Studies Finds Guitarists Brains Work Differently

It’s a pretty well known fact that one’s hobbies have a demonstrable effect on personality, but have you ever considered that they might actually alter the way one’s brain functions?

A new study conducted at a university in Berlin examined this interesting medical phenomena in the brains of 12 guitarists, and the results were quite surprising. As it turns out, when the 12 guitarists played together, their brain functions quickly synced up. In fact, the brains of these guitarists were able to begin matching each other prior to playing, when the guitarists simply knew they were about to play.

The study also found another interesting caveat of playing guitar. When an experienced guitarist starts to play, the region in his or her brain that controls long-term goal achievement deactivates. This prevents the guitarist from consciously deciding how their playing will turn out, which forces the brain to scramble. This scramble is often the source of creative inspiration, according to the studio.

When a less experienced guitarist tries to play a solo that is out of their skill range, he or she does not experience a full deactivation of the goal-making region. This prevents them from unconsciously “feeling” the music, and instead they will try to reason it out. Researchers think this may begin to explain why “feeling the groove” plays such an important part in music.