(STUDY FINDS) -- BOCHUM, Germany — There’s an old trope in the rock scene that drummers are always the forgotten members of a band. The drums aren’t quite as exciting as guitar, not as provocative as the bass, and don’t demand the same attention as a mic stand. Interestingly, this propensity to forget drummers had even extended into the scientific research community. Somehow, there had been absolutely no research performed on how playing the drums influences brain structure and activity.
With this incredibly glaring musical oversight in mind, a team of researchers from the Ruhr-Universität Bochum in Germany analyzed a group of seasoned drummers’ brains. They discovered that playing the drums does indeed change one’s brain structure; drummers’ motor brain areas are organized more efficiently, and also appear to have fewer than normal, but also thicker, connecting fibers between the two halves of the brain.
These observations explain, on a neurological level, why experienced drummers are able to coordinate their hand movements on both sides in a manner that appears impossible to non-musicians or novice drummers.
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