Why Music Makes You Smarter

Virgil Griffith, the creator of Wiki Scanner and a grad student from CalTech did some research which studied the relationship between musical styles and bands and the SAT scores of the people who listened to them. He found that the smartest students listened to Beethoven (average SAT of 1371) and the students who rung in at the bottom of the SAT scores listened to Lil’ Wayne. Humans are "wired" for music.  Until recently, scientists did not know how music affected the brain.  The advancement in technology allows scientists to actually "see" brain activity via PET scans and MRI imaging scanning the blood flow in the brain.  Our brains are "wired" with neural pathways.  Most activities only cause a portion of the brain to "light up" with activity; thus, the saying, right brain/left brain, etc.  But there are actually four parts to the brain and music makes ALL of the areas "light up" and create new neural pathways as a person is learning and playing an instrument.  Those neural pathways remain in tact and can be used for other things besides music. 

           (this paragraph was taken from http://www.alternet.org/story/149288/why_listening_to_music_makes_you_smarter)