The Neurological Benefits of Music Studies

Bruer, John T. “Education and the Brain: A Bridge Too Far” Educational Researcher Vol. 26, No. 8 (Nov. 1997): 4-16. Web. 21 Nov. 2015

            A good starting point for beginning a journey of learning about the connection between neurological research and teaching procedures (pedagogy). Healthy skepticism about applications, with a hopeful road map of process for implementing developing understandings of neurological research into educational practice in the future, via cognitive psychology, etc., particularly when technology is able to better bridge the study of neurology and its educational applications. 

            “Our emerging understanding of the brain may eventually be able to contribute to education, but it will require us, at least initially, to take a different, less direct route, a route that links brain structures with cognitive functions and cognitive functions with instructional goals and outcomes.” (10)

            “Looking to the future, we should attempt to develop an interactive, recursive relationship among research programs in education, cognitive psychology, and systems neuroscience. Such interaction would allow us to extent and apply our understanding of how mind and brain support learning.” (15)

Kvifte, Tellef. “Categories and Timing: On the Perception of Meter” Ethnomusicology Vol. 51, No. 1 (Winter, 2007): 64-84. Web. 21 Nov. 2015

            Analysis of the methodologies used to classify meter and rhythmic expressions in ethnomusicological studies; also a starting point for discussing the intersections of rhythm, neurology and dance, as well as the experience of rhythm by performers vs. that of an audience.

Torello, Michael W., and Frank H. Duffy. “Using Brain Electrical Activity Mapping to Diagnose Learning Disabilities” Theory Into Practice Vol. 24, No. 2, Learning and the Brain (Spring 1985): 95-99. Web. 21 Nov. 2015

            Technologically irrelevant for modern use, but a good source for medical history studies.