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Music practice can have a positive impact on general intelligence.
Why does music make us feel good?
Five quick questions for Fredrik Ullén, who carries out research into the workings of the brains of experts, in other words people who have got really good at something. text: Ola Danielsson
Music brings us joy, but it also has positive effects on our cognitive abilities and health. We do not know why this is but the project “Humans making music: an interplay between culture and nature” aims to find out. Project leader will be professor Fredrik Ullén in collaboration with colleagues at the Swedish Twin Registry, Stockholm University and Umeå University.
How can you train to be an expert? sara appelgren
Fredrik Ullén
What happens in the brain when you become an expert? “Expertise is all about specialisation, which means training up a high-level but very precise capacity to carry out specific tasks. The key aspects of this process are automation (so that not all elements of a complex task require our full attention), optimised problem-solving strategies and effective teamwork between our working memory and long-term memory. The anatomy of the brain also changes as a result of long-term training, with areas of both the grey and white matter becoming more developed.”
How do I set about becoming an expert in, say, playing the guitar? “The single most important factor underpinning all expertise is focused practice. Practice really does make perfect!”
Can everyone get to be really good at something, or do you need to have a particular type of personality? “I believe that personal variables do play a role in addition to practice. For example, intelligence seems to be important for those types of expertise that require us to manage
new information. Personality, motivation and interest are important, for example, because they affect what you choose to practise and how intensively you go about it. But we need more research in this area as research to date has focused mainly on practice.”
What can your research into expertise be used for? “Understanding the mechanisms behind expertise makes it easier for us make training more effective, stimulating and fun. I’ve seen plenty of interest in this from people in both education and business. We also work with clinical researchers to assess how motor training can help groups of neurological patients with impaired motor function.”
If you practice one thing, will you get better at other things too? “The knock-on effects are generally limited. You get very good at what you spend a lot of time practising, but not at other things. However, some forms of practice, for example music practice, have a positive impact on general intelligence. How this works is a very exciting area of research.” F m e d i ca l s c i e n c e • e n g li s h la n g uag e e d i t i o n 2012 2 5