An Introduction to How Music Affects Your Brain

Posted June 13, 2019

Author: Dr. Pamela McMullin

As a psychologist and a musician, I remember my mother telling me to practice my violin when I was young. When I complained – which I did, often- she would shout up the stairs that it was good for me. As it turns out, she was right. Although she was likely unaware of exactly how or why it was good for me, research now shows us that listening to, and especially playing music, exercises almost every part of the brain.

Contrary to the notion that art and music are processed by the right hemisphere of the brain, and language and mathematics by the left, Daniel J. Levitin reports in his New York Times Bestseller, “This is Your Brain on Music”, that music is processed throughout the brain. Listening to music, playing and writing music engages nearly every area of the brain that researchers have identified. How do we know this? Partly through brain scans; specifically, Functional MRIs and PET scans have given neuroscientists the ability to see how the brain works in real time. Using base line scans, then having patients listen to music, researchers are able to see multiple areas of the brain light up as the patient processes sound.

The following are a just a sample of the amazing ways music affects the brain:

1) Music can strengthen our bonds with others.

A study by Florida International University’s Community Based Research Institute has found that ensemble based musical instruction for young children (ages 8-17) had significant increases on kid’s competence, confidence, caring, character and connection.

2) Music reduces stress and depression.

Advertisers and filmmakers know the power music has to evoke emotion. Studies have shown that listening to and playing music helped reduce pain and anxiety associated with cancer treatments. It is long known that listening to music helps people stick to an exercise routine, train for a physical competition, heal from a break up, undergo a dental procedure, or soothe an upset infant.

3) Want to relieve anxiety? Join a choir.

Beyond the sense of togetherness one can feel as being part of a choir, researchers have studied the benefits that choral singing can have on our heart rate. Breathing and heart rates are directly affected by melody, and are shown to slow or quicken with the tempo. Studies have even shown that individuals’ breathing and heart rates in a choir actually slowed in unison. Overall, singing requires a slower than normal respiration rate, and as relaxation techniques often involve deep breathing, this makes sense. By the way, study results weren’t dependent on whether or not you consider yourself a good singer! Just singing in a choir- even a mediocre one- can give you similar benefit.

4) While it may not make us smarter, music does enhance arousal and performance as it positively affects how we feel.

Dopamine is a neurotransmitter associated with pleasure. It carries information between neurons in the brain and helps in the regulation of attention, movement, learning and emotions—known specifically to contribute to feelings of pleasure we experience during eating, sleeping, and sex. We now know that listening to music also causes the release of dopamine -and this isn’t specific to a particular type of music. Patients who were exposed to PET scans while listening to a symphony had the same dopamine response as those exposed to other types of music. Daniel Abrams, author of this study and researcher, found that when we listen to music, our brains are doing much more than simply processing sound. Music activated all areas of the brain associated with planning, attention, movement, and memory as dopamine was released.

5) Your musical preferences may be related to the music your parents were playing.

We know that the auditory system develops in the fetus around 16 weeks of pregnancy- meaning inside the womb, the baby is hearing the sounds of their world. Using a research technique called The Conditioned Head Turn procedure, studies have looked at how playing music during pregnancy can affect the baby’s development and preferences. Specifically, they showed that the babies studied remembered and even preferred the music played to them in the womb when measured a year after birth. The take-away from this is that prenatal brains are able to encode memories of music and retrieve them over time- long before language and awareness.

6) Ever wonder why you can’t get that song out of your head?

That is actually a not uncommon phenomenon psychologists refer to as involuntary musical imagery (INMI), or “earworms”. It might have something to do with the music or song, itself. Looking at the top 100 songs chosen by the 3000 people studied who experienced having earworms, researchers identified some common elements of the melodies. Songs most likely to get stuck had more upbeat tempos, an unusual interval structure, or chord or chorus repetitions. An example of the top “earworms” people find most difficult to get out of their heads: Bohemian Rhapsody- Queen, YMCA- Village People, and Happy- Pharrell Williams.

There is much more to learn about how music affects your brain. If you’re interested in learning more about the neuroscience of music, how we get certain jingles stuck in our heads, or why 10,000 hours, not talent, makes virtuosos- read Daniel Levitin’s book. For more information on how playing an instrument can affect the brain, check out the Ted Talk below! If you’d like to strengthen your brain functioning in all the ways summarized above, turn up the music!

References:
https://www.inc/john-rampton/the-benefits-of-playing-music-help-your-brain-more.html

Levitin, Daniel J. 2006. This is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession. USA: Penguin.

https://musiceducationworks.com/2016/06/19/a-childs-brain

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/your-musical-self/201101/why-listening-music-makes-us-feel-good

https://stempel.fiu.edu/cbri-researchers-find-after-school-ensemble-music-programs-positively-affect-students-character-competence-and-caring/

https://www.ted.com/talks/anita_collins_how_playing_an_instrument_benefits_your_brain?language=en

University of California: http://dornsife.usc.edu/bci/brain-and-music/

Vickhoff, B., Malmgren, H., Åström, R., Nyberg, G. F., Ekström, S., Engwall, M., . . . Jörnsten, R. (2013). Erratum: Music structure determines heart rate variability of singers. Frontiers in Psychology, 4. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00599