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Susan Magsamen

Susan Magsamen is a researcher whose work centers on neuroaesthetics, neuroscience, and public health. Her published research examines the impact of arts- and music-based interventions on mental health, trauma recovery, and youth well-being. She has also authored papers on translating neuroscience into educational practices and the effects of environmental settings on psychedelic therapies.

9 claims checked on air: 1 context 3 overstated 4 supported 1 unverified

What they said on air - overstated

0:16:07overstatedlowYour Brain on Art: The Science of Creativity and Neurologica

Aesthetic experiences and engaging with art promote myelination enhancements in neural pathways.

"the myelination um enhancements that happen, too. So, creating this ability for for neural pathways to work better is is such a protective um attribute for us." (said at 0:16:07)

Broad claims that aesthetic experiences and general engagement with art enhance neural pathway myelination extrapolate heavily from specialized skill-learning literature. While intensive motor or auditory training (such as instrument practice or music-cued motor learning) can induce white matter microstructural changes on diffusion tensor imaging consistent with activity-dependent myelination, long-term developmental studies find that baseline white matter myelination trajectories proceed primarily via natural maturation regardless of musical expertise. Furthermore, direct evidence demonstrating that passive aesthetic experiences or general art appreciation induce de novo myelination in humans is lacking.

0:16:32overstatedmoderateYour Brain on Art: The Science of Creativity and Neurologica

Research by Assal Habibi at the University of Southern California demonstrated that arts/music training alters brain structure and increases brain mass.

"we've also seen some beautiful work by Assal Habibi from University of Southern California looking at literally changing brain structure and brain mass." (said at 0:16:32)

Assal Habibi and colleagues at the University of Southern California (Brain and Creativity Institute) have conducted longitudinal neuroimaging studies tracking children enrolled in systematic music training compared to sports and non-training control groups. Their research demonstrated that childhood music training induces regional structural plasticity—specifically altering the trajectory of cortical thickness maturation in auditory association areas (such as the posterior superior temporal gyrus) and increasing fractional anisotropy in white matter tracts of the corpus callosum. However, the studies demonstrated localized cortical and microstructural neurodevelopmental changes rather than an increase in overall 'brain mass.'

0:21:12overstatedmoderateYour Brain on Art: The Science of Creativity and Neurologica

Music and sound effectively reduce amygdala activation in the brain.

"music and sound are are really very effective in reducing amygdala activation and I think in large part because it's so so immediate, right?" (said at 0:21:12)

Functional neuroimaging research shows that music and auditory stimuli do not simply or universally reduce amygdala activity. Instead, music robustly modulates and frequently activates the amygdala depending on acoustic features, hedonic valence, tension, and emotional content. Meta-analyses of fMRI studies demonstrate significant amygdala activation during both pleasant and unpleasant music processing, with unpleasant or dissonant music evoking strong amygdala responses. While soothing music and therapeutic sound interventions have been hypothesized or observed to help downregulate hyperactive stress circuits and amygdala reactivity in specific contexts (such as anxiety or trauma recovery), characterizing music and sound broadly as an immediate down-regulator of amygdala activation oversimplifies and overstates the bidirectional, valence-dependent engagement of the amygdala by auditory stimuli.

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