
Research Updates

Here at Bigger Better Brains we believe that through educating yourself, you can then educate and affect positive change in your community.
With all of the research in the field of neuromusical science, our BBB Research section serves as a content hub for you. We regularly share findings and break down the latest research to educate and inspire discussion. We hope you enjoy this page on our website and share BBB news with your colleagues, parents and students.
Stealth Advocacy is The Quiet Power of Repeating Your Message
This blog explores the quiet power of Stealth Advocacy, subtle, repeated messages that shape how others see music education. From hallway posters to one-liners in newsletters, these small signals work in the background, shifting mindsets over time. If you’re too busy to launch a campaign, this is the kind of advocacy that speaks for you, even when you’re not in the room.
Are We Too Busy Doing to Tell the Story of What We Do?
This blog invites music educators to slow down just enough to notice and name the everyday moments that show the power of music learning. From quick chats with parents to check-ins with students or school leaders, these small interactions are golden opportunities to advocate for music education.
Advocacy starts with the student
In our drive to advocate for music education, it’s easy to focus on public performances, programs, or policies. But real advocacy often begins in quiet moments with students, their stories, and their shifting motivations. This blog explores how listening, noticing, and building trust can turn everyday teaching into powerful, student-centered advocacy.
How Can We Make Music Advocacy a Daily Habit, Not Just an Event?
What if music advocacy wasn’t an event, but a habit?
In the bustle of rehearsals, lessons, and emails, advocacy often gets pushed to the margins. But what if we made it part of our everyday teaching language? This post shares four simple ways to weave music advocacy into daily practice, from quick phrases and bold visuals to shared reflections with colleagues. Small actions, repeated often, can shift how music learning is seen and valued.
What’s getting in the way of recruitment in 2025?
Recruitment in 2025 is about more than filling seats—it’s about consistently advocating for music learning as essential to student growth and wellbeing. Families want to see the long-term value, and students need connection and purpose. Ongoing, intentional messaging leads to stronger recruitment, stability, and lasting impact.
Unlocking Team Flow: The Hidden Power of Making Music Together
If you've ever conducted or played in an ensemble, you’ve likely felt it—that moment when everything clicks, the music soars, and your group performs at a level beyond anything you thought possible.
New neuroscience research upends traditional theories of early language learning in babies
New research challenges traditional theories of infant language acquisition, suggesting that babies primarily learn language through rhythmic rather than phonetic information in their initial months.
Music is the Jackpot!
This video contains excerpts from an ARTSpeaks event held on November 8, 2021. In this video, neurobiologist Nina Kraus explores the impact that music learning has on young students in the areas of reading skills, sound processing, language abilities, and more.
Musical activities improve social communication skills for autistic children
In this study at the University of Montreal, 51 children with ASD ages 6 to 12 were randomly assigned to participate in a clinical trial involving three months of either a music-based, or a play therapy intervention.
Can musicians hear more emotions in your voice?
Do you know someone who struggles to hear the emotions in speech? The skills of “hearing” prosody in speech are fundamentally musical. It is the melody and rhythm of speech, mixed in with the facial and physical expressions that went along with the speech, that our brains use to interpret emotions in speech.
