I use the Interactive Metronome program in my practice as an OT, which helps with general processing abilities and has an uncanny effect on reading and math as well as visual-motor skills and motor coordination. In the most recent provider newsletter, this article summarizing research on intellect and timing was very interesting:
(quote)"Intelligence and Rhythmic Timing Go Hand In Hand:
People who score high on intelligence tests are also good at keeping time, new Swedish research shows. The team that carried out the study also suspect that accuracy in timing is important to the brain processes responsible for problem solving and reasoning...
Researchers at the medical university Karolinska Institutet and Umea University have now demonstrated a correlation between general intelligence and the ability to tap out a simple regular rhythm. They stress that the task subjects performed had nothing to do with any musical rhythmic sense but simply measured the capacity for rhythmic accuracy. Those who scored highest on intelligence tests also had least variation in the regular rhythm they tapped out in the experiment.
"It's interesting as the task didn't involve any kind of problem solving," says Fredrik Ullen at Karolinska Institutet, who led the study with Guy Madison at Umea University. "Irregularity of timing probably arises at a more fundamental biological level owing to a kind of noise in brain activity."
According to Fredrik Ullen, the results suggest that the rhythmic accuracy in brain activity observable when the person just maintains a steady beat is also important to the problem-solving capacity that is measured with intelligence tests.
"We know that accuracy at millisecond level in neuronal activity is critical to information processing and learning processes," he says.
They also demonstrated a correlation between high intelligence, a good ability to keep time, and a high volume of white matter in the parts of the brain's frontal lobes involved in problem solving, planning and managing time.
"All in all, this suggests that a factor of what we call intelligence has a biological basis in the number of nerve fibres in the prefrontal lobe and the stability of neuronal activity that this provides," says Fredrik Ullen.
Publication: 'Intelligence and variability in a simple timing task share neural substrates in the prefrontal white matter', Fredrik Ullen, Lea Forsman, Orjan Blom, Anke Karabanov and Guy Madison, The Journal of Neuroscience, 16 April 2008." (end quote)
I've not seen the actual research article yet but am eager to read it in its entirety. Thought some of you might be interested in this info, too.
