Thursday 2 February 2012

Will Listening To Mozart Really Make You Smarter?

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The concept of the 'Mozart effect' was described by French researcher, Dr. Alfred A. Tomatis in his 1991 book Pourquoi Mozart? He used the music of Mozart in his efforts to 'retrain' the ear, and believed that listening to the music presented at differing frequencies helped the ear, and promoted healing and the development of the brain.

But will listening to Mozart really make you smarter? Yes, but no more than listening to Justin Bieber. Catherine Noelle O’Shea and David Wolf of the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston recently found that doctors who listened to Mozart before screening patients for colon polyps found more polyps than those who didn't. Classical music probably made the doctors feel good, thereby improving cognition. If the doctors had been Bieber fans, it might have been better to play them some of his hits.

3 comment(s):

Anonymous said...

So you're saying that listening to Bieber would prepare the doctors for staring at the inside of the rectum?

Chris Johnston said...

All the smartest people I know listen to Bach, myself included.

Anonymous said...

Well, I don't know. I listen to Mozart and play Mozart (I'm a musician in a symphony orchestra) So I'm right in the thick of it, and I still not smart enough to make $100K a year. So that explains it.