Learning, Arts, and the Brain, a study three years in the
making, is the result of research by cognitive neuroscientists
from seven leading universities across the United States. In the
Dana Consortium study, released in March 2008, researchers
grappled with a fundamental question: Are smart people drawn to
the arts or does arts training make people smarter? For the
first time, coordinated, multi-university scientific research
brings us closer to answering that question. Learning, Arts, and
the Brain advances our understanding of the effects of music,
dance, and drama education on other types of learning. Children
motivated in the arts develop attention skills and strategies
for memory retrieval that also apply to other subject areas. The
research was led by Dr. Michael S. Gazzaniga of the University
of California at Santa Barbara. “A life-affirming dimension is
opening up in neuroscience,” said Dr. Gazzaniga, “to discover
how the performance and appreciation of the arts enlarge
cognitive capacities will be a