Friday, 11 October 2013

MUSIC AND EARLY BRAIN DEVELOPMENT – CAPT AJIT VADAKAYIL

EARLY DEVELOPMENT OF SPACIAL AND TEMPORAL REASONING SKILLS ,  MUSIC STIMULATION AND BRAIN CIRCUITRY,   DEVELOPING BRAIN SYNAPSESCOMMUNICATION BETWEEN CONSCIOUS AND SUBCONSCIOUS BRAIN LOBES , EXCITING THE BRAIN WITH UNESTABLISHED PATTERNS – CAPT AJIT VADAKAYIL




Above video:  My elder son playing Italian Ludovico Einaudi's , Primavera .



Above video:  My elder son playing Pehla Nasha .


As per Vedanta  we are essentially holographic energy  beings existing in a state of resonance with the scalar field of the cosmos. . The brain without consciousness is inert and lifeless. Consciousness is a form of matter just as matter is a form of consciousness. All atoms in the entire universe are capable of mind reading and communicating with other atoms.  

Our consciousness is a cosmic DVD player-- see video below .


Learning to play a piano requires coordination between hands and with visual or auditory stimuli. Spatial-temporal reasoning skills of the children who took piano lessons are better than the children who took computer lessons.


Nature lays down a complex system of brain circuitry,  but how that circuitry is wired is dependant on external forces which include stimulation..  The quality, quantity and consistency of stimulation will determine how nerve fibres within the brain (synapses) develop and function. This is true for both cognitive ( perception ) and emotional development  ( feelings and appropriate emotional response), and the effect is life-long.


Piano is played wth both hands.  The left side of the brain controls the right side of the body and the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body, the two sides of the brain are forced to communicate when the legs and arms cross over.

Punch into Google search-
DVAU BHUJA KARANAM, THOPPU KARANAM, ITHAM IDUKA VADAKAYIL




Children who learn piano early can do speed reading.

Punch into google search-

SPEED READING VADAKAYIL

Early interactions, how we relate and respond, directly affect how the brain is wired.  Children are particularly in tune with music between the ages of three and ten.


Three day ago the world media was going GA GA about Einstein’s corpus callosum . This is a thick band of nerve fibers that separates the cerebrum into left and right hemispheres.  It connects the left and right sides of the brain, allowing for communication between both hemispheres, including the transmission of motor, sensory, and cognitive information.


Children who practiced music at a young age have more  white matter in the corpus callosum.  The corpus callosum is made up of nerve fibers, and is responsible for serving as a connector between the motor regions in the right side of the brain with those in the left side.


We all have a right brain lobe and a left brain lobe.  For a right hander the left lobe is the Conscious lobe and the right brain lobe the Subconscious brain lobe.

Conscious = induction+ deduction ( determines what is to be done ).

LEFT BRAIN LOBE  ( for right handers )  : Numbers, written language, reasoning, spoken language, scientific skills , RH control

Subconscious = only deduction ( no thinking , draws conclusions, does not care for right or wrong, gives the power to do the job )


RIGHT BRAIN LOBE ( for right handers ): Insight, 3D forms , art, imagination, music, left hand control.


The conscious mind can be engaged 100% in giving bull  or deep thinking or day dreaming while the subconscious keeps the car safely on the road.


Look at the picture of our brain above. It is 83% water . If there is NO water in the brain it cannot function or think. Water can store information about substances that were once in it but that have physically disappeared.  

Latest generation computer robotic research is investigating water's capacity to order and transmit information, as an improvement to silicon. Our brain stores information in the holographic form. Every cell in our body carries all information to produce a copy.  

Water has an unusually large heat capacity, requiring a lot of energy to increase its temperature.  Water absorbs radiation of all wavelengths from the cosmos.  Human vibrational energy, thoughts, words, ideas and music, affect the molecular structure of water.


The most mysterious and controversial property of water, is its ability to hold and store memory. This is the eason Hindus immerse the cremated bones in water—and now the waitress is trying to stop it with help from atheist communists and Joshua Project two. 

Water registers precise molecular information about the world around it, and that is extremely sensitive to these frequencies coming into it.Water remembers, or stores this information, and that it can transport this into new environments when it travels through various water cycles.  

Water receives cosmic radiation at extreme low frequencies even deep down five kilometres below the sea, creating resonances or vibrations that are healing and healthy for nature since the world began. 

The schumann’s resonance and Hindu king mantra OM is 8.83 hertz. All newly cropped up religions have stolen this by subtly changing it—but it wont work.  Christians use AMEN, Muslims 786, Jews SHALOM, Sikhs OMKAR etc

This memory property underlies the healing capability of homeopathy. A homeopathic solution usually in water is produced via a series of dilutions of a substance, often until effectively no atoms of the original material remain. Only an imprint or memory remains for the cure, and the greater the dilution, the greater the effectiveness. 


The experiments showed that the immune system can be triggered using hundred times dilutions of an aqueous solution of an antibody.. If water has a memory then the water we drink is transferring its memory into our "water body," just like a homeopathic solution does.


All those who give too much credit to Albert Einstein’s brain must read this post.  Albert Einstein was NOT a mathematician. He was just a phycisist.  Einstein used Stayendranath Bose to assist him,  who was both a Mathematician and a phycisist.  

Why did Ashutosh Mukherjee , the Vice Chancellor of Calcutta Univeristy become SIR ?  Well lot of Jews got Nobel prizes by using brilliant work done by Indians in Calcutta University.  Jews MUST get Nobel prizes, right? Are they NOT the chosen people from the promised land? 

Punch into Google search-
DR ECG SUDARSHAN DENIED NOBEL PRIZE FOR PHYSICS IN 1979 AND 2005, VULGAR RACISM VADAKAYIL



Above : Jesus Christ and his wife Mary Magdalene 

These pathetic Jews don’t even know that they migrated from Kerala.

Pythogarus ( 570 BC – 495 BC ),  Socrates ( 469 BC- 399 BC ) and Plato (427 BC to 347 BC ) studied in Kerala, India. 

The disciple of Plato Aristotle did NOT come to India , but he had very clearly written that Jews originated from Kerala in India.  

Aristotle wrote that Jews came from KALANI 

in India. 

kalaNi?

TEE HEEE !!


Above : King Solomon and Queen Sheba

Like how indentured Indian slave Murli became Moodley in South Africa.

There aint NO Moodley in India .

It was NOT kalaNi— it was kalaRi— for Kerala was the land of KalaRi.

He has written that Kalani was famous for their sages ( maharishis ).  These are the same sages who built the Egyptian pyramids.

Alexander the great went back from India via Socotra by ship, to get some life saving Aloe Vera which was a spice trade outpost of Calicut King,  like Mecca and Salalah .

This is the reason why King David took a wife from Kerala named Bath Sheba. King Solomon took a wife from Kerala named whom all call Queen Sheba. 


Above : King David and BathSheba

Jesus Christ took a wife from Kerala named Mary Magdalene.  All know that Jesus Christ suddenly sprung up at Jerusalem from nowhere.  He was in Kerala India, learning healing, meditation, science, philosophy etc.

Getting back-

The conscious and subconscious minds are connected through a filter. So we cant read the contents of our subconscious mind.  Practicing piano before the age of seven boosts the normal maturation of connections between motor and sensory regions of the brain, creating a foundation upon which ongoing training can build.  


Child musicians show enhanced white matter in the corpus callosum. The younger a musician started, the greater the connectivity.

Subconscious mind never sleeps even in a coma   Every experience we have ever had is impressed somewhere in the electrochemical cells in our brain. The brain records everything—everything thrown up by our 5 senses— and it is imprinted in the brain cells for ever.

Whenever something reactivates those cells we get a mental picture duplicating the original experience.  Subconscious mind has a memory of more than 100 trillion images, all our experiences, emotions and feelings are stored as an image or a sound in a digitised or rather a holographic manner .

Data that cannot be recalled are retained in the subconscious. A person may be unconscious of ever having been locked in a closet as a child, yet under hypnosis he may recall the experience vividly.  Negative suggestions with growing children gets rooted in their subconscious mind and is reflected later in their behavior.

During hypnosis –our conscious mind goes into a trance and suggestions are given directly to the subconscious mind, which cannot argue but accepts the suggestion at its face value. We do self hypnosis unknowingly several times a day while doing our day to day activities. This is how our body learns to relax otherwise we would die of stress at a very early age.



The younger you start  piano lessons, the stronger the connections in your brain.  It  produces long-lasting changes in motor abilities and brain structure,  and creates new pathways in the brain.

Many of the assertions of neuroscience are deductions made from scientific medical experiments on animals who are NOT conscious.  

Only rank stupid people do this.  

Only conscious creatures can see themselves in a mirror like man, elephant, dolphins and certain apes .  Try showing your cat or dog a mirror.


By the time a child is three years old, 90% of their brain has been developed .  Majority of the parents do NOT know that the greatest amount of brain development occurs in the first 3 years of a child’s life.

At birth, babies have approximately the same number of neurons as an adult but  approximately 10 times fewer connections (synapses).  Brain development related  to experience involves the growth of axons (transmitters),  dendrites (receptors) and  synapses connecting neurons and neural networks.  

The making of the synapses is called  synaptogenesis.  This occurs in different parts of the brain at different times, happening  rapidly in the first years of life until a child has more synapses than they can use.


If the child is healthy , with environmental experience,  from birth to the age of three the number of neural  connections multiplies by 20.   In the past, it was commonly thought that intelligence was 80% genetic and 20% environmental.  Today we know that the reverse is true . It is now thought to be 20% genetic and 80% environmental with genes and experience being interdependent.  

This is why a child in a desert is lesser brain developed than an Indian child brought up in a jungle with variety of flora and fauna.   An infant’s brain is not fully developed at birth, and he needs sensory input for the cells to build and connect.

The brain develops and organises its function in direct response to the pattern, intensity and nature of sensory and perceptual experiences.

The child’s brain is specially primed for learning . Axons and dendrites are plentiful, creating a synaptic network  that can capture many new experiences.  Brain metabolism, as measured by blood sugar consumption, remains high.  So does a healthy child’s energy.

While it is possible to learn new skills at any age, it is easiest to learn between the ages of 3 and 8.  One dramatic example is language: children sometimes seem like sponges soaking up new words, both in the family’s primary language and in others they regularly hear.   

It  is easier for people to learn second languages before the age of 8 than after.   Do you as an intelligent adult wish to take on a child of 8 in learning a foreign language ?

The brain plays closer attention to things that don't fit an established pattern, things that are new and different.  The brain reacts to routine mundane stimulus by lowering levels of stimulation. That is why mothers singing the same boring lullaby day after day, will quickly lull their infants to sleep.

Since piano  music is more complex in structure, instrumentation and harmony, it primes the brain with pathways needed for other cognitive tasks.   Musical training during early childhood helps create brain changes that can last for a person’s whole life.


It is the brain and central nervous system that hears. The inner ear cochlea is filled with liquid. Microscopic hairs called cilia project out into this liquid and they release a chemical neurotransmitter when stimulated.  Neurons are brain cells, and you have billions of them in your head and spinal cord. 

Neurons “talk” to one another electrically through specialized connections called synapses.  The axon is the part of the neuron that carries electrical impulses away from the cell body.  At the end of the axon, there are specialized endings where the electrical signal gets transferred onto the dendrites of another neuron.  These are the synapses.  

In most neurons, the axon is wrapped up in an electrical insulator made of a substance called myelin.  Electrical impulses travel faster down axons that are insulated, and so the presence and amount of myelin on an axon alters the neuron's ability to transmit electrical signals. 

Almost everything that happens in our brains comes down to circuits of neurons transmitting electrical signals.  Basically a mechanical signal is converted  to an electrical signal A sound wave is a longitudinal wave-- a series of compressions and rarefactions .The wonder of the cilia hairs is that it can perceive 1500 levels of pitch. The number of discriminable tones in in the hundreds of thousands.  

Below: Cilia 

Are you not able to recognise the voice of a long lost friend?   Amazing , right? The audo frequency range encompasses 9 octaves.

So when we learn something new, or get better at doing something, what happens in our brains is that the neuronal circuits responsible for that fact or skill become stronger, better able to communicate with one another.

When we learn at school and college and finally forget everything, you are educated. It is NOT about remembering . It is about making neural pathways in the brain – or for a layman digging new tunnels . 

This is where our Indian education system is found wanting. Education system in school should be all about digging new tunnels or connecting more circuits in the brain. 

It is NOT about knowing that the capital of India is New Delhi and getting 100% marks for that.

Learning piano at a young age , helps in many ways. The synapses become stronger and so transmit the signals more reliably.  New synapses form, so the neurons are more strongly connected.  

Myelin growth leads to faster transmission of the electrical signals down the axon, and better timing of neuronal signals.  Neurons that fire together wire together. When neurons fire at the same time, the connections between the neurons get stronger.


Myelin is an dielectric or electrically insulating layer or sheath that forms around nerves, including those in the brain and spinal cord.


The myelin sheath,  grows around the axon of a neuron.  It is essential for the proper functioning of the nervous system.  It is an outgrowth of a type of glial cell. The production of the myelin sheath is called myelination.


The purpose of the myelin sheath is to allow impulses to transmit quickly and efficiently along the nerve cells. If myelin is damaged, the impulses slow down.

The process of myelination, which begins before birth , in the 14th week of fetal development continues throughout childhood.   As said Myelin not only protects the growing nerves, it helps them communicate better.  

The brain undertakes this task in stages.  Those neural networks involved in early life skills (such as sucking and swallowing) are myelinated during pregnancy.  The prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain involved in higher forms of learning,  is  NOT completely myelinated until the child is 10.
As your child starts to talk, he or she activates several areas of the brain in rapid succession.


The neural networks that are used grow stronger . Those that are not used wither away,  just as unused brain cells started dying in the last weeks before birth.  This process is known as pruning. It is similar to the way a tree is pruned of deadwood . This pruning of excess brain cells and connections truly sculpts a person’s brain.  

At birth, the number of synapses per neuron is 2,500, but by age two , it’s about 15,000 per neuron. The brain eliminates connections that are seldom or never used..

Growth and pruning continue throughout our lives, but the relative balance of the processes changes.  Until your baby is 3, growth far outpaces pruning. From then until the age of 10, the formation of new connections is balanced by the elimination of unused ones.  

When your child reaches puberty, the balance finally shifts and the pruning of connections exceeds the formation of new ones.  This is why schooling is important.  You cannot sit content stating that I will attend school after the age of 20. 


Sometimes certain experiences are even necessary to “turn on” genes and unlock their natural coding.  This interplay is lifelong.  Even the brain of an adult can continue to rewire itself and make connections after exposure to new situations.  The result of all this is that the brain is custom-designed to function in its owner’s environment.   

Thus our human brain differs from our heart, lungs, and other organs,  which follow a standard and predictable developmental process.


The neurons for vision begin sending messages back and forth rapidly at 2 to 4 months of age, peaking in intensity at 8 months. The babies begin to take notice of the world during this period.  If a baby is NOT allowed to see, or hear his brain will be stunted as an adult. 

At birth, the human brain is in a remarkably unfinished state.  Most of its 100 billion neurons are not yet connected in networks.  Forming and reinforcing these connections are the key tasks of early brain development. Connections among neurons are formed as the growing child experiences the environment and uses and receives feedback from all 5 senses .

An infant’s repeated exposure to words clearly helps his brain build the neural connections that will enable him to learn more words later on.

Playing a piano with both hands is not about skill alone but about using both brain lobes and brain communication.  It  improves the brain’s ability to discern the components of sound — the pitch, tone and frequency.


Sound waves are transformed into nerve impulses, to the temporal lobe of the cerebral cortex which is dedicated to sound. The audio range is 20 hz to 20 K Hz.  1 hertz is one cycle per second Cilia waves 20000 times per sec at 20 Khz frequency.

Because of the widespread multi sensory integration in the human brain, learning occurs when diverse brain capacities in many parts of a brain circuit are strengthened through neuroplasticity. In fact, this may be the only way we learn.

Neurons actively alter their neurotransmitters with changing circumstances.

Young infants must be kept happy. When they are faced with physical or emotional stress or trauma, the hormone cortisol is released when the brain sends a signal from the hypothalamus to the adrenal cortex, which is a gland above the kidney.  

High levels of cortisol can cause brain cells to die and reduces the connections between the cells in certain areas of the brain, harming the vital brain circuits.

From birth till the age of 8 , a child’s brain forms trillions of connections or synapses.  Axons connect to dendrites, and chemicals called neurotransmitters help send impulses across the resulting synapses. 

Each individual neuron may be connected to as many as 15,000 other neurons, forming a network of neural pathways that is immensely complex.  This elaborate network is sometimes referred to as the brain’s “wiring” or “circuitry.”  

As the neurons mature, more and more synapses are made.  At birth, the number of synapses per neuron is 2,500, but by the age of three,  it’s about 16,000 synapses per neuron. The neural network expands exponentially.  

If they are not used often , they are eliminated. Experience plays a crucial role in “wiring” a young child’s brain.  Brain development does not stop after early childhood, but it is the foundation upon which the brain of the future continues developing.


Wanna check out how good your left and right brain lobe co-ordination is?

Sit on a chair and then use your left hand and left leg ( if you are a right hander ) and draw 2 feet diameter anticlockwise circles in air with your forefinger and big toe.

When you have got it all right and your circles are now steady , suddenly reverse the direction of your hand, to clockwise.

Did your anti-clockwise going right foot, continue as before --  or did it jerk and get confused?

If you had started piano at a young age, you will NOT fail in this test.




Brain mapping shows that creativity is housed in the right hemisphere of our brains  for right handers . You can thus stimulate this right brain by playing piano with the left hand. Both left and right brain lobes are activated when we use our non-dominant hand. 

So from tomorrow morning onwards tell your child to brush his teeth with his non-dominant hand, or the hand which he does NOT use for writing .


The baby’s brain at birth is equivalent to a circuit board in a radio, ready to be plugged in and played .

At birth, the baby’s brain is already one fourth the weight of an adult’s, even though his whole body weighs less than a tenth of an adult’s. This is the marvelous result of the prenatal development, when billions of neurons form, axons grow, and synapses start to connect the neurons.

The brain adds comparatively few cells after birth.  Instead, the existing neurons grow larger and more powerful, sprouting axons and dendrites and connecting with neighbors.

 In the first year, the baby’s brain triples in weight.  By the end of the second, the baby’s s brain weighs three quarters that of an adult’s.  The brain’s activity increases with its weight.  The metabolism of a baby’s brain, as measured by how much blood sugar it uses, builds steadily from birth until the age of 3.

As your child starts to talk, he activates several areas of the brain in rapid succession.. . The reason why you cannot recall memories before the age of 3 is because the parts of the brain necessary for recalling such memories are not “wired” then. The synaptic connections that link the hippocampus to the cerebral cortex have not yet been made. These connections become circuits as the child enters preschool LKG.   

Learning does not progress in a strict linear sequence like climbing stairs but instead flourishes as a result of growth cycles in which a child acquires preliminary skills and then uses them to build new capacities based on a foundation built.


Synaptic growth is most  significant during the baby’s first few years of life—when he  is taking in all sorts of new sensory inputs and acquiring new experiences and skills. By the time your child turns 3, each neuron has formed as many as 10,000 connections, making a total of about a quadrillion (1,000,000,000,000,000) throughout the brain.  This is double the number of connections in your own adult brain.   

Synapse formation slows after the toddler years,  but continues throughout childhood and into adolescence, finally reaching adult levels when your child is around 16 years old.  Even the brain of an adult can continue to rewire itself and make connections after exposure to new situations.

Musical fingering ability opens up about age 4.



The CNS has two kinds of tissue: grey matter and white matter, Grey matter, which has a pinkish-grey color in the living brain, contains the cell bodies, dendrites and axon terminals of neurons, so it is where all synapses are.  

White matter is made of axons connecting different parts of grey matter to each other. Many of these nerve fibers (axons) are surrounded by a type of fat called myelin. The myelin gives the white matter it's color. Myelin acts as an insulator. It plays an important role in the speed of nerve signaling as I have said before .

Neurons constitue about half the volume of the CNS and glial cells make up the rest.  Glial cells provide support and protection for neurons.  They are thus known as the "supporting cells" of the nervous system. 

The four main functions of glial cells are: to surround neurons and hold them in place, to supply nutrients and oxygen to neurons, to insulate one neuron from another, and to destroy and remove the carcasses of dead neurons (clean up).

The brain’s ability to adapt in response to environmental stimuli, throughout life, is termed plasticity. The first five years matter and last a lifetime.  The brain develops through use.

The musicians who began playing an instrument before age 7 demonstrate more accurate timing and their brains also indicated more enhanced white matter in the corpus callosum..


The corpus callosum  is the largest connective pathway in a human brain.  It is made of more than 200 million nerve fibers that connect the left and right side lobes of the brain.  To coordinate movement or to think about complex information, the hemispheres must communicate with each other. 

The corpus callosum is the main connector that allows that communication..  It is through the neural connections of the corpus callosum that the two hemispheres work together for conscious wholeness.

Albert Einstein had a colossal corpus callosum .  



The corpus callosum carries electrical signals between the brain’s right lobe and its left .  They think that white matter cleaving Einstein’s  brain from front to back , is part of what made Einstein’s mind so phenomenally creative. 



Einstein continued to exercise his brain strenuously, like our own Ram Jethmalani ,  forestalling much of the brain atrophy that comes with age.

Grace and peace !







CAPT AJIT VADAKAYIL
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