People have been using music for centuries to communicate, express their emotions and to evoke certain feelings in another person. However, it was only in the 50s of the last century that European and American doctors began to notice that certain melodies contributed to a faster recovery of patients. Since then, scientists around the world have been looking for an answer to the question - how does music affect the human brain, emotions and behavior?
Modern research shows that different melodies help relieve stress, overcome depression, anxiety and anger, speed up the recovery of patients after operations and even reduce the risk of developing senile insanity. Listening to different styles of music can make us feel both positive and sad. It is only important to know what and when to listen.
How our brain perceives sounds
Content:
- How our brain perceives sounds
- Does the brain like music?
- Music and...
- The healing properties of music
- Why do bars play loud music?
- Character and musical preferences: is there a relationship?
- The effect of different sound frequencies on the brain
Sound is nothing more than a wave of mechanical vibrations propagating in a certain medium. It can pass through liquids, solids, and gases. When this wave, traveling through air, reaches our ear, or rather the eardrum, we hear certain sounds.
Different sounds entering the inner ear activate different areas of the brain. Interestingly, the result of such influence often depends on the person’s musical training. That is, for different people, the same melody can evoke different emotions and provoke activity in different parts of the brain. However, there are some general patterns of music influence.
The brain is the control center of the human body. It consists of two hemispheres: the right (responsible for intuition, creativity, imagination) and the left (responsible for verbal information, analytical thinking, logic, language abilities). That is, the right hemisphere of the brain processes information intuitively, visually and creatively, while the left hemisphere processes information through analytical thinking, logic and complex mathematical calculations. But both hemispheres do not work autonomously, but are connected to each other by the corpus callosum - a plexus of nerve fibers.
Everything that happens to a person every second throughout his life affects the brain to one degree or another. And music is no exception. Under its influence, the exchange of information between the two hemispheres is activated, allowing them to work in harmony. Since music is non-verbal information, it affects the right hemisphere. But as soon as words are added to the melody, the influence on the left side of the organ begins. Thus, any song activates both hemispheres. By the way, as scientists have discovered, the temporal lobe of the brain (the so-called auditory cortex) can be influenced not only by a actually heard melody, but also by an imagined one.
It was also found that sounds can affect the neuroplasticity of the brain, that is, its ability to form new neural connections. Brain cells interact with each other throughout life. But the patterns of this interaction may change over time. This happens, for example, after a brain injury or as a person grows up (under the influence of life experiences, the structure of the brain also changes).
But as it turns out, there is another factor that can affect the neuroplasticity of the brain. It `s music. During scientific observations, scientists discovered that sometimes, when neurons lose the ability to interact with each other in their usual combinations, under the influence of certain melodies they begin to create an alternative route for themselves. Thus, music therapy helps patients recover from severe traumatic brain injuries (when speech or memory are affected).
Zero hearing: what is musical anhedonia
Music evokes a feeling of pleasure in the vast majority of people; we are genetically predisposed to perceive it. Composers and philosophers have written many books about the aesthetics of music perception (for example, “Emotions and Meaning in Music” by Leonard Meyer or “On the Beautiful in Music” by Eduard Hanslick), the authors of which tried to understand the mechanisms of obtaining pleasure from musical works. But during recent research, University of Barcelona professor Josep Marco-Pallares discovered a small group of people who were completely indifferent to music. He called this condition musical anhedonia
by analogy with social anhedonia - the inability to rejoice.
The researchers were amazed and first made sure that these people were not depressed or suffering from amusia, a disease in which the area of the brain responsible for the perception of music is damaged. It turned out that the experimental group heard music perfectly well, but was completely indifferent to it.
Marco-Pallares studied three groups of 10 people: music lovers, ordinary people and people with musical indifference. Everyone was given 13 different musical excerpts to listen to, plus 3 more, which participants had to prepare in advance, choosing from a list of their favorite tracks. A study of neural responses showed that participants with musical anhedonia responded equally inactively to any piece of music, although they perceived other stimuli - such as a monetary reward - in the same way as everyone else. It's surprising to realize that among us there may be people for whom the musical side of life is of no interest.
Does the brain like music?
If you think that there are no people on the planet who do not like music of any genre at all, then you are mistaken. Scientists say that approximately 5% of the world's population is absolutely indifferent to musical sounds. Researchers from McGill University (Canada) compared the processes occurring in the brains of music lovers and people who cannot tolerate music.
It turned out that anti-music lovers, while listening to any melody, do not activate the areas of the brain designed to process sound signals. It also turned out that their bodies do not produce pleasure hormones in the background of music.
But at the same time, these areas of the brain in anti-music lovers are not always “silent”. In other cases, they react quite adequately. Why this happens, researchers have yet to figure out. In the meantime, it is known that while listening to melodies, most people’s mood improves, depression and apathy go away, that is, music definitely has a beneficial effect on the brain, we can say that it likes it.
An international group of scientists conducted a study in which they proved that the love of melodies in people is laid down at the genetic level and is closely related to the production of dopamine (a brain neurotransmitter responsible for the feeling of pleasure). And the more a person likes the melody he listens to, the more dopamine the body produces.
How different melodies affect our emotions
Research shows that music can influence the neural network of the brain, thereby stimulating certain emotions and causing changes in mood. Probably, many have had to watch how small children, to a melody they liked, first begin to smile and then move to the beat. Another example is lullabies. For centuries, in all countries of the world, mothers have sung songs to their babies. Children listen, calm down and fall asleep. Often mothers themselves fall asleep to lullabies, even before their babies.
One of the reasons for such emotional changes is the hormone oxytocin, the production of which is activated against the background of heard singing. It is this hormone that is called the reason for the close relationship between mother and child listening to lullabies.
Researchers suggest that oxytocin reduces the activity of areas of the brain responsible for fear and anxiety, so the release of the hormone makes a person more calm and trusting. In some cases, oxytocin interferes with the production of cortisol, the stress hormone. In addition, scientists have discovered that listening to music promotes the production of the hormone dopamine, which is responsible for feelings of pleasure.
What is better for the brain: a happy or sad melody?
A team of scientists from Finland and the UK has discovered that even sad melodies can trigger processes in the brain that improve your mood. Summing up the results of the observation, the researchers indicated that people, oddly enough, experience a special kind of satisfaction and emotions while watching tragic films or listening to sad songs.
Japanese scientists also made their contribution to the study. They determined that our brains usually associate sad experiences with romantic feelings, and some people in a state of sadness benefit from listening to minor music, as it acts on the brain as a psychological trick - it makes it easier to survive their own tragedy.
At the same time, male and female brains react differently to sad and aggressive music. In women, against the background of such melodies, the part of the brain responsible for emotional control is activated. For men, the opposite happens. Therefore, it is better not to listen to minor motives for the stronger sex in a state of sadness.
Scientists from Ireland conducted an interesting experiment with listening to major and minor melodies. They found evidence that listening to certain music can affect the perception of another person's emotions. Participants in the experiment were given several photographs of strangers and asked to determine what emotion their facial expression conveyed. As a result, it turned out that when listening to cheerful melodies, people saw happiness in unfamiliar faces, while when listening to sad tunes in the same photographs, the subjects saw neutral or sad facial expressions.
Not only children: how does music help adults?
So, those who played the violin, sang in the choir, or recorded rap with classmates from childhood were very lucky. But does this mean that all is lost for adults? Of course not. Passion for music not only makes adult life brighter, but also protects the brain from inevitable age-related changes.
Playing or singing is more beneficial than just listening. Scientists have found that those who have played a musical instrument at some point in their lives are, on average, less likely to develop dementia.
Scientists do not yet know why this happens. Perhaps playing music improves many skills at the same time - this is sometimes explained by its benefits for children. There is another version: music enhances the brain’s ability to compensate for gaps in the functioning of some areas with the help of others.
Spanish researchers came to similar conclusions. After analyzing 13 scientific papers, they confirmed that music classes really help maintain clarity of mind in adulthood and old age. They improve attention, reasoning ability and speed of information processing. At the same time, this effect, alas, does not accumulate in adults - when a person stops playing or singing, all the bonuses quickly disappear.
Another area where music is indispensable is the prevention of insomnia and other sleep problems. Listening to music in the evening really calms you down and helps you fall asleep easier, and this effect is cumulative. What kind of music is best to listen to before bed? Here the opinions of scientists differ. Some people believe that only compositions at a slow tempo (about 60 bpm) are effective.
However, judging by a survey conducted by Victoria Williamson and her colleagues, a variety of music helps you fall asleep. 650 respondents named 545 artists in 14 different genres who are most often listened to to relax and fall asleep. Most often, respondents mentioned the works of Johann Sebastian Bach, and Ed Sheeran took second place, ahead of Mozart. The main thing is that the composition does not evoke vivid memories: listening to “your song” before going to bed soon after a breakup is clearly not the best choice.
These are not all the arguments that speak about the benefits of music at any age. We have not mentioned, for example, music therapy, which effectively helps people with various diseases. Over the course of thousands of years, the main thing has not changed: rhythm and melody are still able to influence us. Listen, play and sing songs that you enjoy, as this is one of the most enjoyable ways to take care of yourself in the future.
Music and...
…memory
In 2014, the American film Alive Inside was released. The plot is based on a story about a nursing home employee who one day decided to conduct an experiment and brought an iPod with different styles of music to the hospital. What happened next shocked everyone: patients with Alzheimer's disease, listening to different songs, began to remember events from their past.
But what is most surprising is that the story told in the film is not fiction, but a fact that has a scientific explanation. Back in 2009, researchers at the University of California discovered an area of the brain that links music and memories. That is, having heard a melody from the past, a person begins to remember the emotions and events associated with it.
...performance
Most studies show that listening to music can improve performance. But at the same time, it is important to know which songs are best to listen to at work.
Cheerful, positive melodies always activate creative abilities and improve the ability to work in a team. This was discovered by Dutch experts. During the experiment, scientists asked several work teams to listen to sad, happy, calm, and anxious music while working, while the control group worked in silence. In the end, it turned out that the best results were shown by the group that played cheerful melodies.
In addition, scientists have found that listening to instrumental music can help improve concentration and productivity at work. Melodies with words, on the contrary, distract a person’s attention from solving problems. But for people whose work involves monotonous actions and does not require increased concentration, on the contrary, it is more useful to listen to songs. They are distracting and make work less boring.
American researchers conducted an experiment back in 1972 during which they discovered that people doing monotonous work increased their productivity if music was playing in the background. Twenty years later, scientists discovered that musical accompaniment is useful even in the work of surgeons, and mathematical problems are easier to solve to the sounds of classical music or rock songs.
In addition, it was found that listening to the sounds of nature has a positive effect on the work efficiency of people in different professions. But to get the most out of music in the workplace, it is useful to alternate periods of working in silence and working while listening to melodies.
…creation
Different sounds have different effects on brain rhythms. Music causes alpha and theta wave vibrations. In creative people, the pattern of brain oscillations has some peculiarities. In particular, when a surge of alpha waves occurs, a person feels the desire to create, inspiration comes over him. A burst of theta waves has a similar effect, but they are also responsible for relaxation and sleep.
Scientists also analyzed how sounds of different strengths affect creative processes. It turned out that the optimal volume for performing creative tasks is moderate noise within 70 decibels, but noise above 85 decibels negatively affects human creativity.
...sexual attraction
Darwin also suggested that music developed as part of evolutionary selection. Just remember the birds. For males, singing is a way to attract a female. Although she won’t respond to every song.
Experts from the University of Vienna decided to test the theory about the “sexuality” of music using people as an example. Participants in the experiment had to look at photographs of different people and answer whether they were ready to go on a romantic date with the person from the photo. But before looking at the faces of strangers, the participants were asked to listen to several tunes. The answers were then compared with those of people in the control group.
It turned out that women who listened to the music were more favorable towards the men in the photo and were more likely than representatives from the control group to be ready to go on a date with a stranger. But the men, as it turned out, were not impressed by the songs: the answers of representatives of both groups were almost the same.
…sports
Exercising to music is much healthier and more enjoyable for our bodies than exercising in silence. And all because melodies block signals of fatigue in the brain. For example, back in the early 20th century, American researcher Leonard Ayres discovered that people usually pedal faster when listening to music. A century later, modern scientists have also found confirmation of this fact: cyclists burn more calories while listening to different melodies.
Improves mental performance and cognitive function
If they say that music is “food for the soul,” then classical compositions are omega-3, antioxidants and a pinch of caffeine. In 1993, physicist and University of California professor Dr. Gordon Shaw noticed a spike in IQ in his students after listening to Mozart. This study has caused great skepticism and doubt among experts. The results were not directly related to the response to increased IQ. Dr. Shaw believed that listening to Mozart could be helpful in warming up the parts of the brain associated with abstract thinking.
Research by Dr. Kevin Labar says music can improve intellectual performance and cognitive function, but not by increasing IQ. The calming effect of classical music releases dopamine, causing a peak of pleasure. Dopamine also prevents the release of stress hormones. []
The healing properties of music
You already know that listening to music promotes the production of dopamine, the happiness hormone. But the human body can get even more benefits from playing music. It turned out that singing and playing different musical instruments improves attention, motor skills and activates the interaction between the two hemispheres of the brain.
Music has an analgesic effect - American scientists spoke about this after observing patients in the postoperative period. Patients from the orthopedic department who had undergone spinal surgery took part in the experiment.
The first group of patients was offered to listen to their favorite music; patients from the second group were recovering under normal hospital conditions. When patients from the two groups were asked to describe the nature of the pain they experienced, it turned out that music lovers felt much better than patients from the control group.
A little history
People discovered the positive effect of music a long time ago. For example, in ancient Egypt, choral singing was performed to ease the suffering of the sick, as it was believed that it helps relieve pain.
Pythagoras was of the opinion that it can motivate achievement, develop and calm, even in moments when a person is angry.
And ancient Chinese doctors even prescribed songs as the main treatment. And any disease. In Rus', bells were rung, oddly enough, to relieve headaches, migraines, and also to remove the evil eye.
Avicenna used quiet and slow melodies to heal people suffering from psychiatric illnesses.
Why do bars play loud music?
Loud music in drinking establishments is no coincidence: under its influence, people drink more alcohol in a shorter period of time. French researchers found confirmation of this. A team of scientists observed men aged 18 to 25 and found evidence that changing the volume of music affected the rate of alcohol consumption. Scientists explain this phenomenon by the influence of sound on the brain.
The louder the music, the higher the excitement and the greater the desire to drink and eat.
Musical instruments and their effect on the body
When starting a conversation about musical instruments, it should be noted that we are talking about performing classical music on them.
- Piano or grand piano . People who love and know how to play these instruments have a stable psyche. It has been established that keyboard instruments can have a positive effect on the functioning of the kidneys, thyroid gland and genitourinary system.
- Cello, violin, harp (string instruments) . The sounds of these instruments stabilize the functioning of the cardiovascular system and normalize blood pressure.
- Trumpet, double bass, flute. People who play wind instruments are distinguished by the fact that they rarely suffer from diseases of the bronchopulmonary system. In addition, the body's blood vessels are not clogged with cholesterol plaques and remain in good shape.
- Drums, cymbals, xylophone . They have a beneficial effect on the functioning of the heart, blood vessels, liver and kidneys.
Character and musical preferences: is there a relationship?
Having analyzed the musical preferences of more than 35.5 thousand young people from all over the world, scientists concluded that lovers of the same musical genres have many common character traits.
According to observations, fans of “heavy” music are usually calm people, but among them there are many people with low self-esteem. Blues and jazz are more popular with creative, sociable and polite people. This type of music is also often preferred by arrogant and nervous individuals.
Classics are most often preferred by introverts with creative inclinations and a high sense of self-esteem, while passionate opera lovers are, as a rule, creative, open and polite individuals.
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Reggae is the choice of people with high self-esteem, sociable, talented, but lazy. Rhythmic dance motifs do not leave indifferent extroverts with creative abilities, but, as a rule, bad manners. Fans of indie music can boast of not having the best upbringing. In addition, among them there are often very lazy people who underestimate themselves.
Rap is the choice of sociable, but slightly selfish people. Country music is a favorite destination for hardworking and sociable people. But at the same time, people with such musical preferences are more prone to suicide than others.
How classical music affects children
Doctors recommend starting to listen to classical music, starting from the period when the baby is in the womb. The list of composers recommended by pediatricians is extensive. Among them are the following:
- Mozart;
- Vivaldi;
- Strauss;
- Chopin and others.
The main thing is that the music contains major notes, and mom also enjoys listening to it. Choose pieces based on your own mood and your baby’s reaction to the music.
Recommendations
If you don’t know what to choose for listening, I would like to recommend you composers whose works have different effects on the body. And you can choose what is more relevant to you at the moment.
Sergei Rachmaninov
Suitable for those who want to become a leader, a winner. Inspires and motivates to achieve. An interesting fact: scientists examined a glass of water that was in the hall during Rachmaninov’s Second Concert. So, it turned out to be charged and had healing properties.
Mozart
It activates the creative part, which is why, if you need to find a solution to a complex problem, turn on, for example, “Sonata for Two Pianos in C Major.” You will feel a surge of strength, a desire to create something and, in general, to act. Get rid of headaches and reduce high blood pressure.
In general, it is useful to include Wolfgant’s compositions before exams and tests. It will become easier to learn and remember the material, if only because attentiveness and memory will improve.
You can also, when there is a deadline, you will then quickly deal with the accumulated tasks. Even if you have to dig potatoes or move furniture.
Chaikovsky
His creations are useful in stressful moments. When it seems that life has lost its colors and there is simply no more strength to move on. They will help you calm down, relax and feel joy and satisfaction, despite the difficulties. And they are quite effective in treating depression.
Beethoven
Relevant for those who experience disappointment, often experience irritation, disgust and just sadness. His “Moonlight Sonata” will return you to a resourceful state, increasing your overall tone and mood.
Bach
For people who have difficulty communicating, especially with the opposite sex. “Cantata 21” relieves tension that can provoke conflict situations.
Interesting facts: music and human health
Some interesting facts about the influence of music on humans:
- Scientists at the University of Utah have determined that music helps activate sensory pathways that dampen pain sensations. The experiment involved almost 150 people prone to anxiety due to pain. When the participants listened to pleasant music, electrodes were applied to their fingers, causing slight pain. The melodic composition reduced pain levels and anxiety.
- Hong Kong scientists have determined that the influence of music on a person is very high, and develops mental abilities and memory (especially in children). During long-term observation, it was revealed that without the use of special exercises for memory, a person still had good performance in this area if he studied music in childhood.
- It turned out that the corresponding melody helps the patient recover after heart surgery. Joyful and positive motives evoke positive emotions and improve mood, therefore they are recommended for the prevention of cardiovascular diseases. Scientists are convinced that music therapy improves blood circulation and lowers blood pressure.
- Researchers claim that sounds coming in a certain tone and at different frequencies kill pathogens. Several centuries ago, the cities were engulfed by a plague epidemic, and by continuously ringing the bells, the people hoped to overcome it. It really had an effect. Reliable fact: microbial activity decreases by 40% when listening to bells or church music for a long time.
Thanks to the long-term influence of music on a person, hearing loss is prevented. In a simple study involving 160 subjects (half of them former musicians), several tests were administered. It turned out that even a 70-year-old musician can distinguish speech in a noisy environment better than an ordinary person or, for example, a 40-year-old musician.
