Auditory, Meet Motor: Let's Talk Mirror Neurons

So today, I got to have lunch with (and listen to a talk by) Amir Lahav, a neuro-researcher at Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital. Besides being a pretty cool and easy-going guy, his work and interest in sound's connection to learning through mirror neuron activation is fascinating.

After subjecting nonmusicians to 5 piano lessons, one of his studies found that listening to the music they learned to play activated their motor areas. Music they didn't know how to play did not do this. Ok, so this is something maybe we've seen before; not that new.

But what about the other way around? Can we benefit motorically from listening? Here's the cool part: Lahav found that those who learned piano music and then had 5 sessions of just listening to the music they learned to play performed better in sequence, timing (rhythm), and dynamics on a pop quiz than people who learned piano and listened to nature sounds.

Mirror neurons react and learn from auditory input. Imagine this implication for education: if you teach a movement with sound, or teach sound with a movement, listening becomes that much more helpful in performance. And teaching in multiple modalities would also strengthen the learning. The importance of listening continues to amaze me.

PS: But so does the importance of movement. In his concluding comments, Lahav said there is something strong and intuitive about learning through movement: "We move before we talk." We understand much through simulation, both physical and mental.