Musicians Outperform Nonmusicians in Speech Imitation

Abstract

Recently can be observed a growing interest in the effects of music on humans. Music has been called a food or a multi-sensory fitness of the brain. Many studies have already confirmed that practice and active involvement in music improve spatio-temporal functions, verbal memory, visuo-spatial abilities, reading, self-esteem, and generally cognitive processes. In the present paper, a general overview of research on the influence of music on humans has been provided. Moreover, it has been presented data on a research project, which was conducted with the aim to examine whether music education may be viewed as one of the factors, that improve second language acquisition.

Keywords: musicianship, musical abilities, foreign language acquisition, speech perception, auditory functions, cognition