Your Brain on Drums

A multimethod investigation of motor inhibition in professional drummers
BRAIN AND BEHAVIOR

Playing an instrument can change your brain’s structure. That’s referred to as neuroplasticity–an encouraging concept for me when an aspect of medicine, like reading an EKG, appears incomprehensible.

Drumming is unique in that your hands are expected to play different beats simultaneously. I started drumming when I was 11, and I distinctly remember how it didn’t seem physically possible to get my hands to make two different movements simultaneously. My brain figured it out though, mostly through repetition. Loud, neighbor-angering repetition.

In this study, researchers tested 20 professional drummers, examining the structure and function of their brains with MRI imaging. Next they compared the data with 24 “unmusical” control subjects to see how their brains differed.

The data showed that the drummers had fewer but thicker fibers in the tract that connects the right and left brain hemispheres–the corpus callosum*.

This is cool because it allows for a quicker exchange of information between the hemispheres. The higher the measure of the thickness of the fibers in the corpus callosum, the more accurate the drumming performance.

Takeaway: Your brain structure and function is changeable. In other words, there is hope for those of us who were not “born smart” or “athletic” or, in my case, “anywhere even remotely as talented as Neil Peart”.

Playing the drums, for example, creates a thicker connection between the two halves of the brain. Drumming also makes your brain more efficient at initiating and controlling movement, which you can imagine is helpful in situations that don’t involve cymbals.

*I’ve seen, and dissected, several brains in gross anatomy, and it really is a remarkably efficient design that allows you to quickly register sensations and make movements.