In partnership with The Dana Foundation and as part of its Neuro-Education Initiative, The Johns Hopkins University School of Education hosted its first-ever national Learning, Arts, and the Brain Summit. This summit examined "the intersection of cognitive neuroscience, the arts, and learning" (Hardiman et al 3). Researchers presented studies exploring how visual and performing arts change our brains: their composition, patterning and functioning, and how these help to develop brain skills outside of that art form. One research team discussed the significant impact that learning a musical instrument has on a child's developing brain and their development of life skills.They found that children taking instrument lessons were significantly ahead of children not learning an instrument in motor learning finger-sequencing tasks and melody/rhythm discrimination, as well as in verbal ability (Hardiman et al 24). These researchers also found that brain mappings show that the primary motor regions, parietal regions, temporal lobe regions and cerebellar regions of adult musicians greatly differ in shape, mass and volume from those regions in adult non-musicians. Additionally they reported that the fiber tract connecting the two hemispheres in the brain is more developped in size in musicians, showing us that participation in the arts can change our brain composition (Hardiman et al 26-27).

At the inaugural Learning, Arts and the Brain Summit hosted by The Johns Hopkins University School of Education Researchers, researchers hypothesized that the many changes in brain composition as seen in artists translates to improved math and learning skills and improved cognitive functioning. Though research in this area remains inconclusive, authors Mariale Hardiman, Susan Magsamen, Guy McKhann and Janet Eilber use this research to advocate for integrated arts education.