Cerebral hemispheres and divergent thinking are more developed in pro musicians than in other people, scientists say. Divergent thinking is a creative thought process that involves generating many possible solutions to the same problem. Scientific study showed that musicians think differently. The reseachers studied the ability of musicians to solve problems that call for creativity. The experiment involved 20 music students and 20 non-musicians.
Volunteers were challenged to invent new functions for household items and were also asked to perform written word association test. Musicians showed much better results than those from the control group.
The researches discovered that musicians use both hemispheres when it comes to creativity. According to researches, one possible explanation is that musicians use both hands independently to play their instruments. Musicians often have to integrate different melodic lines with both hands into a single musical piece. That’s why it is easier for them to integrate information from both hemispheres.
Musicians had more activity in both sides of their brains. Scientists believe the ability of musicians to come up with more uses for household items suggests they think differently. Moreover, the experiments revealed that musicians have higher IQ-level, implying music education requires high intellectual ability.
