Posner, Michael I, and Brenda Patoine. “How Arts Training Improves Attention and Cognition.

Dana.org, 14 Sept. 2009,

www.dana.org/Cerebrum/2009/How_Arts_Training_Improves_Attention_and_Cognition

/. (MLA)

Michael Posner and Brenda Patoine claim that when children find a form of art that

sustains their interest, the resulting strengthening of their brains’ attention networking improves

cognition. Posner is a professor at the University of Oregon and a professor of psychology at the

Weill Medical College of Cornell University. Patoine is a

freelance science author that has been writing and publishing

articles about neuroscience for over 20 years. She writes for the

general public and professional audiences about brain

advancements. It is proven fact that the brain has a complex

system of neural pathways the are dedicated to attention. It is

also fact that training these networks improves general intelligence. Focusing one’s attention on

mastering an art activates these same networks,

improving cognition. This process is known as

activity-dependent plasticity, a basic tenet of

brain function. In other words, the things you do

on an everyday basis have an impact on the way

you brain’s wiring. Nowhere is this process more

evident than your attention networks. When you

are constantly engaging in the arts, you are exercising your attention networks, which causes

them to become more developed.

  “For most of us, if we find an art that “works” for us—that incites our passion and

engages us wholeheartedly—and we stick with it, we should notice improvements in

other cognitive areas in which attention is important, such as learning and memory, as

well as improving cognition in general.”

 “[Activity-dependent plasticity] means that the brain changes in response to what you do.

Put another way, behavior shapes and sculpts brain networks: What you do in your day-

to-day life is reflected in the wiring patterns of your brain and the efficiency of your

brain’s networks. Perhaps nowhere is this more evident than in your attention networks.”

This source is one of the most interesting sources that I found. This is because it brings

psychology and neuroscience into the mix of topics that I can add to my thesis paper. The

information about activity-dependent plasticity also coincides with a lot of the evidence I have

found about art education enhancing performance in other subjects. It is applicable to my inquiry

because it directly addresses the effects of art education, which is what I am researching.