According to Daniel G. Amen, MD, author of Making a Good Brain Great, the College Entrance Examination Board reported that students with experience in musical performance scored fifty-one points higher on the verbal part of the SAT and thirty- nine points higher on the math section than the national average. “It [learning to play a musical instrument] teaches the brain new patterns and stimulates wide areas of the cortex. . . . Learning a musical instrument, at any age, can be helpful in developing and activating temporal lobe neurons. As the temporal lobes are activated in an effective way, they are more likely to have improved function overall,” Dr. Amen says. In another study Amen mentions, music majors were the most like- ly group of college grads to be admitted to medical school (66 percent, the highest percentage of any group).