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Rats were exposed in utero plus 60 days post-partum to either complex music (Mozart Sonata (k. 448)), minimalist music (a Philip Glass composition), white noise or silence, and were then tested for five days, three trials per day, in a multiple T-maze. By Day 3, the rats exposed to the Mozart work completed the maze more rapidly and with fewer errors than the rats assigned to the other groups. The difference increased in magnitude through Day 5. This suggests that repeated exposure to complex music induces improved spatial-temporal learning in rats, resembling results found in humans. Taken together with studies of enrichment-induced neural plasticity, these results suggest a similar neurophysiological mechanism for the effects of music on spatial learning in rats and humans.

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The results of studies intended to replicate the enhancement of spatial-temporal reasoning following exposure to 10 min. of Mozart's Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major (K.448) have been varied. While some studies have replicated the effect, others have not. We suggest that researchers' diverse choice of dependent measures may account for these varied results. This paper provides a neurophysiological context for the enhancement and considers theoretical and experimental factors, including the choice of dependent measures, the presentation order of the conditions, the selection of the musical composition, and the inclusion of a distractor task, that may contribute to the various findings. More work is needed before practical applications can be derived.

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Motivated by predictions from the structured trion model of the cortex, behavioral experiments have demonstrated a causal short-term enhancement of spatial-temporal reasoning in college students following exposure to a Mozart sonata, but not in control conditions. The coherence analysis of electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings is well suited to the neurophysiological investigation of this behavioral enhancement. Here we report the presence of right frontal and left temporo-parietal coherent activity induced by listening to Mozart which carried over into the spatial-temporal tasks in three of our seven subjects. This carry-over effect was compared to EEG coherence analysis of spatial-temporal-tasks after listening to text. We suggest that these EEG coherence results provide the beginnings of understanding of the neurophysiological basis of the causal enhancement of spatial-temporal reasoning by listening to specific music. The observed long-lasting coherent EEG pattern might be evidence for structured sequences in cortical dynamics which extend over minutes.

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Predictions from a structured cortical model led us to test the hypothesis that music training enhances young children's spatial-temporal reasoning. Seventy-eight preschool children participated in this study. Thirty-four children received private piano keyboard lessons, 20 children received private computer lessons, and 24 children provided other controls. Four standard, age-calibrated, spatial reasoning tests were given before and after training; one test assessed spatial-temporal reasoning and three tests assessed spatial recognition. Significant improvement on the spatial-temporal test was found for the keyboard group only. No group improved significantly on the spatial recognition tests. The magnitude of the spatial-temporal improvement from keyboard training was greater than one standard deviation of the standardized test and lasted at least one day, a duration traditionally classified as long term. This represents an increase in time by a factor of over 100 compared to a previous study in which listening to a Mozart piano sonata primed spatial-temporal reasoning in college students. This suggests that music training produces long-term modifications in underlying neural circuitry in regions not primarily concerned with music and might be investigated using EEG. We propose that an improvement of the magnitude reported may enhance the learning of standard curricula, such as mathematics and science, that draw heavily upon spatial-temporal reasoning.

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Motivated by predictions of a structured neuronal model of the cortex, we performed a behavioral experiment which showed that listening to a Mozart piano sonata produced significant short-term enhancement of spatial-temporal reasoning in college students. Here we present results from an experiment which replicates these findings, and shows that (i) 'repetitive' music does not enhance reasoning; (ii) a taped short story does not enhance reasoning; and (iii) short-term memory is not enhanced. We propose experiments designed to explore the neurophysiological bases of this causal enhancement of spatial-temporal reasoning by music, and begin to search for quantitative measures of further higher cognitive effects of music.

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