We know that music helps to structure the thought and work of people in learning language , mathematical and spatial skills ; especially musical intelligence affects the emotional development , more than other intelligences spiritual and cultural . Less well known is that music can affect the body by changing the emotional state , physical and mental : this phenomenon is called " Mozart effect. "
With 'Mozart effect' refers to a controversial scientific theory that was born in 1993 after a famous experiment conducted by physicists Gordon Shaw and Frances Rausher and published in the same year the scientific journal Nature under the title "Music and spatial task performace". According to these authors listening to the music of Mozart and, in particular, the sonata K448 led to a temporary increase in intellectual abilities in a group of volunteers. Specifically, participants were divided into three groups and subjected to listening to three different musics: one group listened to Mozart, another minimalist music and the third silence.
After listening the participants had to complete a questionnaire to determine the level of intelligence: the students who heard Mozart (especially the Sonata K448) showed an increase in IQ of 9.8 points compared to the other two groups did not demonstrate improvement in the execution of the test.
These results were considered, "drugs" came the idea that the great composer's music could improve the intelligence of man and began a real business of what were called 'cd for the brain'. According to when he said the same Shaw, it was particularly Mozart's music to have this effect, because it was created by a young mind, that was equipped with a bark in the developmental phase and at the peak of its creative potential.
L 'enthusiasm was such that in 1998 the governor of Georgia decided to allocate annually a $ 100,000 budget to ensure, for every newborn of stat, a music CD with classical music.
In reality this study was misunderstood, in fact there had been an improvement in test results, but only in those that stimulated the space-time intelligence (there are nine different types of intelligence) and, in addition, the effects were transient persisting only for about 15 minutes after listening.
Many people became skeptical and the experiment was considered by some even unreliable for the fact that it was not possible to check it by other researchers in subsequent tests.
However the studies continued and in 1998, an authoritative study in the psychology department of Wisconsis showed that, in fact, Mozart's music temporarily increased the space-time intelligence.
Specifically in this study, for 60 days they were exposed groups of rats listening to Mozart (Sonata K448) minimalist music and silence; after exposure were tested for five days to a test which was to find the exit from a maze and this proved easier for rats who had listened Mozart.
Today we can say that the studies conducted so far show that listening to music of Mozart and, in particular, the listening of symphonies K488 and K 448, yes increases the intelligence, but only temporarily, and in particular has the effect of space-time, which is entrusted to the analysis of the shapes, the positions of the objects in space and the development of the sense orientation, thus being particularly useful for painters and surgeons.
According to recent studies it is possible that a long-term listening to this kind of music, and not random classical music cd, (the music must meet precise criteria rhythmic, melodic and musical structure that are found within the aforesaid symphonies) can in fact also determine a definitive increase in IQ, but still there is unanimous agreement in the literature.