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Howard G. Smith, M.D. is a former radio medical editor and talk show host in the Boston Metro area. His "Medical Minute" of health and wellness news and commentary was a regular weekday feature on WBZ-AM, WRKO-AM, and WMRE-AM. His popular two-way talk show, Dr. Howard Smith OnCall, was regularly heard Sunday morning and middays on WBZ.

Dr. Smith has adopted audio and video podcasting as conduits for HEALTH NEWS YOU SHOULD USE. Based on the latest medical, health, and wellness literature these reports provide practical information you can use to keep yourself and your family healthy. Many reports have video versions, and Dr. Smith’s YouTube Channel may be found at: http://bit.ly/2rNw6XQ

Trained at Harvard Medical School and a long-time faculty member at Boston Children’s Hospital, he practiced Pediatric Otolaryngology for 40 years in Boston, Southern California, and in central Connecticut.  He is now based in New York City.

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  2. Professional Drummers’ Brains Streamlined For Motor Control

Professional Drummers’ Brains Streamlined For Motor Control

Dec 12, 2019

 

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/tBJw-6SRtGk

 

Drummers develop simplified connections between the two halves of their brain and more efficiently organized motor control zones.  A German study just published in the journal Brain and Behavior draws these conclusions from their MRI studies of 20 professional drummers with close to 177,000 hours of drumming under their sticks.

 

The drummers compared with non-musicians had fewer but thicker fibers in the corpus callosum that connects both sides of the brain. The drummer’s brains displayed less electrical activity while playing due to better wiring efficiency.

 

It would appear that time with a drum kit might be excellent training for anyone aspiring to perform complicated hand motions.  Aspiring painters, sculptors and surgeons take note.

 

Lara Schlaffke, Sarah Friedrich, Martin Tegenthoff, Onur Güntürkün, Erhan Genç, Sebastian Ocklenburg. Boom Chack Boom—A multimethod investigation of motor inhibition in professional drummers. Brain and Behavior, 2019; DOI: 10.1002/brb3.1490

 

#Drummers #motorcortex #corpuscallosum #artist #surgeon