full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Anita Collins: How playing an instrument benefits your brain

Unscramble the Blue Letters


Did you know that every time musicians pick up their instruments, there are fireworks going off all over their brain? On the outside, they may look calm and focused, reading the music and making the precise and practiced movements required. But inside their brains, there's a party going on.

How do we know this? Well, in the last few decades, neuroscientists have made enormous breakthroughs in udanritensndg how our brains work by mtooniinrg them in real time with iutnsemtnrs like fMRI and PET scanners. When people are hooked up to these machines, tasks, such as reading or doing math pmlboers, each have corresponding areas of the brain where activity can be observed. But when researchers got the prtpaintaics to listen to music, they saw fireworks. Multiple areas of their brains were lhntigig up at once, as they processed the sound, took it apart to understand elements like melody and rhythm, and then put it all back together into uefinid musical experience. And our brains do all this work in the slipt second between when we first hear the misuc and when our foot starts to tap along.

Open Cloze


Did you know that every time musicians pick up their instruments, there are fireworks going off all over their brain? On the outside, they may look calm and focused, reading the music and making the precise and practiced movements required. But inside their brains, there's a party going on.

How do we know this? Well, in the last few decades, neuroscientists have made enormous breakthroughs in _____________ how our brains work by __________ them in real time with ___________ like fMRI and PET scanners. When people are hooked up to these machines, tasks, such as reading or doing math ________, each have corresponding areas of the brain where activity can be observed. But when researchers got the ____________ to listen to music, they saw fireworks. Multiple areas of their brains were ________ up at once, as they processed the sound, took it apart to understand elements like melody and rhythm, and then put it all back together into _______ musical experience. And our brains do all this work in the _____ second between when we first hear the _____ and when our foot starts to tap along.

Solution


  1. participants
  2. lighting
  3. monitoring
  4. problems
  5. split
  6. unified
  7. music
  8. instruments
  9. understanding

Original Text


Did you know that every time musicians pick up their instruments, there are fireworks going off all over their brain? On the outside, they may look calm and focused, reading the music and making the precise and practiced movements required. But inside their brains, there's a party going on.

How do we know this? Well, in the last few decades, neuroscientists have made enormous breakthroughs in understanding how our brains work by monitoring them in real time with instruments like fMRI and PET scanners. When people are hooked up to these machines, tasks, such as reading or doing math problems, each have corresponding areas of the brain where activity can be observed. But when researchers got the participants to listen to music, they saw fireworks. Multiple areas of their brains were lighting up at once, as they processed the sound, took it apart to understand elements like melody and rhythm, and then put it all back together into unified musical experience. And our brains do all this work in the split second between when we first hear the music and when our foot starts to tap along.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
playing music 4
multiple areas 2
making music 2
musical instrument 2


Important Words


  1. activity
  2. areas
  3. brain
  4. brains
  5. breakthroughs
  6. calm
  7. decades
  8. elements
  9. enormous
  10. experience
  11. fireworks
  12. fmri
  13. focused
  14. foot
  15. hear
  16. hooked
  17. instruments
  18. lighting
  19. listen
  20. machines
  21. making
  22. math
  23. melody
  24. monitoring
  25. movements
  26. multiple
  27. music
  28. musical
  29. musicians
  30. neuroscientists
  31. observed
  32. participants
  33. party
  34. people
  35. pet
  36. pick
  37. practiced
  38. precise
  39. problems
  40. processed
  41. put
  42. reading
  43. real
  44. required
  45. researchers
  46. rhythm
  47. scanners
  48. sound
  49. split
  50. starts
  51. tap
  52. tasks
  53. time
  54. understand
  55. understanding
  56. unified
  57. work