By Ryan Malone

Can Mozart make you smarter? Well, that’s what researchers at the University of California-Irvine asked back in 1993. The answer?

Frances Rauscher, Gordon Shaw and Katherine Ky gave preschool and college students standard tests of spatial reasoning (being able to turn an object in one’s head or to imagine how pieces of a shape fit together). The tests were given after the students had experienced three different conditions for ten minutes: one condition was silence, one was listening to a relaxation tape, another was listening to Mozart’s Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major. Performance on the post-Mozart spatial tests were significantly better.

But, of course, not all scientific experiments are reliable. Every experiment must be proven over and over before it can be accepted as fact. So in 1994, researchers at the University of Auckland examined the effects of listening to Mozart contrasted with other types of music or silence. Seventy-nine college students were divided into three groups. One group listened to Mozart (the same piece used in the ’93 study). Another listened to silence. The third group listened to a piece by Philip Glass—a composer of music based on endless repetitions of patterns. The two latter groups showed no significant increase in spatial IQ. But the Mozart group did!

In further studies, researchers found that listening to a taped short story or to dance music did not enhance test scores.

Rauscher, Shaw and Ky originally chose Mozart because they thought that the highly structured music he wrote would enhance brain processing, whereas less complex or highly repetitive music would interfere with abstract reasoning. (Other researchers are anxious to try the experiment with other classical composers.)

The Irvine scientists also found that rats exposed to the same Mozart piece learned to run mazes faster and with fewer errors compared with genetically identical animals exposed to other sounds. The Mozart rodents averaged a 35-second maze run. Those listening merely to white noise (like TV static) ran the maze in 44 seconds. And Philip Glass’ rats? It took them 50 seconds. Purely from a learning standpoint, the Mozartian mice also learned the right route through the maze more quickly than the others.

All this confirms research that has stated a strong connection between the part of the brain that is “wired” for music perception and that for spatial tasks. This wiring—or forming of neural connections—begins early in life. Oddly enough, most students felt the “Mozart effect” only for about 10 to 15 minutes, yet it lasted longer in those who had some musical training.

This was part of the rodent experiment as well: Some of the rats were exposed to Mozart while in the womb and every night for the first 60 days of their life. They “apparently had changes in their neural machinery that persisted hours after their last dose of Mozart” (Chicago Tribune, Aug. 11, 1998).

There is much research out there telling you what type of music has damaging effects to the mind and the ears—what you should not listen to. But here is something you can listen to. Not only does this music not contain “harmful side effects,” it may actually produce good results for your developing mind. And if you’ve played an instrument since childhood, your brain is already primed to feel the effects of Mozart’s music.

Even though we’ve discussed several instances where the “Mozart effect” seemed to produce good results, some scientists have had trouble duplicating the results. Although it is still a matter of some controversy, realize that it cannot hurt you to listen to Mozart. It has certainly helped some. All the benefits from widening your musical vocabulary may not even be scientifically measurable.

So put Mozart to the test. And see if his music makes you any smarter.

Listen to This!

Here are some particularly good representations of Mozart’s music that you might try (aside from the much acclaimed “Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major,”K. 448, used in the experiment):

Symphonies: No. 25 in G Minor; No. 35 in D; No. 40 in G Minor; No. 41 in C.

Choral Works: The Great Mass in C Minor (K. 427); Requiem Mass in D Minor.

Piano Concerti: No. 9 in E-flat; No. 20 in D Minor; No. 21 in C; No. 26 in D; No. 27 in B-flat.

Operas:The Marriage of Figaro; Don Giovanni;The Magic Flute.

Other: Serenade No. 11 for Winds in E-flat; Violin Concerti Nos. 3 and 5.