Gosh, I got asked some of these question as part of a student’s Modesto school assignment. \u00a0I’m not sure I answered them well enough, but I thought I’d share here. \u00a0It was supposed to be an interview, but due to time constraints, I thought it would be best as an email type conversation.<\/p>\n
Here’s what I wrote:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
John Houghton<\/p>\n
Mrs. Dillon<\/p>\n
English II cp<\/p>\n
1-28-15<\/p>\n
Interview Questions<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Definitely in both listening to music and producing the music.\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n I think that we all have experienced changes in mood from listening to music.\u00a0 Perhaps even reduction of stress, or even a feeling of excitement or even violence.\u00a0 These changes are present when listening to the music.<\/strong><\/p>\n I think further changes are found when producing the music \u2013 such as playing an instrument.\u00a0 I think at any age, playing an instrument challenges the brain to form new connections.\u00a0 Perhaps for youngsters, this could lead to better math skills or better communication skills.\u00a0 And perhaps for adults it could be a way to keep our minds young.\u00a0 There has been scientific studies regarding physical changes in the brain produced by learning musical instruments at a young age \u2013 such as cortical thickening in certain focal areas of the brain.\u00a0 And there has been research which mentions that a person\u2019s sense of sound discrimination may resist decline if one was exposed to some sort of early musical education.<\/strong><\/p>\n For me, I think just the challenge of playing music has made my mind sharper.\u00a0 \u00a0I played violin while I was younger and kept it up till I was in my mid 20\u2019s.\u00a0 I probably tried to practice about 1-2 hours per day.\u00a0 The practicing started dwindling when I got closer and closer to medical school.\u00a0 I personally developed a hearing problem in my college years and that made violin practice somewhat unpleasant.\u00a0 For me practicing the violin just became a way of life.\u00a0 But I gradually replaced that time with time spent studying medicine.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n I\u2019m not entirely sure that gender plays a role in music.\u00a0 I have not personally done laboratory research on brain difference between genders.\u00a0 But I do think that a younger brain can adapt, change, and benefit more from an early music education.<\/strong><\/p>\n I\u2019m not sure if you\u2019re asking about playing music or listening to music.\u00a0 But either way, I\u2019m not sure.\u00a0 This is a very interesting question.\u00a0 But I think gender questions are always tricky and there will always be exceptions in either gender \u2013 all we can make are generalizations in this research.\u00a0 There is some discussion about the differences between women and male surgeons.\u00a0 My wife, Dr. Tammy Wu, who is a plastic surgeon often feels that women make better surgeons because of smaller hands, but she\u2019s probably just saying that to annoy me.\u00a0 My hands are quite small too \u2013 perfect for many surgeon options.\u00a0 I can make smaller incisions!\u00a0 In the end, it\u2019s probably similar to asking about math or language and the brain and gender.\u00a0 There are differences.\u00a0 But in the end \u2013 I don\u2019t think it matters \u2013 it just becomes an academic observation and debate.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n I think it helped open doors to connections with other very interesting people.\u00a0 This networking via a common hobby has become very useful.\u00a0 I think opportunities are more abundant this way.\u00a0 I am now learning piano, an instrument I played briefly when I was a child.\u00a0 It helps give me a sense of satisfaction \u2013 where I\u2019m improving and learning new pieces.\u00a0 I enjoy learning new pieces of music and making them my own.\u00a0 It\u2019s especially satisfying when I have the pieces memorized and I can play it for others.\u00a0 I also feel that I am on a mission to spread music to others \u2013 especially classical music.<\/strong><\/p>\n My violin playing gave me a sense of who I am, or who I was.\u00a0 I was the concertmaster at Brown University for several years.\u00a0 I was also concertmaster of an orchestra at Harvard.\u00a0 It gave me a sense of accomplishment and confidence.\u00a0 I think this confidence exudes into other aspect of my life.\u00a0 It made me happier and ready to tackle challenges.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n I haven\u2019t gotten that sophisticated.\u00a0 I think it would be interesting to do.\u00a0 But sometimes we play music for the acupuncture patients and for the Botox patients while they are getting treatment.\u00a0 I have chosen music that soothes and perhaps they would feel less anxious and ultimately less pain while in our surgical \/ Botox \/ acupuncture office.\u00a0 And with less pain, the recovery is usually much better (faster, less complaints, etc).<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Gosh, I got asked some of these question as part of a student’s Modesto school assignment. \u00a0I’m not sure I answered them well enough, but I thought I’d share here. \u00a0It was supposed to be an interview, but due to time constraints, I thought it would be best as an email type conversation. Here’s what … Continue reading Music and the Brain<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-modesto","category-music-and-medicine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.injectionartistry.com\/modesto-botox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.injectionartistry.com\/modesto-botox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.injectionartistry.com\/modesto-botox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.injectionartistry.com\/modesto-botox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.injectionartistry.com\/modesto-botox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=288"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.injectionartistry.com\/modesto-botox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":289,"href":"https:\/\/www.injectionartistry.com\/modesto-botox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288\/revisions\/289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.injectionartistry.com\/modesto-botox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.injectionartistry.com\/modesto-botox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.injectionartistry.com\/modesto-botox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}2: How does age and gender play a role in in music and the brain?<\/h3>\n
3: What role has music played in your life?<\/h3>\n
4: Do you play music in your office, for your patients at all to affect their recovery in any way?<\/h3>\n