What impact does music have on our brain?
Haven’t we all been in that situation where we were having a terrible day but as soon as we tuned in to our Spotify playlist, it made our day!
The healing power of music is incomparable. A growing field of healthcare is music therapy where trained and certified music therapists use music as a way to help patients with grief, anxiety, depression as well as rehabilitative needs after a stroke, head injury or chronic conditions like PTSD, Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s disease.
But what actually happens when you listen to music?
Various parts of our brain is actually activated when we listen to music.
For example, the auditory cortex gets activated due to loudness, pitch and the beats of our music. The visual cortex is activated when we read lyrics of a song or watch a concert, the motor cortex is activated while we tap our feet to our favourite beats, cerebellum mediates our emotional response. The hippocampus responsible for memory and retention hearing a familiar sound is activated as well which causes release of dopamine or the happy or ‘feel good’ hormone!
Music is actually a full brain workout!
Research conducted at the University of Southern California for an extensive period of time shows that children who have been playing music for 5–6 years or more have benefits in cognitive behaviour and decision making as well as social skills.
Music also helps with your memory. Most people (including myself) connect a piece of music to a period of their life. Dr. Andrew Budson, a lecturer in neurology at Harvard Medical School and chief of cognitive and behavioral neurology at the VA Boston Healthcare System recommends to put on a piece of music that reminds us of good times. Because sometimes when we are depressed, it is hard to remember what the happiest times felt like and according to Dr. Budson, listening to music can help us recall those memories.
Dr Budson also says that music can help us remembering small details in our everyday life. For example, he mentions in a multi level parking garage singing to oneself “So I would not be late, I parked on level eight” can help us remember where we kept our car or a song like “Before I move my car ahead, I need to remember to pick up bread” can help us remember important items from our grocery list!
So to conclude, music not only is a workout for our brain, it can help patients with Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, PTSD or head injury regain their ability to speak and cope up with grief and anxiety.
Research is still going on to figure out in what other ways does music effect our brain.
