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New research reveals that the arts may prime our neural circuitry for a broad range of activities, boosting crucial cognitive and social skills like spoken and written language, focus, self-control, and empathy. In a , for example, T. Christina Zhao and Patricia Kuhl demonstrated that babies exposed to simple melodies in a social setting developed a greater sensitivity to the rhythms of spoken language. More surprisingly, they noted, the processing of music was traced not just to the auditory cortex of the infants, but to the prefrontal cortex as well鈥攖he seat of higher-order cognitive faculties like attention and self-regulation.

鈥淲e can see that the babies who have been through the music experience have greater abilities to...hold attention when that鈥檚 important, and to switch attention when it鈥檚  appropriate to switch,鈥� Kuhl explained in a . 鈥淚n other words, music is affecting executive function.鈥� 

A reached similar conclusions with professional musicians, finding that 鈥渆xecutive attention is more efficient in musicians than non-musicians,鈥� and improves as musical training progresses. 

But those weren鈥檛 the only surprises in store for researchers. A tracked over 10,000 students in Texas as they participated in arts programs, concluding that they performed better on state writing tests, were better behaved, had more compassion for fellow students, and were more engaged in school. And a showed that drawing had a dramatic effect on memory, outperforming writing, visualizing, and other retention techniques.

We also referenced other studies, reports, and news stories as we produced this video: A comprehensive on arts integration; and research on executive function; a on the value of field trips to museums; a on the recent discovery of ancient cave paintings; along with the following older research: a ; this ; this ; and this , among others.