Your Better Brain

Decades of research have provided more than a sufficient amount of data to prove that arts education impacts everything from overall academic achievement to social and emotional development and so much more. Research has proven the arts develop neural systems that produce a broad spectrum of benefits ranging from fine motor skills to creativity and improved emotional balance. Quite simply, the arts are invaluable to our proper functioning individually and as a society.... READ MORE

When you make art, you're making a series of decisions — what kind of drawing utensil to use, what color, how to translate what you're seeing onto the paper. And ultimately, interpreting the images — figuring out what it means. "So what our brain is doing every day, every moment, consciously and unconsciously, is trying to imagine what is going to come and preparing yourself to face that," she says.... READ MORE

Some of the answers to art’s mysteries can be found in the realm of science. Art is considered the domain of the heart, but it's transporting effects start in the brain, where intricate systems perceive and interpret it with dazzling speed. Using brain-imaging and other tools of neuroscience, the new field of neuroaesthetics is probing the relationship between art and the brain... READ MORE

"We are seeing that kids from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, as measured by maternal education, have an inefficient auditory system that is noisier and poorer at responding to sound," Kraus said. "We are also seeing that after two years of training — one year was not enough — the brains of the kids who are in music have changed so that they are now less impacted by noise. Biologically, their nervous systems have become more efficient machines and this has positive consequences for both reading skills and hearing in noise." ...READ MORE