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Music is composed
by different elements, such as pitch, rhythm, dynamics, and the sonic.
When we are listening to music, our right and left hemispheres of the brain is
activated. Our right hemisphere of the brain is activated when we hear melodies with
a variety of pitch and timbre and lighted up when people play music by ear. On the
other hand, our left hemisphere of the brain is activated in the same area that is
involved in analytical and mathematical thinking and lighted up when we learn to
read music, understand key signature and notation, and follow the sequence of notes.
Listening to music also engages your hippocampus which handles short-term and
long-term memory storage. Therefore, sometimes old songs can bring us back to
memories that we have already forgotten. Some researcher also supported that even
patient with Alzheimers and dementia disease can have recovered memories through
listening to music.
Music affects the brain by releasing endorphins and affecting the electricity in the
brain- measured in waves (measured by an EEG). Our brain waves will resonate with
the beat of music and that makes your breathing and your heart beat actually try to
match the beat of the song.
The speed, regularity, and patterns can determine what type of learning is taking
place. These waves are the speed at which the neurons are firing: Delta (0.5-4 Hz)
deep sleep wave; Theta (4-7.5 Hz) light meditation and sleeping wave; Alpha (7.5-14
Hz) deep relaxation wave; Beta (14-40 Hz) walking consciousness and reasoning
wave; and Gamma (above 40 Hz) insight wave.
Music stimulates the production of alpha and theta waves in the brain. Highly creative
people have a different pattern of brain waves than normal or non-creative
individuals. Big bursts of alpha brain waves induce creativity. Theta brain waves are
associated with the process of dreaming, states of enhanced creativity, learning, and
relaxation.
Music can aid in the production of serotonin which can make us happy.
Serotonin, a neurotransmitter involved in the transmission of nerve impulses that
helps maintaining joyous feelings, which is released when the brain is positively
shocked and reduces tension.
Dr. Valorie Niloufar Salimpoor, Neuroscientist music releases dopamine, the feel good hormone that is activated from pleasurable
experiences like food or sex. Music, an abstract stimulus, can arouse feelings of
euphoria and craving, similar to tangible rewards that involve the striatal
dopaminergic system. Dopamine release was at peak emotional arousal during
music listening. Listening to music changes your brain chemistry. Some people use
music as drugs. e.g. You come home at the end of the day, you reach for some music
that will relax you, puts you in a good mood
Music may enhance spatial IQ by increasing short and long term memory and
strengthen the cognitive skills in children. Music can affect the hormone system,
breathing rate and electrical resistance of the skin, pupils dilate, blood pressure and
heart rate increase. It also allows the brain to concentrate more easily and assimilate
more information in less time. Music simultaneously stimulates the left and right
hemispheres of the brain which boosts learning and information intake therefore
augmenting cognitive skills and our learning ability may be increased five-fold.
Melody & Rhythm
Melody is the essence that boosts creative reasoning. Rhythm synchronizes these
emotions with vital patterns. We all have a rhythm, and were exposed to rhythm in the
uterus as well through heartbeat, breathing, etc.
How do melody and rhythm work together?
Rhythm bodys vital rhythms become in sync and produce the proper mood for
increased cognitive and creative capabilities. Melody stimulates thoughts and
resolutions to develop more paths of choice, increasing options and potential
solutions.
Melody and rhythm act in synergy with the brain to open the auditory and sensorial
channels that conduct to the brain, thereby benefiting your cerebral skills.
MUSIC TRAINING
A study (2008) done by Marie Forgeard, Ellen Winner, Andrea Norton ,& Gottfried
Schlaug. significantly improve our motor and reasoning skills.
Approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) of Beth Israel Deaconess
Medical Center (BIDMC)
Selected 59 children from public schools & community music school in
Boston area
Mean age: 9.96 years old
Instrument Group: 41 children had completed a minimum 3 years of
instrumental music training
-Divided into two subgroups:
21 children received traditional instrumental
instruction
20 children received Suzuki instruction
Traditional instrumental instruction (in which children are taught to read music
notation from the very beginning).
-Suzuki instruction (in which playing by ear is first emphasized, and music notation is
only introduced later in the curriculum).
-Children in both groups were exposed to general music classes in school, typically
lasting for 3040 minutes a week, but these classes included neither instrumental
training nor one-on-one music instruction.
Neurological anthropologist
Professor of Neurology at New York University
Humans keep time to music, involuntarily
Even when not consciously paying attention to music
In his research, depicted in the video blow, Sacks used himself as an example of how
different types of music activate the brain at varying intensities. Sacks, who has loved
the composer Bach since he was 5 years old, allowed his brain to be scanned while
listening to a new, obscure Bach piece as well as a Beethoven piece. He tracked how
the music made him feel his welling of emotions with a handheld device that
allowed him to rate his emotions on a scale. After the test, Sacks said the Bach piece
was beautiful for him, but Beethoven left him flat. Amazingly, the brain scans
correlated with Sacks emotions: His brain was far more aroused during the Bach
piece than the Beethoven piece.
musical imagery
When listening to familiar music with short gaps, fMRI scans indicate that
the auditory cortex is activated -- whether or not the songs had lyrics or not.
Deliberate, conscious, voluntary mental imagery involved not only the auditory and
motor cortex, but regions of the frontal cortex involved in choosing and planning.
Discovered by Robert Zatorre and his colleagues
Imagining music can activate the auditory cortex and motor cortex almost as
strongly as listening to it
conversely imagining the action of playing music stimulates the auditory
cortex.
(musicians stating that they feel they can hear their instruments during mental
practice.)
It seems to. Music & Memory has had the most success with music that patients
already like. Dryer's favorite music includes tunes by Cab Calloway and Bing
Crosby.
Is there research to back this up?
Yes. A 2010 study by Boston University researchers found that Alzheimer's patients
who completed a series of memory tests "learned more lyrics when they were set to
music rather than just spoken." A similar study from Northwestern University in
2011 found that older people who have had musical training sometime in their lives
"excel in auditory memory."
Salimpoor, V.N., Benovoy, M., Larcher, K., Daghe,r A. & Zatorre, R.J. (January 9, 2011).
Anatomically distinct dopamine release during anticipation and experience of peak emotion
to music. Nature Neuroscience, 14, 257262. doi:10.1038/nn.2726
Forgeard, M., Winner, E., Norton, A., & Schlaug, G. (2008). Practicing a Musical
Instrument in Childhood is Associated with Enhanced Verbal Ability and Nonverbal
Reasoning. PLoS ONE 3(10): e3566. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0003566