Giving piano lessons to preschoolers significantly increases their ability to perform the types of reasoning required for excellence in science and math, researchers at the University of California and the University of Wisconsin have found.

Surprisingly lessons on using a computer keyboard provided no similar benefit, the team reported in the journal of Neurological Research. The study involved 78 California children in preschools, and the team found that the beneficial effect was independent of socioeconomics class and parental interest.

An earlier study by the same team found that listening to Mozart improved performance on an IQ test taken immediately afterward, but that the effect faded within an hour. In this case the researchers believed the improvement in mental ability would persist, perhaps for a lifetime, although they do not have the data to prove that. The researchers also believe the effect they discovered is related to playing an instrument in general rather than being limited solely to keyboards.

"These children have plastic (malleable) brains that are just forming connections." Said psychologist Frances Rauscher of the U. of W. "We're influencing pattern development in the cortex through neural training."

The great improvement shown by the children from the musical training "should be of great interest to scientists and educators." added physicist Gordon Shaw of UC Irvine, who is also on the staff of the school's Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory.

The team recruited (III) 3 and 4 year olds at three preschools. One was an inner city school for single mothers who had gone back to community college, while the other two served more conventional middle class families. Thirty- three of the children withdrew from the schools during the study and were not included in the analysis.

The children were randomly divided into four groups. One group received daily singing lessons and two 15-minute private piano lessons per week at school. A piano also was made available if the children wished to practice on their own time. A second group received only the group singing lessons. Members of the third group received two 15-minute private computer lessons each week, while those in the fourth group received no lessons at all.

At the beginning of the study, each student received four different tests of mental ability, including one that measures special-temporal reasoning. In the special test, students might be shown, for example, a picture of a camel broken into four pieces and is asked to reassemble it. They might also be shown a simple geometric figure and be asked to match it with a group of similar figures.

At the beginning of the study, all of the students scored at the national norm on the test. At the end of six months, those who received piano lessons scored an average of 34 percent higher on the test of special-temporal abilities, while those in the other three groups showed no improvement on any of the tests. because the children subsequently enrolled in public schools, the team was unable to follow up to determine how long the effect persisted.

Rauscher, who studied piano and the cello as a child thinks the lessons were beneficial. "Music is one of the few art forms that occurs over time," Rauscher said. It seems as if music and science share some things in common. The research was sponsored by grants from, among others, the National Piano Foundation and the National Association of Music Merchants. Other scientists reviewed the results before publication.