Why Some of America’s Most Respected Pediatric Neurologists Are Now Advocating Loudly for Creative Arts Education

A neurology resident walks through a museum at some point, and something seems to change. Not in a big way. Not like in a movie. But their eyes start to work differently somewhere between looking at the brushwork in a painting and talking about what they’re seeing. That’s what the Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine at Boston University has said, and it’s starting a bigger conversation that pediatric neurologists across the country don’t want to keep to themselves.

The medical community has thought of arts education as nice but not very important for a long time. A nice thing to add to a child’s week, for sure. But brain development that counts? That was the area of structured learning, outcomes that could be measured, and test scores. Recently, though, some of the most respected experts in pediatric neurology are strongly disagreeing with that idea. They are not disagreeing in a political way, but with facts.

Neurology: Education published a study from Boston University in which neurology residents went to three four-hour sessions led by professional art educators to just look at and talk about visual works. The results could be seen: better ability to observe, deeper empathy, and, most surprisingly, a higher ability to handle uncertainty. It’s not as important as that last piece sounds. There is always uncertainty in clinical medicine. In real life, a doctor who can sit with a picture that isn’t clear and keep looking closely is a better doctor.

It’s possible that these sessions didn’t teach any art appreciation at all. It was attention. The practice of looking without jumping to conclusions right away. And it turns out that discipline can be used elsewhere. The residents who went to the museum sessions said they felt better prepared to deal with cases that aren’t fully resolved or are really difficult.

Along the same lines, the International Child Neurology Association has been working on something in the background. Neurology Through Art and Time is a monthly series that has been going on since February 2023. The sessions look at how neurological conditions have been shown in painting, sculpture, music, movies, and poetry over the years. The sessions happen on Zoom and have people from all over the world participating. It feels almost old-fashioned to look at great art in order to better understand how people suffer. But the neurologists who come every month seem to find something there that they can’t find in a book.

The study from neonatal intensive care units adds one more layer. Researchers who study music therapy in NICUs have kept track of premature babies whose parents were encouraged to sing while they were getting skin-to-skin care, often with the help of trained music therapists. It’s not just a guess or a vague result; parental stress levels, including cortisol, dropped significantly. At twelve and twenty-four months, some babies were better able to control their emotions. These are not unwanted effects of a move to make people feel better. They look more like results from the brain.

When you put it all together, this makes the case that creative engagement isn’t just for looks. It changes the way the brains of children and the people who are in charge of caring for them work in a certain way. It’s still not clear whether this will lead to real changes in how schools pay for arts programs or how medical schools set up residency programs. The institutions haven’t built up enough momentum yet. Budget talks don’t usually begin with trips to the museum.

But as more evidence comes in, it seems like the argument is no longer just coming from people who support the arts. There has been a change in who is making the case when pediatric neurologists start to say that residents’ lack of empathy is a clinical problem and then quietly pay for museum visits as a solution. You should pay attention to it.