Between myelination and synaptogenesis; A study of brain responses among school children

Abstract Educators have increasingly focused attention on developmental Neuroscience and its significance for understanding learning processes. Music educators have also embraced trends in neuroscientific research in recent years and are actively investigating neural correlates associated with musical engagement. Researchers worldwide have endeavoured to identify brain responses related to music participation. However, interest in the neuroscientific study of music remains limited in Africa, and particularly in Ghana. Furthermore, it is difficult to identify any study that has investigated brain responses between the developmental stages of myelination and synaptogenesis in relation to music listening engagement. The objective of this study was therefore to investigate brain response differences between myelination and synaptogenesis stages during participation in music listening. Data were collected from one hundred respondents (N = 100) using the Emotiv EPOC+ EEG neuroheadset. Results revealed a statistically significant difference in aggregated brain activity between the myelination stage (M = 4201.08, SD = 24.50) and synaptogenesis stage (M = 4179.17, SD = 40.73) conditions; t (98) = 3.260, p = 0.002. The study demonstrates that significant differences exist in brain responses to music listening between children in the myelination and synaptogenesis stages of development. This finding holds significance for music educators who have a keen interest in observing neurological behaviours relating to musical processes, neural pathways, oscillatory activity, and music learning, and it contributes to the emerging body of literature on the Neuroscience of music within the African context.