Rewiring the brain by using a technique called neuroplasticity has become a buzz word around the recovery of musicians with Focal Dystonia. I became interested in studying the effects of this concept in relation to learning in music education after hearing, researching, and experiencing firsthand the power of neuroplasticity.
What is Neuroplasticity?
To put it simply, neuroplasticity is the brain’s ability to adapt and change over time. There are two types of neuroplasticity. The first is called functional plasticity and it is the physiological changes that take place to a nerve cell that make a synaptic connection stronger or weaker. The stronger synaptic connection is called long-term potentiation (LTP) and the weakening of the connection is called long-term depression (LTD). For more information on synaptic connections, check out this video:
The second form of neural plasticity is called structural plasticity and it functions by changing the volume of specific brain regions and forms new pathways. While most learning occurs during the critical period, neural plasticity proves that brain regions that are typically specialized to complete a specific task can change roles and process other forms of information at any time throughout life. A common summarization of neuroplasticity is “Neurons that fire together, wire together!”
Is this a new concept?
The concept of neuroplasticity became commonly accepted in the 1990’s. Prior to this time, the common belief in neuroscience was a concept called the localization of cerebral function. This means that the brain was a permanently fixed structure, similar to a computer, and it would not be repairable if it were damaged. An example of this was shown in the research completed by Pierre Paul Broca. Broca discovered that there was a loss of speech after a stroke took place in the left frontal lobe of the brain. Hence the name Broca’s Area.
While the concept of localization had been strong prior to 1990, the idea of plasticity has been around for over 200 years. The first evidence of this research was in the 1780’s when Charles Bonnet and Michele Vincenzo Malacarne explored mental exercises in dogs and birds. They trained one animal from each group extensively and measured the brain volume of the animals postmortem. The results showed that the extensively trained animals had a significantly larger cerebellum than the animals that had received no training. Other early researchers include Samuel Thomas von Sommerring, Johann Spurzheim, Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, Theodore Schwann, Mattias Schleiden, and Santiago Ramon y Cajal. William James was the first person to write about the term plasticity in relation to the development of new connections and habit formation in his text book Principles of Psychology (1890). Furthermore, Paul Bach-y-Rita provided evidence that the brain is not a fixed machine by creating a sensory substitution device that taught blind people to see through the sense of touch. This approach was called Cross-Modal Plasticity and it caused one sense to be conveyed with another sense. Bach-y-Rita’s experiment activated the primary visual cortex when a blind individual read braille.
Why is Neural Plasticity Important?
In my opinion, the most important aspect of neuroplasticity is that it gives us a positive growth mindset! The science has shown us that it is possible for the brain to grow and adapt, which means that anyone can LEARN! The next step is to explore how we can unlock the powers of neuroplasticity in ourselves and our students. The first three ideas take on a more holistic mind-body approach and the last four can be used in the actual “learning” process. I will go more in depth on each of these subjects in future blog posts, however, here is a quick summary to get you started!
Exercise: This may seem like an obvious solution and a study titled “Neuroscience of Exercise: Neuroplasticity and its Behavioral Consequences” provides evidence that exercise is essential in brain growth. In this study, the researchers explored how different forms of exercise including dance, aerobic, and handball will affect the brain. The results showed an increased affective and behavioral response, as well as, increased cognitive functioning skills.
How can we implement this into our own lives and the lives of our students? Go for a hike with your chamber ensemble or start a studio softball team. Doing these things will also help develop camaraderie and teamwork! Best results would include a more regular schedule of a half hour of physical exercise 5-6 days per week.
Sleep: Another simple solution is to maintain 7-8 hours of sleep/night. Two articles provide fantastic evidence to support this concept. The first study done by Dayan and Cohen called “Neuroplasticity: Subserving Motor Skill Learning” showed that there was offline improvement through a consolidation of motor skill learning. The second study titled “Is Sleep Essential for Neural Plasticity in Humans, and How Does It Affect Motor and Cognitive Recovery?” showed that sleep and synaptic plasticity are strongly related and induce plastic change through slow wave activity. Furthermore, sleep deprivation will increase cortical excitability and alter LTP/LDP.
Meditation: Meditation is a concept that is not widely accepted in the western world, however, where I live in Boulder, Colorado, it is an accepted lifestyle practice! This is a subject that deserves a blog post all on its own, so I won’t go too in depth on the practice of meditation. The impact that meditation and mindfulness have on neuroplasticity is that it allows us to become more aware of thinking and emotion, and access creativity, lateral thinking, and flexibility.
Here is a video that goes more in depth on meditation and neuroplasticity:
Scaffolding: Scaffolding is a technique that is already common in education and it is characterized by a gradual build up towards the end goal. According to Joaquin Farias, scaffolding, or the search phase, allows the brain to unmask silent synapses, explore new solutions, and allow for the growth of axons and dendrites. An example of how we could use this in an educational environment with a beginning student is to start with one note, add a second note, scale, simple song, and eventually building up to a more complex piece of music. Of course, the number one priority is always creating a good sound!
Practice Structure: The structure of our practice sessions will have an immense impact on how well we learn a certain skill. A study completed by Shea and Morgan in 1979 looked into the contextual interference effect. The results showed that the random order condition influenced long-term retention of motor skills and rapid memory encoding. As musicians and educators, this would indicate that our learning is going to be more substantial if we break up our practice sessions into several different times throughout the day, instead of one long “marathon” practice session.
Mnemonic Devices: This idea is typically based off of literary and spoken word, however it can also be integrated into music! Research completed by Thaut showed through EEG studies that there is an increased coherence of alpha and gamma waves in the oscillatory brain networks that lead to an increase of learning and memory through the use of melodic and rhythmic musical templates. We can bring this into our practice sessions by finding or creating a pattern in the music. For example, take a particularly tricky rhythm out of context by playing it all on one note, then play the rhythm on another note until that rhythm is deeply engrained and you can reintroduce it into the music.
Synergy: Synergy is described by Farias as linking different stimuli into practice and performance. This is done through visual, tactile, auditory, and kinesthetic exercises. An integration of several of these stimuli will deeply ingrain the music and lead to a faster and more effective style of learning. In music, we can visualize a certain image for a specific movement, think of a texture for sound, or write a story for the overall outline of a piece of music. For more information in relation to synergy, here is a previous blog post about Mental Practicing.
Please note: You will need to log into a library database to access the research studies. Please contact me if you are unable to access the research at: ashleygulbranson@gmail.com
Interested in learning more? Here are some books with additional information on Neuroplasticity
Norman Doidge: The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science.
Norman Doidge: The Brain’s Way of Healing: Remarkable Discoveries and Recoveries from the Frontiers of Neuroplasticity.
Joaquin Farias: Intertwined. How to induce neuroplasticity. A new approach to rehabilitating dystonias.
Moheb Costandi: Neuroplasticity.
Sources:
Costandi, M. (2016). Neuroplasticity. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Dayan, E., & Cohen, L. (2011). Neuroplasticity subserving motor skill learning. Neuron, 72(3), 443-454. doi:http://dx.doi.org.colorado.idm.oclc.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2011.10.008
Farias, J. (2012). Intertwined. How to induce neuroplasticity. A new approach to rehabilitating dystonias.
Henning Budde, Mirko Wegner, Hideaki Soya, Claudia Voelcker-Rehage, and Terry McMorris, “Neuroscience of Exercise: Neuroplasticity and Its Behavioral Consequences,” Neural Plasticity, vol. 2016, Article ID 3643879, 3 pages, 2016. doi:10.1155/2016/3643879
Maurizio Gorgoni, Aurora D’Atri, Giulia Lauri, Paolo Maria Rossini, Fabio Ferlazzo, and Luigi De Gennaro, “Is Sleep Essential for Neural Plasticity in Humans, and How Does It Affect Motor and Cognitive Recovery?,” Neural Plasticity, vol. 2013, Article ID 103949, 13 pages, 2013. doi:10.1155/2013/103949
Shea, J. B., & Morgan, R. L. (1979). Contextual interference effects on the acquisition, retention, and transfer of a motor skill. Journal of Experimental Psychology : Human Learning and Memory, 5(2), 179. Retrieved from https://colorado.idm.oclc.org/login?url=http://search.proquest.com.colorado.idm.oclc.org/docview/1839876567?accountid=14503
THAUT, M. H., PETERSON, D. A. and McINTOSH, G. C. (2005), Temporal Entrainment of Cognitive Functions. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1060: 243–254. doi:10.1196/annals.1360.017