Molecular Basis for Mozart Effect?

Why do rats perform better on learning and memory tests after listening to a Mozart sonata? The answer, suggested by brand new research, may help students of all sorts, brain-damaged patients, and even Alzheimer's sufferers.

Since 1993, researcher Frances Rauscher has been known for her work on the so-called "Mozart effect." Her paper in the science journal Nature showed then that college students who listened to 10 minutes of Mozart (specifically: Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major) performed better on a spatial reasoning test than did students who listened to nothing, or to new age music. [Insert your own new age music comment here.] The results generated both excitement and skepticism. In 1998 Zell Miller, then-Governor of the State of Georgia, started giving free CDs of Mozart to every baby born in the state (although the research had nothing to do with babies). Meanwhile, other scientists worked to replicate, refute, explain or expand upon Rauscher's work. The results are still checkered, with a more complex picture emerging about the circumstances required to elicit the effect.

(See Eric Chudler's site for examples, such as: "Some researchers have even tried to see if the Mozart Effect exists in monkeys! In these studies, monkeys listened to Mozart piano music for 15 minutes before they had to do a memory test. The researchers found that listening to Mozart music did NOT improve the monkeys' performance compared to when the monkeys listened to rhythms or white noise. They also found that listening to Mozart during the test impaired memory and while white noise during the test improved memory slightly.")

Rauscher herself has been trying to explain why the effect exists. Is it merely a mood effect? How closely tied is the effect to Mozart's music, versus other musics? (Some researchers have suggested that it is related to rhythmic cycles matching those of the human brain.)

Working with Hong Hua Li of Stanford, Rausher's latest experiments involve rats, which do tend to exhibit the Mozart Effect in lab tests. These new studies indicate that rats that were exposed to Mozart showed "increased gene expression of BDNF (a neural growth factor), CREB (a learning and memory compound), and Synapsin I (a synaptic growth protein)" in the brain's hippocampus, compared with rats in the control group, which heard only white noise (e.g. the whooshing sound of a radio tuned between stations).

Some scientists remain skeptical, while others point out that other experiments with rats have shown increased neuron growth caused by introducing toys to a rat's otherwise un-stimulating cage environment. Others point to clinical work in which this particular Mozart Sonata seems to improve task performance of Alzheimer's patients, and quiets seizure-related electrical activity in epileptics.

Read about Frances Rauscher's latest research on the New Scientist site, or visit Rauscher’s Univ. of Wisconsin web page.

Visit an entire site devoted to the Mozart Effect

Visit researcher Eric Chudler's academic site, on which he explains the relationship between brain and music in simple terms

Read a critical view of the Mozart Effect from the Skeptic’s Dictionary

Read an essay about the long history of claims about the magical powers of music in "First Things," the Journal of Religion and Public Life