How to increase your horses intelligence
In September 2006 the journal Brain published a Canadian study carried out by scientists at McMaster University and Baycrest's Rotman Research Institute in which a comparison was made between the cognitive development of a group of children given Suzuki music lessons and a group that received no music lessons outside school.
A series of tests was carried out over the period of a year designed to reveal any significant impact.
The group receiving music lessons displayed an improvement not only in the obvious area of musical listening skills but also in memory. According to Dr Takako Fujioka, a scientist at Baycrest's Rotman Research Institute. "Previous work has shown assignment to musical training is associated with improvements in IQ in school-aged children.
Our work explores how musical training affects the way in which the brain develops. It is clear that music is good for children's cognitive development and that music should be part of the pre-school and primary school curriculum."
While this example certainly doesn't mean that horses cognitive abilities are improved by listening to music (although we don't actually know whether that is true or not) it does demonstrate that cognitive development can be heavily influenced by environmental stimuli.
