Parents across America are making a costly mistake. Millions of families rush to enroll their children in coding camps, robotics classes, and programming workshops, convinced they’re giving their kids an essential edge for the future. Schools scramble to add computer science curricula, while education companies profit from the fear that children without coding skills will be left behind.

But what if this entire movement rests on a fundamental misunderstanding of how young minds develop?

MIT neuroscientists have discovered something that challenges everything we’ve been told about coding education. Their brain imaging research reveals surprising truths about what happens inside children’s heads when they learn to program, and the findings may shock parents who have invested thousands in their child’s technological education.

Meanwhile, an entirely different type of learning sits neglected in many schools, despite decades of research proving its superior benefits for developing intelligence, creativity, and academic success. Yet most parents dismiss it as merely an extracurricular activity.

Brain Scan Bombshell: Coding Isn’t Language After All

MIT researchers used advanced brain imaging technology to peer inside the minds of programmers as they interpreted computer code. Scientists examined two popular programming languages: Python, used by professional developers, and ScratchJr, designed specifically for young children.

What they discovered fundamentally challenges the “coding as literacy” movement that has swept through education systems worldwide. For years, advocates claimed that programming languages function similarly to human languages, suggesting that learning code would enhance children’s verbal and communication skills.

Brain scans revealed a starkly different reality. When people read computer code, their brains showed virtually no activity in regions responsible for language processing. Instead, coding activated entirely different neural networks associated with general problem-solving and mathematical reasoning.

“Understanding computer code seems to be its own thing. It’s not the same as language, and it’s not the same as math and logic,” explains Anna Ivanova, MIT graduate student and lead researcher on the groundbreaking study.

Such findings expose a critical gap between educational marketing claims and neurological reality.

Multiple Demand Network: Where Coding Lives in Your Brain

Rather than lighting up language centers like Broca’s area, coding activated what scientists call the “multiple demand network” brain regions that handle complex cognitive tasks requiring sustained attention and working memory. These same areas activate when people solve crossword puzzles, work through mathematical problems, or tackle challenging logic games.

Ivanova describes this network’s function: “It does pretty much anything that’s cognitively challenging, that makes you think hard.” However, engaging this network doesn’t necessarily translate into broader cognitive benefits that transfer to other academic subjects.

Programming activated both left and right hemispheres of the multiple-demand network, unlike language processing, which occurs predominantly in the left hemisphere. Such bilateral activation suggests coding requires different mental resources than verbal communication or reading comprehension.

Language Centers Stay Silent During Programming Tasks

Perhaps most surprising was what didn’t happen during coding tasks. Brain regions responsible for language processing areas that light up dramatically when people read books, listen to stories, or engage in conversation—remained largely dormant while interpreting computer code.

Scientists tested this finding by showing programmers code written with meaningful English variable names versus code written with meaningless Japanese characters. Even when code contained recognizable English words, language processing areas showed minimal activation, suggesting programmers don’t engage linguistic skills when reading code.

Such discoveries directly contradict claims that coding education enhances verbal intelligence, reading comprehension, or communication abilities. If coding functioned like language learning, brain scans would show overlapping activation patterns. Instead, they revealed completely separate neural pathways.

Music Education: What Science Says About Musical Brain Training

While coding education receives massive investment and attention, musical training supported by decades of neuroscience research often gets cut from school budgets as “non-essential.” Yet brain imaging studies consistently show that musical education creates more widespread cognitive benefits than any other single educational intervention.

Musical training simultaneously activates areas of language processing, motor control, auditory processing, and memory systems. Unlike coding, which engages primarily problem-solving networks, music education rewires multiple brain systems to work together more efficiently.

Children who receive musical training show enhanced verbal intelligence, improved reading skills, better mathematical reasoning, and stronger memory capacity. These benefits persist into adulthood and may even protect against cognitive decline in aging.

Why Parents Fall for the Coding Education Hype

Understanding why parents invest heavily in coding education while neglecting music education requires examining the powerful marketing forces and cultural anxieties at play. Technology companies and education entrepreneurs have successfully promoted coding as essential for future economic success, often using fear-based messaging about children being “left behind” in an increasingly digital world.

“Digital native” myths suggest children naturally excel with technology, implying that early coding education builds upon innate abilities. However, MIT research shows that code comprehension requires the same effortful cognitive processes as any complex problem-solving task—programming is not something that comes naturally.

Educational technology companies profit enormously from parents’ anxiety about preparing children for uncertain futures. Coding bootcamps, online platforms, and robotics programs generate billions in revenue by promising to transform children into tomorrow’s innovators and leaders.

Musical Training Creates Widespread Brain Changes

Musical education produces measurably broader cognitive benefits than coding instruction. Children who learn to play instruments exhibit enhanced verbal memory, improved language processing, better pattern recognition, and stronger mathematical skills.

Music training also develops emotional regulation, social cooperation skills, and creative expression—areas completely unaddressed by coding education. Participating in a musical ensemble teaches children to coordinate with others, listen actively, and contribute to collective goals.

Brain imaging reveals that musical training strengthens connections between brain hemispheres, enhances auditory processing, and improves executive function. Such changes support learning across all academic subjects rather than just technical problem-solving.

When Brain Development Windows Open and Close

Timing plays a crucial role in determining the effectiveness of educational interventions. Musical training has the most significant impact when begun during early childhood, when brain plasticity is at its highest and language development occurs most rapidly.

Critical periods for musical education align perfectly with elementary school years, when children’s brains are primed for auditory processing and pattern recognition. Starting musical training before age seven produces more dramatic and lasting cognitive benefits than beginning later.

Conversely, coding education may be more suitable for middle school and high school students who have developed the necessary abstract thinking skills and mathematical foundations. Forcing young children to learn programming concepts they cannot fully grasp may hinder, rather than help, their cognitive development.

What MIT Study Couldn’t Tell Us

While MIT findings provide valuable insights into coding and brain function, essential questions remain unanswered. Researchers examined short code snippets rather than complex programming projects that might engage different cognitive processes. They also studied adult programmers rather than children learning to code for the first time.

Longitudinal studies tracking children’s cognitive development over multiple years would provide more substantial evidence of the effectiveness of educational interventions. Such research could determine whether coding education produces lasting benefits that justify its current popularity and investment.

Future studies should also examine optimal combinations of musical and technological education, rather than treating them as competing alternatives. Both subjects may contribute unique benefits when properly timed and implemented.

Balancing Music and Technology Education

Smart parents can use MIT research findings to make better educational decisions for their children. Rather than choosing between music and coding, consider developmental timing and cognitive readiness for different types of learning.

Elementary school children benefit most from musical education that develops foundational cognitive abilities, enhances language skills, and builds creative expression. Piano, violin, or voice lessons during these years create neural foundations that support all future learning.

Middle school represents an ideal time to introduce coding concepts, as children have developed the necessary mathematical reasoning and abstract thinking skills. Programming education becomes more effective and enjoyable when children possess prerequisite cognitive skills.

High-quality instruction matters more than subject choice. Excellent music teachers who challenge students and maintain high standards produce better outcomes than mediocre instructors who use flashy technology but lack pedagogical expertise.

Rethinking Educational Priorities for Human Potential

MIT findings challenge fundamental assumptions about optimal child development approaches, forcing us to reconsider educational priorities in an era of technological disruption. Rather than rushing to prepare children for imagined future job requirements, parents should focus on building robust cognitive foundations that support lifelong learning and adaptation.

Musical education offers broader cognitive benefits than previously recognized coding advantages because it activates multiple brain networks simultaneously rather than isolated problem-solving regions. “In some ways, learning to program a computer is similar to learning a new language. It requires learning new symbols and terms, which must be organized correctly to instruct the computer what to do,” researchers noted. Yet, brain scans reveal fundamental differences in how the mind processes these different types of symbolic systems.

Understanding how various learning experiences shape developing minds helps create better educational choices that serve children’s long-term development rather than short-term market trends. Music training builds fundamental cognitive architecture that supports learning across all subjects, while coding remains valuable but shouldn’t replace traditional liberal arts education during critical development periods.

Parents seeking to raise genuinely intelligent, creative, and adaptable children should prioritize activities that foster widespread brain development over narrowly focused technical skills. Balanced educational approaches recognizing both technological literacy and artistic expression serve children’s development best, preparing them not just for specific careers but for whatever challenges and opportunities await in an unpredictable future.

Source:

1. Ivanova, A. A., Srikant, S., Sueoka, Y., Kean, H. H., Dhamala, R., O’Reilly, U., Bers, M. U., & Fedorenko, E. (2020). Comprehension of computer code relies primarily on domain-general executive brain regions. eLife, 9. https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.58906

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