Music And The Brain
By Stephanie Blay Muah, BSc Neuroscience,
Music is a unique form or art in a sense that, it is not only bout the instruments, sounds, or words but also directly related to cognition. Even though research is still being done to understand the underlining mechanisms of the relationship between the brain and music, a few other significant mechanisms have been proven including, ways that music might affect the brain emotionally, with learning, and memory. Some examples of how music is being used to improve development outcomes include music education, music psychology and music therapy. This article will focus on the relationship between music and learning, memory, and emotions.
Learning by music can be compared to learning a new language and this can begin in a child’s development as early as the embryotic stage. During pregnancy, parents spend time singing and talking to their unborn babies and the brains of these babies develop and learn musical responses. Research has shown that right after delivery, the brain responses of infants who were played music throughout pregnancy differed from those that were not played anything (Tervaniemi 2017). Even after birth, the relationship between our brain and music is very diverse. One way this can be observed is by learning how to play an instrument. The idea that young children who are trained to play an instrument do better academically as they get older is probably well-known to a lot of people. For this reason, a lot of primary school students are taught how to play different instruments, and this is considered a way of stimulating their neural activity. However, do not be alarmed if for whatever reason, your child cannot be a part of this community of students. Evidence suggests that engaging in voluntary dancing, singing, and listening to music in the home setting has positive impacts on neural function as well (Tervaniemi, 2017).
Furthermore, music has a significant impact on our emotions as humas. The kind of music someone listens to is mostly based on their mood for the day and this is a common phenomenon most people are familiar with. When we are happy, we listen to a more cheerful music and when we are sad, we might listen to a sad type of music. The kind of music we listen to can also change our mood from happy to sad or vice versa. Some people are good at hiding their facial expressions at any point, but most people do not have the quality to do so hence, facial expression is one way to comprehend the effect of music on our emotions which can be anger, happiness, or fear. What is happening in the brain during this display of emotion is that different areas of the amygdala become active when expressing different emotions by listening to different emotional songs. The amygdala is the part of the brain responsible for our emotions. Is there an emotion you can think of that relates to a song that comes with this picture below?
Let’s look at the relationship between music and memory. Studies have shown that recall by music is one of the most effect ways of studying. Students that make a song out of acronyms for a class tend to remember the song correctly, hence producing the correct answer needed for the question. Also, can you think of a specific event that happened while you were listening to a particular song? It could be a marriage proposal, it can be the moment where you found out you were about to be parents, it can be the moment where you found out your grades for a class and now anytime you hear this song, you remember that event and the mood you were in. Music can affect memory in more ways besides only helping us recall specific experiences. The process is streamlined when information is encoded and recalled while listening to the same music. The two-stage theory of memory states that the retrieval of information is easier for us when we recognize it rather than when we have to recall it ourselves (Nguyen and Grahn 2017). We instantly recognize a song being played because a memory was made and it is easier to remember.
Whether you love music or tend not to listen to any, it is worth considering adding a little music into your life to help your brain with learning, memory, and emotions.
References
Tervaniemi, M. (2017). Music in learning and relearning: The life-span approach.Psychomusicology: Music, Mind and Brain, 27(3), 223–226. doi: http://dx.doi.org.ezproxy.loras.edu/10.1037/pmu0000185
Nguyen, T., & Grahn, J. A. (2017). Mind your music: The effects of music-induced mood and arousal across different memory tasks. Psychomusicology: Music, Mind and Brain, 27(2), 81–94. doi: http://dx.doi.org.ezproxy.loras.edu/10.1037/pmu0000178
Photos: https://www.babycenter.com/pregnancy/your-baby/fetal-development-your-babys-hearing_20004866
https://movies.disney.com/frozen
https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/news/2018/11/music-and-the-brain