Syncopated synapses: art, literature, and our cognitive well-being. From the article:

That idea — that art has a measurable effect on the brain and its structure — has support from a growing number of scientific studies.

“Creativity is making new connections, new synapses,” says Ivy Ross, who is vice president of hardware design at Google and co-author of the New York Times bestseller Your Brain on Art: How the Arts Transform Us.

Ross co-wrote the book with Susan Magsamen, director of the International Arts and Mind Lab at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Magsamen says art’s effect on the brain is most dramatic in children.

“Children that are playing music, their brain structure actually changes and their cerebral cortex actually gets larger,” Magsamen says.

In Your Brain on Art, Magsamen and Ross describe how a person’s neural circuitry changes in response to activities like learning a new song, or a new dance step, or how to play a character onstage.

They also explain why a growing number of researchers believe these changes result in a brain that is better prepared to acquire a wide range of skills, including math and science.

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