NIH Radio
White Matter and Learning in the Brain – 4
Narrator: This is NIH Health Matters. I’m Joe Balintfy. Traditionally, scientists studying learning have focused their attention on the brain’s gray matter.
Fields: But it also became apparent, eventually, that there were changes in white matter regions of the brain.
Narrator: Dr. Douglas Fields is with the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child and Health Development.
Fields: For example learning to play the piano, is associated with increases in white matter in specific tracts of the brain associated with these mental processes that are involved in, for example, musical ability, finger coordination.
Narrator: Dr. Fields adds new brain imaging has shown white matter plays a more important role in learning than previously thought. For more on how the brain works, visit www.ninds.nih.gov. Health Matters is produced by the National Institutes of Health, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
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