How music affect the brain - Research Paper Example

?How Music Affects the Brain Introduction Music surpasses all borders of culture, race, and nationality. It is a common tool used to instigate feelings and emotions. The effect of good music can even be more powerful than that of language. Increased interest in the way musical emotion is processes by the brain can be attributed to the way emotional language across cultures describes it. “Be it within films, live orchestras, concerts or a simple home stereo, music can be so evocative and overwhelming that it can only be described as standing halfway between thought and phenomenon” (Mohana). Experience of listening music transcends the rest of the sensory experiences. The way music evokes emotions cannot be compared to how it is done by any other sense. How brain understands music Music is a kind of perpetual illusion, similar to how a collage is perceived. The order and structured is imposed by the brain over a sequence of sounds that helps establish a completely different system of meaning. Understanding of the underlying structure of music plays a very important role in determining an individual’s ability to appreciate music. This includes the ability to predict the subsequent rhythm and lyrics in a song. Skilled composers control the emotions evoked by a song through an understanding of the expectations of their audience. Successful manipulation of these characteristics of a song elicits the chills that are any song’s specialty. Although music seems to be the same as other features of language, yet it is deeply rooted in the primitive structures of brain which deal with reward, emotion, and motivation. “Whether it is the first familiar notes of The Beatles’ “Yellow Submarine,” or the beats preceding AC/DC’s “Back in Black,” the brain synchronizes neural oscillators with the pulse of the music (through cerebellum activation), and starts to predict when the next strong beat will occur” (Mohana). There is a mainly unconscious response to groove in that it first gets processed through the amygdala and cerebellum instead of the frontal lobes. How brain processes music The pitch, meter, rhythm, and timbre of music get processed in different brain parts that include but are not limited to the prefrontal cortex, parietal lobe, and hippocampus. The pitch and rhythm of music are primarily the functions of left brain hemisphere, whereas melody and timbre are mostly processed in the right hemisphere of the brain. The processing of meter takes place in both hemispheres of brain. The spatial-temporal tasks are located in the very brain areas which are stimulated by music. Such spatial-temporal tasks include spatial reasoning required to build structures, and physical objects’ 2-D and 3-D manipulation. Music stimulates the brain areas that are related to spatial reasoning. While this effect usually is only 15 minutes long after the end of music (“How Music Affects”). The spatial reasoning of an individual is markedly increased while listening to music. Brain’s response to music Music constitutes fragile timing violations. Experience suggests the listeners that music is not threatening. The frontal lobes ultimately identify these violations as a source of pleasure. As a result of this expectation, anticipation is developed that when met, helps develop the reward reaction. A fundamental characteristic feature of music that differentiates it from other stimuli is its ability to conjure up feelings and images which might not necessarily reflect in the memory directly. A certain kind of mystery still remains in the overall phenomena; the factors explaining the thrill of listening to music are integrally linked with synesthesia based theories. The brain of a new born baby has not differentiated its structure into components meant for the identification and appreciation of various senses. It takes time for the brain to develop this differentiation. As the theory suggests, babies perceive the world as “a large, pulsing combination of colors and sounds and feelings, all melded into one experience – ultimate synesthesia” (Mohana). Different areas of the brain become specialized in the different senses with the development of brain over the passage of time. “After a year of training, the kids who have been in the music training are better able to synchronize to the beat and to remember the beat” (Kraus cited in Wise). Emotion in music A famous composer and neuroscientist, Professor Daniel Levitin has explained the mystery of emotion in music in his book by elaborating the way linguistic, memory, and emotional centers in the brain connect while an individual listens music. The understanding of this connection varies from individual to individual, which is why some musicians can create music with a brimming emotional quality and some cannot. The heightened experience level in some musicians enables them to create music with an extraordinary emotional appeal for the audience. Levitin describes how our brains extract music from the air molecules in these words, Imagine that you stretch a pillowcase tightly across the opening of a bucket, and different people throw ping-pong balls at it from different distances…Each person can throw as many ping-pong balls as he likes, and as often as he likes. Your job is to figure out — just by looking at how the pillowcase moves up and down — how many people there are, who they are, and whether they are walking toward you, walking away from you, or are standing still. This is analogous to what the auditory system has to contend with in making identifications of auditory objects in the world, using only the movement of the eardrum as a guide. (Levitin). The point that Levitin is trying to make here is that when an individual listens to music, their brain gets involved in a very complicated computational task whose complexity surpasses that of any man-made computer in doing something as sophisticated with sound as the brain does. Music improves cognitive abilities Music enhances an individual’s ability to communicate. Stroke victims use music to learn to talk again. Likewise, stutterers learn to sing sentences to fluently speak. The beneficial effects of music on the brain are frequently observed. Learning to play a musical instrument boosts the function of brain in the long term (“How Mozart K448”). The effectiveness of music depends upon the personal preference of the listener. Music that is not consistent with the personal preference of the individual might in fact affect the brain opposite to the intended effect. Music heightens mental arousal that enhances an individual’s daily life experiences. Some of the effects of music on brain are discussed as follows: Healing and de-stressing Music lowers the stress hormone cortisol levels, which in effect decreases stress. Smoothing music elevates mood and decreases stress in a healing situation. Music has a stimulating effect on the different brain parts which makes it a powerful mood-altering tool. Music has a therapeutic effect on mind. (Stevens and Lane) carried out research to examine the strategies to self-regulate the dimensions of mood assessed by the profile of states of mood among athletes and reached the conclusion that the strategies common to each dimension of mood were change of location, exercise, and listening to music. Immune booster The immune system of the body gets a boost with upbeat dance music. This can, in part, be attributed to music’s hypnotic beat which takes the brain into the alpha state in which it starts releasing endorphins. Endorphins have a painkilling effect and it also heals hormones. Improved workout Music helps an individual in physical activity particularly during exercise. Music plays a pivotal role in making an otherwise tiresome and boring workout fun. Fast paced music, upbeat, and effectiveness of work out are interrelated. Music serves as a focal point that draws the attention away from burning muscles and aches. Evidence of this can also be traced back to the caveman times, in which people were pumped up before the commencement of a battle through rhythmic drumbeats. When the music plays, the heart entrains to the music beat. The synchronization between heart and tempo makes it convenience to work out to fast-paced music. Dance music improves the immune response of the body. Leonard Ayres, an American researcher, found in 1911 that cyclists that listened to music pedaled faster than when they pedaled in silence (Ayers). Music affects the brain in such a way that it helps in the work out. This can be attributed to the fact that the cries of fatigue in the brain drown out while listening to music. When the body gets tired, it signals the brain to take a break. The sense of listening to music competes for the attention of brain, thus helping the brain override the fatigue signals. However, music helps during workout particularly when the intensity of exercise is low to moderate. When the intensity of exercise is high, the power of music to pull the attention of brain away from the workout pain is undermined. Another factor that influences the athletic performance is rhythmic speed of music. Listening to music not only helps an individual bear the exercise’s pain longer and harder, but it also enhances the individual’s ability to use the energy more efficiently. Cyclists that listen to music needed 7 per cent lesser oxygen for working out the same as others that cycle without music (Cooper). (Dillon) studied the effects of listening to music upon the form and speed of swimming. To achieve this, he investigated two standard strokes for three years and reached the conclusion that the group that listened to music while swimming showed significantly improved form of swimming in comparison to the group that did not listen to music whereas the improvement in the speed of swimming between the two groups was not significant. Aid in meditation The practice of using rhythmic chanting and drumming to develop a trance-like state of changed consciousness in people can be traced thousands of years back. In particular, the omharmonics meditation music produced with the binaural technology efficiently develops a tranquil state of meditation. Memory recall Listening to classical music helps increase memory recall. This can particularly be said for Mozart. The “Mozart Effect” is popular not only because it increases an individual’s intelligence, but it is also known to improve the spatial-temporal reasoning ability in children that learn musical instruments. “[R]esearchers at the University of California, Irvine…found that a group of 36 college undergraduates improved their spatial-temporal intelligence (the ability to mentally manipulate objects in three-dimensional space) after listening to 10 minutes of a Mozart sonata. Results showed that student' IQ scores improved by 8-9 points and lasted for 10-15 minutes” (Jones). Conclusion Different elements of music are processed in different brain parts. The underlying structure of a song has to involve some unexpectedness in order to making listening to it, an emotionally fulfilling experience. The effect of music on brain depends on an individual’s choice of music. Music improves intelligence, learning, cognition, and motor skills. Works Cited: Ayers, Leonard. “The Influence of Music on Speed in the Six-day Bicycle Race.” American Physical Education Review, 16 (1911), 321-325. Cooper, Belle B. “How Music Affects and Benefits Your Brain.” 22 Nov. 2013. Web. 7 Dec. 2013. . Dillon, Evelyn. “A Study of the Use of Music as an Aid in Teaching Swimming.” Research Quarterly, 23 (1952), 1-8. “How Mozart K448 can increase your IQ – Listen & Try.” 2012. Web. 7 Dec. 2013. . “How Music Affects the Brain: the Power of Music.” 23 Jan. 2012. Web. 7 Dec. 2013. . Jones, Martin. “The Mozart Effect.” 2003. Web. 7 Dec. 2013. . Levitin, Daniel J. This is your brain on music: understanding a human obsession. Atlantic Books, 2008. Print. Mohana, Malini. “Music & How It Impacts Your Brain, Emotions. Psych Central”. 2013. Web. 7 Dec. 2013. . Stevens, M. J., and Lane, A. M. “Mood-Regulating Strategies Used By Athletes.” Athletic Insight: the online journal of sport psychology. 3 (Dec 2001). Wise, Brian. “After the 'Mozart Effect': Music's Real Impact on the Brain.” 6 Nov. 2013. Web. 7 Dec. 2013. . Read More