Does classical music make you smarter?

IQ Today, My Mensa Weekly

Does classical music make you smarter?

30 May 2023

This feature was first published in June 2023 in My Mensa Weekly our exclusive newsletter for Mensa members. Find out more about becoming a Mensa member here.

Does classical music make you smarter?

Words: Joanna Cummings

You’ve heard the theory: that listening to classical music can make children more intelligent. There’s even a name for it, coined after the 1993 experiment: “the Mozart effect”. But does music genuinely affect your brain power?

Understanding the impact of music on our brains is complex. Take the Mozart effect, for example. This experiment, conducted 30 years ago, led to popular science theories that exposing babies to classical music was beneficial to their IQs. However, there are more to these claims than meet the eye [1]. For a start, the study wasn’t conducted with babies, but with adults. Secondly, the ‘improvement’ was only displayed in spatial reasoning, no other form of test – and certainly no IQ score was recorded. Thirdly, none of the participants exhibited any ‘increase’ in intelligence lasting more than 15 minutes. There was no simple ‘cause and effect’.

Since then, our understanding has become more nuanced. One 2019 study [2], conducted by the University of British Columbia, concluded that pupils who were studying music at school were more academically successful in the subjects of maths, science and English. But the researchers acknowledged many other factors, including socio-economic ones (perhaps students were less inclined to study music because of their backgrounds), previous academic achievement (were students with better grades more likely to be encouraged to study music?) and social factors (interacting positively with other children could impact confidence and thus academic performance).

Scientific studies have told us a little more about any correlations between music and intellect – or at least, our cognitive abilities. But it now appears that it is learning to play music, rather than passively listening to it that has the most noticeable effect on the brain.

Brain imaging techniques, such as MRIs and EEGs, have shown that in expert musicians the areas of the brain dealing with auditory, visual and motor function become larger in size; a piece of 2018 research [3] found that musicians – and interestingly, bilingual people – required less effort when performing certain memory tasks; in other words, their brains had become more efficient. And we now know that early musical training can enhance executive function [4], which, although beneficial to academic achievement, includes broader cognitive processes.

Learning an instrument could even have health benefits. Hearteningly, recent research [5] found that musicians were 64% less likely to develop mild cognitive impairment or dementia than people who didn’t play an instrument. And even just playing music to those with Alzheimer’s disease – particularly music that is already familiar to them – improves both mood and memory abilities.

So does music actually make you smarter? While a compelling idea, it’s unlikely [6] – though long-term, it can benefit cognition, mood, creativity and reasoning. And it’s certainly not dependent on Mozart, specifically, just music that you enjoy (though of course ‘the ZZ Top effect’ doesn’t have quite the same ring to it).

One thing is for sure: that our enduring fascination with fostering intelligence in this way – rather than, say, focusing on music for its own sake – says much about how we value brain power. Of course, if you’re reading this then you’re a Mensa member, so I’m preaching to the choir (excusing the musical pun). But it is important to remember that however interesting the link between music and intelligence might be, music is more than a ‘means to an end’ – it is an end in itself, and a deeply enjoyable one at that.

IN GREAT COMPANY

When exploring the connection between musical ability and genius, there are some obvious examples that spring to mind. Mozart, for example, was estimated to have an IQ of 150-155, with Beethoven not too far behind at 135-140 [7]. And it can work the other way, too. Albert Einstein was a profound lover of music, learning to play the violin at six years old, and his second wife, Elsa, even suggested that his intermittent piano playing assisted him develop the theory of general relativity[8]!

AND SPEAKING OF MUSIC

A new symphony has recently been composed and played alongside incredible images from NASA space exploration. While we obviously can’t promise the music itself will make you smarter, it is a fantastic opportunity to see awe-inspiring photographs of our solar system. Watch the full Cosmic Cycles playlist on YouTube

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