeated stress in the practice of a musical instrument. This is what has concluded a team of researchers at the University of Heidelberg, Germany, which has tested some professional musicians, amateurs and non-musicians at various frequencies, then by recording brain responses. The part of the brain stimulated is the curve of the brain of Heschl. It was found then that professional musicians have 130 percent of gray matter more in this part of the brain than non-musicians. According to the researchers, this amount is fixed from birth, so there is a strong hereditary component, as far as being educated in music and singing from an early age has its decisive influence, and in any case everything is decided within nine years of age . According to the scans, however, our brain uses different areas when we listen to music, and the rhythms are generally processed by the left hemisphere, while the sounds and melodies from the right.