In their recently released book "Your Brain on Art: How the Arts Transform Us," Susan Magsaman and Ivy Ross, make the argument that just 20 minutes a day of engaging with art can make you a better problem solver and learner.
Magsaman is the founder of the International Arts + Mind Lab, Center for Applied Neuroaesthetics at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Ross is the vice president of hardware design at Google.
The effects of exposure to art are even more significant in children. Listening to music or watching a play can help build stronger prefrontal cortex skills like memory.
This doesn't mean you have to go out and buy your kid a piano or pay for painting classes. You can simply go to a museum.
And if you don't live in a city with world-class institutions? Doesn't matter, Ross says.
"It's not about whether the art is good or bad, it's the act of engaging in the art whether it's the making or the beholding" that improves cognition, says Ross.
The arts make us 'better learners'
Engaging with art can "structurally" change our brains, says Magsaman.
Neural pathways are the connections in our brains, or our brains' "wiring." That wiring can change depending on what information and activities we access.
"The arts in-and-of themselves are a discipline that are all around making us better learners and stronger neurobiologically and they can also help in things like math," Magsaman says.
When you learn a new fact or experience a new sensation, you build a new neural pathway.
"The ability to build strong neural pathways is really important as we get older because it provides us with more cognitive skills and if you don't have those kinds of experiences the brain also prunes," Magsaman says.
"The idea of use it or lose it is also very much in play when you talk about neuroplasticity."
Students who are exposed to the arts 'have higher college aspirations'
Educators also tout the benefits of arts programming, especially for young kids.
Brian Kisida is an assistant professor in the Truman School of Public Affairs at the University of Missouri and co-director of the Arts, Humanities, & Civic Engagement Lab.
He researchers how students in under-resourced schools are affected by exposure to art.
"Students [who are exposed to the arts] have fewer disciplinary infractions and improved engagement," he says. "They tend to have higher college aspirations and higher achievement on standardized written test scores. Students learn to be better able to express themselves and have their own point of view."
The most significant results were seen in elementary age children, he says.
Exposing your kids to art at a young age can help shape their brain for the better.
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