A small study by Emily Przysinda of Wesleyan University suggests that the brains of jazz musicians react differently to unexpected events than the brains of classical musicians or non-musicians. It also supports previous findings that learning to play music at all improves creativity.
A similar study comparing jazz and classical musicians using brain scans also showed that jazz musicians were able to react to an unexpected change in chord progressions faster and with less neurological effort than their classically trained peers.
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