Annotated Bibliography #2 Angela Martin UWRT 1103/020

Baker, Mitzi. “Music Moves Brain to Pay Attention, Stanford Study Finds.” News Center, 1 Aug. 2007,

med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2007/07/music-moves-brain-to-pay-attention-stanford-study-

finds.html.

The article “Music Moves Brain to Pay Attention, Stanford Study Finds” is a description

of a study completed by Stanford University on listening to music and its effects on the brain.

The study sought out to understand how the brain processes information with music, and

ultimately revealed that music with pauses helps the brain organize information. This, in turn,

improves the listener’s memory and ability to pay attention. Mitzi Baker, science and medical

writer at Stanford, wrote the article on Stanford’s Medicine News Center, which provides

breaking information about the findings of Stanford researchers. Baker studied writing and

editing at John Hopkins University, which gives her credibility in being able to effectively

describe the scientific and medical studies. The medical and science professionals she

interviewed who conducted the study have solid credibility. Collectively, they have their

doctorate degrees or are graduate students in neuroscience, psychiatry, behavioral science, and

music. The article and news website could potentially be written for doctors or medical

professionals, but also contains jargon that average people could understand. For example, Baker

describes that “the research team showed that music engages the areas of the brain involved with

paying attention, making predictions and updating the event in memory. Peak brain activity

occurred during a short period of silence between musical movements - when seemingly nothing

was happening,” (Baker). These statements describe the results of the study without being too
technical. Also, this quote is interesting because it is stated that the anticipation of silence, not

this music itself, contributes to the engagement to the brain.

 “According to the researchers, their findings expand on previous functional brain imaging

studies of anticipation, which is at the heart of the musical experience. Even non-

musicians are actively engaged, at least subconsciously, in tracking the ongoing

development of a musical piece, and forming predictions about what will come next,”

(Baker).

 “. . . the researchers conclude that dynamic changes seen in the fMRI scans reflect the

brain's evolving responses to different phases of a symphony. An event change . . .

activates the first network, called the ventral fronto-temporal network. Then a second

network, the dorsal fronto-parietal network, turns the spotlight of attention to the change

and, upon the next event beginning, updates working memory,” (Baker).

 “‘The study suggests one possible adaptive evolutionary purpose of music,’ said Jonathan

Berger, PhD, associate professor of music and a musician who is another co-author of the

study. Music engages the brain over a period of time,’ he said, ‘and the process of

listening to music could be a way that the brain sharpens its ability to anticipate events

and sustain attention,’” (Baker).

Overall, I thought the article “Music Moves Brain to Pay Attention, Stanford Study

Finds” by Mitzi Baker to be very informative, unbiased, and a great source of information for my

thesis. The study directly answers the question in my proposal of how listening to music affects

cognitive ability. It was a easy difficulty read, despite describing a medical study. This source

could help other people with inquiry questions about improving attention span and memory

because the study found that music helps with both of these issues. This source relates to my first
annotated bibliography because it could provide some helpful information about the question

raised in the article. In my previous article, the question of whether or not music aids studying

was researched, and the author determined that it depends. This article described a study that

found that listening to music helps attention and memory, which provides evidence for the side

that music does aid studying. A big question that this article raises is if classical music is the only

genre of music that has cognitive benefits. It was mentioned that the anticipation between pauses

in symphonies causes improved memory and attention span, so does music without pauses have

no benefit? What about other genres that have pauses, but have no classical elements or have

vocals? This fits into ongoing conversations about my inquiry question by determining that

music with pauses has benefits such as remembering information and increased attention.