Music and the Brain: What Happens When You’re Listening to Music
What Classical Music Does To Your Brain
Ayako Yonetani, a well-known violinist, and neuroscientist Kiminobu Sugaya have been teaching one of the most well-liked courses in The Burnett Honors College since 2006. “Music and the Brain” examines how music affects human behavior and brain function, including how it lowers stress, pain, and depressive symptoms while enhancing motor, cognitive, and spatial-temporal learning as well as neurogenesis, the brain’s capacity to create new neurons. Sugaya and Yonetani demonstrate how listening to music can be therapeutic for those suffering from neurodegenerative conditions like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.
Alzheimer’s patients “often become unresponsive in the late stages,” according to Sugaya. “However, their eyes light up as soon as you insert the headphones that play [their favorite] music. They begin to move and occasionally sing. Even when the music is turned off, the effect lasts for around ten minutes.
An MRI can demonstrate this because “several different areas of the brain light up,” he claims. We sat down with the professors, a married couple, and asked them to describe the areas of the brain that music activates.
How the Brain Responds to Music
What Classical Music Does To Your Brain
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Learn more about how the brain region to the right affects how you perceive music by clicking on it.
This is what listening to classical music does to your brain
Sound
More Mozart in your life wouldn’t harm, regardless of whether you’re familiar with Vivaldi and company or you only hear classical music when you’re waiting. Actually, the reverse is true.
According to research, classical music has amazing cognitive benefits. You experience this in your head when listening to classical music.
Brainpower
- You become more sensitive.
We all understand the impact a great soundtrack can have on a film. Everything seems more dramatic as a result. The same is true in the actual world. Volunteers were monitored by Southern Methodist University while they wrote about the most important experience or incident in their lives. They discovered that participants who wrote with classical music playing in the background were more open to emotional vulnerability and were more inclined to provide information. Please pass the Kleenex our way.
- It promotes sleep
hours of sheep counting? Play some classical music the next time you’re wide awake. Low pitches, steady tempos, and serene melodies are characteristics of the finest music for sleep.
It reduces pain.
According to a 2006 study, classical music can help cancer and surgery patients feel less pain physically. In comparison to groups that didn’t listen to the music, those with chronic pain reported feeling less discomfort and having better control over their despair and incapacity. Researchers contend that listening to music while recovering from surgery gives people more confidence and even inspires nurses to employ music as a therapeutic technique.
Frontal Lobe
What
used in planning, reasoning, and decision-making
How
“The most crucial part of being a human is the frontal lobe. Compared to other animals, we have a large frontal lobe. Sugaya claims that we can improve its operations by listening to music.
Temporal Lobe
What
examines what we hear.
How
Although language and words are interpreted in the left hemisphere of the brain while music and sounds are interpreted in the right, Yonetani claims that we use the language center to appreciate music, which spans both sides of the brain.
Broca’s Area
What
gives us the ability to speak
How
Yonetani claims that music is expressed through this portion of the brain. “Learning an instrument may help you communicate more effectively.”
Wernicke’s Area
What
understanding of spoken and written language
How
According to Yonetani, “We employ this portion of the brain to analyze and enjoy music.”
Occipital Lobe
What
translates what we observe
How
“Laypeople like me utilize the temporal lobe, which is the auditory and language center, whereas professional musicians use the occipital cortex, which is the visual cortex, when they listen to music. This implies that when [musicians] are listening to music, they may imagine a music score, claims Sugaya.
Cerebellum
What
movement coordination and physical memory storage
How
“If he learned to play the piano when he was young, an Alzheimer’s patient could still play it even if he doesn’t recognize his wife since playing has become a muscle memory. Sugaya claims that the memories stored in the cerebellum never disappear.
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