David Bueno: "The arts can enhance math learning"

This biologist and popularizer, ARA collaborator, He argues that it was the arts that made us human and that without them we would only be simple. Homo sapiens. It may well be so, considering that we have been prolific composers of symphonies and inventing all kinds of musical genres; capturing the world around us with colors on fabrics; telling a thousand stories on stage; dancing emotional and complex choreographies. That is why this wise man, capable of putting an auditorium full of teenagers in his pocket and making them listen to him with interest, assures that the arts, all of them, are our vessel to immerse ourselves in a journey to the depths of ourselves, and to reinterpret and understand the world around us.

He has published nearly 30 books and with The art of being human (Destino, 2025), David Bueno (Barcelona, ​​​​1965) has won one of the most prestigious literary awards in our country: the Josep Pla 2025 award. It is the first time that a scientific essay has received an award that until now had only been given to novels and diaries. But this does not surprise this scientist, founder of the neuroeducation chair at the University of Barcelona, ​​​​and who for years had been a teacher of the former EGB and BUP. He argues that science and humanities are two forms of art, which must go hand in hand, since the brain activates exactly the same areas when we do science, philosophy or any other artistic discipline.

How do the arts act on the brain?

— There are three factors that are common to all of them: first, they can be creative. Second, they require the ability to abstract, to be able to look beyond the obvious. And finally, flexibility, the ability to adapt. The arts are a form of communication, of influencing others and also of socializing. They allow us to enhance our thinking.

And yet, they occupy less than 10% of the school curriculum today.

— There are many teachers, especially in early childhood and primary education, who have changed their mindset and see the importance of working through the arts as well. And, in fact, from the UB-EDU1ST neuroeducation chair we advise educational centres in this regard to include and promote them in the school curriculum. The problem is that they often clash with the inertia of the educational system itself and also of families. And when the PISA report comes out saying that we are not doing very well in mathematics or reading comprehension, the automatic reaction is to put in more hours of mathematics, of reading, instead of thinking about how we could do mathematics better or how we could work more on the ability to reflect on what we are reading.

You argue that a good way would be through the arts.

— Absolutely, because when, for example, we are looking at an abstract painting, the brain instinctively seeks to understand what is behind it, the same thing that happens when we read a text that we do not understand. Therefore, through painting you can also work on reading comprehension. And reinforce the skills you need to better understand how to solve a math problem. But the educational system we have does not make it easy and the current trend is that, when something seems to be going wrong, we take out what seems useless, which is a very utilitarian view: we must make good professionals who know how to add, subtract and do differential equations, and everything else is superfluous.

In fact, recently there was an attempt to eliminate philosophy as a compulsory subject in high school.

— An educational crime! Because philosophy teaches us to think; it is the foundation of our thinking. Science allows us to know the world, philosophy to humanize it, and the arts to understand it.

He says that what surely makes us human is the arts. Without them, he says, we would be Homo sapiens, but not humans.

— It is often said that we are the only creative species, and we really are. We also tend to link this to intelligence, but when you define that quality you see that there are many animals that have different degrees of intelligence. However, we are the only ones that make art.

But elephants also paint.

— It is not clear that there is any consciousness behind what they are doing. It does not seem to speak to them in any way. The beauty of our art is that it speaks to us; we represent our interior and filter the exterior through our thoughts.

He argues that all the arts, except writing, developed at the same time some 60,000 years ago.

— About 15 years ago, the neck of hominids was studied, its shape in relation to the mouth, because the angle it forms allows the tongue to move more or less quickly, and therefore makes us vocalize better or worse. Our neck has allowed us to vocalize perfectly well for about 80,000 years. Before, it was not like that.Homo sapiens archaic, like the Neanderthals, had a different angle, more obtuse. The Neanderthals could string sounds together, but they had a much more musical language, because they could not separate the vowels from each other.

They sang rap, it says in the book.

— [Laughs] Probably because it would sound like a series of sounds linked together. Later, the brain became more specialized and, when the neck changed, it separated music from language. We started using language for one function and music for another, and in many cases they were superimposed. That is why music is part of all cultures. A bone flute has been found in Germany from 40,000 years ago! And this implies that there were already other instruments long before that that have probably been lost, because they were made of wood or skin, like tam-tams. There are also samples of rock art that are 60,000 years old and show people dancing, which suggests that the performing arts were already present. The first burials with symbolic content, which is the origin of worldviews – and which in turn is the origin of philosophy – also begin at that time. Therefore, physical modifications together with cognitive development made it possible to structure a complex language and the appearance of different artistic expressions.

We developed a brain that allowed us abstract and symbolic thought.

— This is the idea that articulates the whole book. Everything is tied together within the brain, so we have to work on everything, especially in education, because by enhancing one thing you are enhancing the others. It is clear that the neck changed some 80,000 years ago due to a series of genetic mutations, by pure chance. We cannot know what the brain was like at that time, because it does not fossilize, but we do know that, along with this, the first examples of symbolic art appear. Both things begin together, because we already had a brain capable of generating symbolism, of being creative. And we also notice this with the tools.

In what sense?

— Until theHomo sapiens modern, the tools we have found from humans are very homogeneous throughout the world and very similar to those already made by the Neanderthals. With the arrival of the sapiens The modern mind is surprised by the enormous diversity of tools, harpoons, and sewing needles. They have a much more flexible brain, capable of thinking of different alternatives in the same situation.

Writing is the most recent art.

— The first alphabet is 5,000 years old, and unlike all other arts, which emerge from brain structures that we have had for dozens or hundreds of thousands of years, writing requires rewiring and recycling areas. That's why it requires effort. Give a child a maraca and he'll start making rhythms. Give him a pencil, however, and he won't start writing letters. Even math is more instinctive; young children can count, compare their fingers to objects on a table. But writing is a very powerful exercise for the brain, forcing it to make new connections. Illiterate people have a more restricted view of the world; it's much harder for them to adapt to other contexts because they lack the brain connectivity that those of us who can read have acquired.

You argue that the connectivity and flexibility that the arts provide can stimulate other learning.

— In the educational field, if we work through the arts, we promote flexibility. It is not just that I draw, but that I draw, I think about why I have drawn that and I talk to my colleagues, logically always with the teachers as a support, who must organize it. In the book I propose some exercises, such as listening to a melody and then drawing it. The brain can do it because that requires abstraction, being creative, and perhaps to illustrate the same melody, I use some colors and make an abstract drawing; you have already remembered a forest and you do it with other colors. And then, when we share it, that is when I not only see why I have done it that way – therefore, I rationalize my flexibility – but I increase it because I see the flexibility of others.

But painting a melody is very synesthetic!

— We are all a bit synesthetic. We have insisted on dividing up the senses a lot and we say this is sight, this is hearing, this is touch, but there are senses that are not so divided. For example, smell; we have chemical receptors all over the skin of our body. What happens is that the brain interprets it as touch, but it is not, because touch is pressure, it is not chemical. Coloring a melody activates our prefrontal cortex, which generates the ability to reflect, to plan, to regulate our emotions; also the limbic system, which is the most automated part of the brain, and which includes the amygdala, responsible for emotions, because art awakens emotions. Of course, the striatum, responsible for rewards, is activated. And, finally, the hippocampus, which manages memory, because it is important to have prior learning; otherwise, we cannot build anything. Without content, it cannot be creative or flexible.

This is a controversial topic today in education.

— There must be content, without a doubt. Although, in the 21st century, I am not going to enter into the debate about what these contents should be. I could talk about biology in secondary education, in which I have been involved for many years and, therefore, I have a few ideas that perhaps are not correct, such as that the curriculum is so extensive that it does not allow for enjoyment. In my opinion, there should be more basic points to then work on in each center, according to the teacher, because a center that is in a village in the middle of the countryside is not the same as a big city where many students never see green. It is the teacher who must readapt the contents, the basic points, which should be more or less common. Now, I am not going to say what contents are needed in mathematics. Should children know the multiplication tables from 1 to 10? Because there are countries that know them from 1 to 12. Who defines whether it is up to 10 or up to 12? I am not going to get into that here. Now, I do believe that children should know the mechanics.

Music, you say, is the art that awakens the most emotions. In people suffering from Alzheimer's, it manages to reconnect them with a certain moment in their life. But then... heavy metal to help recover better from a stroke?

— [Laughs] I like it! What I listen to the most is heavy metal and rock'n'roll. Music always activates the amygdala, which is the center of the brain that generates emotions. It is true that a scientific study was carried out to see what kind of music helped the brain reconnect most after a stroke. They tested different types of music and concluded that heavy music was the best. The explanation is hypothetical, right? Surely, because the rhythms are very hard and repetitive, they allow the neurons to activate and this stimulates them to connect more than a soft melody that could perhaps activate the striatum more, which makes you feel more comfortable but does not involve the rest of the brain as intensely.