The Brain: How Does Music Affect The Brain

First, music is a core function in our brain. Our brain is created in a way to effectively respond to and process music. New born infants are able to detect differences in rhythmic patterns. Mothers all over the world and throughout time have used lullabies and rhythmic songs to calm crying babies. Also, music precedes language. We don’t yet know why, but our brains are wired to respond to music, even though it’s not essential for our survival. Our bodies entrain to rhythm. Entrainment is when you walk down the street, humming a song in your head and walking to the beat. Our motor systems naturally entrain, or match, to a rhythmic beat. When a musical input enters our central nervous system through the auditory nerve, most of the input goes to the brain for processing. But some of it heads straight to motor nerves in our spinal cord. This allows our muscles to move to the rhythm without our having to think about it or “try.” It’s how we dance to music, tap our foot to a rhythm, and walk in time to a beat. This is also why music therapists can help a person who’s had a stroke re-learn how to walk and develop strength and endurance in their upper bodies. We also have physiologic responses to music. Every time your breathing quickens, your heart-rate increases, or you feel a shiver down your spine, that’s your body responding physiologically to music. Qualified music therapists can use this to help stimulate a person in a coma or use music to effectively help someone relax. Music also triggers our emotions. Have you ever listened to a piece of music and smiled? Or felt sad? Whether from the music itself, or from our associations with the music, music taps into our emotional systems. Many people use this in a “therapeutic” way, listening to certain music that makes them feel a certain way. The ability for music to easily access our emotions is very

During my research I found an article called,“The Effects of Music on Student’s work” by Rudy Miller. Rudy Miller states “Soothing music or classical music can help a student focus.” The author also exclaimed that, “British studies claim that listening to Mozart for 10 minutes produced a “Mozart Effect” where test-takers I.Q scores went up 8 or 9 points.” The writer of the article also announced, “After the 30-day course, the average retention rate per student was 92%.” Miller argues that “listening to music is good for the brain.”(Miller 2015)

Next, music has a positive effect on the brain and body. Listening to music releases several different chemicals into the

There have been many studies done over the years about the effect of music and learning.

I listen to rock and punk music when I'm feeling anxious or exercising, soft rock when I am driving in my car on rainy days, and showtunes and pop music when I am in a good mood and feeling expressive. However, I appreciate and enjoy classical music and even some rap and country tunes, and I'd like to think that any piece of music that is intricately written and has a lot of thought put into it is worth praising. I also think that students can receive their own sense of euphoria when they perform with other people, such as when their band seamlessly completes the most difficult of a piece or their choir's chord rings effortlessly throughout a cathedral. As a teacher, I think it is important to activate each student's individualized physiological response by incorporating all types of music into their curriculum, from the most ancient and complex to the most

Listening to music is one of the only activities which involve using both sides of the brain. When concentrating on a specific task you are normally only using one part of your brain while concentrating so the other parts of your brain that is unoccupied drifts off which causes you to lose concentration. The music is beneficial because it will keep the other parts of your brain busy while you are concentrating which will prevent you from drifting off and losing concentration. Music has also been found to engage the area of the brain involved with paying attention.

When you 're thinking hard, you 're using your cerebrum (biggest part of brain). You need it to solve math problems, figure out a video game, and draw a picture. Your memory lives in the cerebrum - both short-term memory (what you ate for dinner last night) and long-term memory (the name of that roller-coaster you rode on two summers ago). The cerebrum also helps you reason, like when you figure out that you 'd better do your homework now because your mom is taking you to a movie later. The cerebrum has two halves, with one on either side of the head. Some scientists think that the right half helps you think about abstract things like music, colors, and shapes. The left half is said to be more analytical, helping you with math, logic, and

It might be obvious that music impacts people physically, but understanding how music and the brain interact is a deep study and a mystery. Music can have an affect on brain development. One of the first things that occurs when music enters the brain is the “triggering of pleasure centers”, this releases dopamine, a feeling that makes you happy. The response is so quick that the brain can anticipate the most pleasurable peaks in familiar music, and that can cause the early dopamine rush (Golstein).

The brain, in cahoots with the nervous and endocrine systems, controls our behavior, thoughts, and actions, involuntary and voluntary. Scientists have studied the brain and determined, to a reasonable extent, what regions of the brain control what skills. These studies of the brain have provided much valuable information about how injuries and any operations done to the brain can affect our behavior and ability to perform certain tasks.

I got my information from an article written by Nathan Feiles, a psychotherapist. I found out that mostly, music serves as an outlet for people unable or unwilling to express themselves externally. Sometimes a classroom full of lazy kids can be brought back to life by putting on energetic, lively music that a majority of the classroom likes, which hopefully helps deny a teacher’s favorite thing to say, “music distracts students”.

In many clinical studies with patients with dementia, many patients had reduced depression, lessened agitation, and increased movement, when played familiar and likeable music ( a Place for Mom, 2015). Stimulative music and sedative music also cause changes in moods for patients. Stimulative music activates and promotes movement, while sedative music is used when preparing for bed or any change in routine that might cause agitation (Alicia Ann Clair, 2015). Dopamine is a neurotransmitter in the brain. According to Alissa Sauer in his article “Music Therapy Enhancing Cognition” (2014), while listening to music, dopamine is released, and sends pleasure signals to the rest of the body. Alissa Sauer (2014) goes on to say that music has been known to calm people down and provide stress release. This has been going on for centuries. Music evokes emotion even in the most advanced patients with dementia. Neurologist Oliver Sacks states that, “Music evokes emotion, and emotion can bring with it memory… it brings back the feeling of life when nothing else can” (Alissa Sauer, 2014). Music creates many new feelings for patients with dementia, and causes patients to change moods. Patients seem to be much happier after listening to music. Music creates many new emotions and moods for patients with dementia no matter how far into the most advanced

Thesis Statement: Today I am going to tell you about an aspect of human culture that appears just about everywhere you go: music.

It is proven by some studies that the left and right brain can be stimulated by Mozart’s music and baroque music which has a beat pattern of 60 beats per minutes. When the left and right brain act simultaneously, it maximizes learning and holding information. The left brain is activated by studied information while the right brain is stimulated by the music. Exercise which activates both sides of the brain simultaneously enhances ability to process information. Listening to music promotes word recall. Researchers have found that specific music genres have a powerful effect on word recall. When information is studied with specific background music, it makes it easier for people to remember simply by playing the song mentally. Research also shown clearly that a child’s memory development is affected by whether they took music lessons or not. (Mammarella,

“Arts education is critical for helping students develop creativity, critical thinking, and problem solving abilities” (Chernin). The arts can help people succeed. Art is a way that people can express themselves and share their beliefs. Arts in education can help people focus and attend. Fine arts are important because they make a huge impact on kids education, they make an impact on how people pursue their life careers, and it also helps with stress and anxiety.

Mainly, listening to music has the ability to boost up a person’s mood instantaneously, affecting a person inner mind where different negative thoughts feed on a person’s abhorrence. For an example, listening to music while driving can positively rock mood instantly. In addition, listening to music can have a largely effect on a person’s minds and a person’s body. Later, listening to music also reduces stress, anxiety and depression that lead a person becoming calm and soothing. Some experts said music really does help people lead to a better mood and get in touch with their feelings. The archetypal forms of music were probably drum-based, prelusion instruments being the most easily handy at the time. For an example, rocks and sticks. These plain instruments are thought to have been used in spiritual tradition as representations of wild things. Therefore, many of us do not realized that listening to music really does help a person’s health physically or mentally. In that case, scientist really do recommend us to choose a person’s favorite songs based on a person’s chosen genre and blast the music up anywhere and