How Music Benefits the Brain

19th March 2015

By Deane Alban

Contributing Writer for Wake Up World

Music has played an important part of every human culture, both past and present. (1) People around the world experience universal responses to music. (2) We’re all familiar with how certain pieces of music can change your mood, get you motivated, or help you concentrate. And now, advances in neuroscience enable researchers to quantitatively measure how music affects the brain.

Their discoveries are exciting — and good news for music lovers.

Music is a fantastic brain exercise that activates every known part of the brain. (3) Music can make you smarter, happier and more productive at all stages of life. Let’s take a closer look at some of the latest findings on the many ways both playing and listening to music can enhance your brain.

Musicians Have Better Brains

If you want evidence of how music affects the brain, it makes sense to look at the brains of people who play a lot of music — professional musicians. Brain scans show that their brains are different than the those of the rest of us. Their brains are noticeably more symmetrical. (4) Areas of the brain responsible for motor control, auditory processing, and spatial coordination are larger. They also have a larger corpus callosum, which is the band of nerve fibers that enables the two hemispheres of the brain to communicate with each other.

Change Your Mood with Music

Science has now proven what music lovers already know, that listening to upbeat music can improve your mood. (6) Listening and playing music reduces chronic stress by lowering the stress hormone cortisol. (7) Music can make you feel more hopeful, powerful, and in control of your life. (8, 9) And listening to sad music has its benefits, too. (10) If you are going through a tough time, listening to sad music is cathartic; it can help you get in touch with those emotions to help heal them. (11)

Even if you aren’t a professional musician, listening to music can still enhance your work performance. Listening to music at work can make you a happier, more productive employee — especially if it’s music you’ve chosen. Office workers allowed to listen to the kind of music they like complete tasks more quickly and come up with better ideas than those who have no control over their musical choices. (5)

Music Boosts Brain Chemicals

One of the ways music enhances brain function is by stimulating the formation of certain brain chemicals. Listening to music increases the neurotransmitter dopamine, which is the brain’s “motivation molecule” and an integral part of the pleasure-reward system. (12) It’s the same brain chemical responsible for the “feel good” states obtained from eating chocolate, orgasm, and runner’s high.

Playing music with others or enjoying live music also stimulates the brain hormone oxytocin. (13) Oxytocin has been called the “trust molecule” and the “moral molecule” since it helps us bond with and trust others. (14) There’s evidence that the oxytocin bump experienced by music lovers can make them more generous and trustworthy. (15)

Music Helps You Learn

Many schools have cut music programs due loss of funding, and this is widely believed by parents and educators to be a big mistake. Music, whether taught in or outside of school, helps students excel in the following ways: (16)

• improved language development
• small increase in IQ
• improved test scores
• increased brain connectivity
• increased spatial intelligence

The last item on this list — spatial intelligence — helps students understand how things go together. This skill is critical in careers like architecture, engineering, math, and computer science.

CONTINUE READING:

Previous articles by Deane Alban:

• How to Increase Dopamine, the Motivation Molecule
• Ways to Improve Memory and Live Longer with Music
• Exposed: Why Cholesterol Doesn’t Cause Heart Disease
• Overcoming Resistance to Change: The Secret to Lasting Health
• Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Brain
• Advantame – the “New & Improved” Artificial Sweetener, Approved by FDA
• 5 Reasons You Aren’t Getting Enough Vitamin D.. and What You Can Do About It
• Five Common Food Additives That Can Damage Your Brain
• 18 Choices You Make Every Day That Keep You Up at Night
• Stress, Telomeres, and the Secret to Prevent Aging
• 20 Common Medications That Can Cause Memory Loss

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