Music affects the brain in many positive ways. It makes you smarter, happier, and more productive at any age. It has played an important part in every human culture, both past and present, because people around the world experience universal responses to music.
We are all familiar with how certain pieces of music can change your mood, get you motivated, or help you concentrate. Listening is good, playing is even better.
Improving Our Mood
Most of us aren’t professional musicians, but 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.
The external ear collects sound waves, and the ear canal funnels them to the eardrum. As the waves strike the eardrum, they cause it to vibrate. The vibrations are relayed along the chain of tiny bones in the middle ear until they reach the third bone, the stapes, which connects to the cochlea.
Office workers are allowed to listen to their preferred choice of music complete tasks more quickly and come up with better ideas than those who have no control over their musical choices. Science has now proven what music lovers already know, that listening to upbeat music can improve your mood.
Boosts Brain Chemicals
The neurobiology of music is a highly specialized field. But music also has major effects on many aspects of health, ranging from memory and mood to cardiovascular function and athletic performance.
Listening to music increases the neurotransmitter dopamine. This is the brain’s “motivation molecule” and an integral part of the pleasure-reward system.
It’s the same brain chemical responsible for the feel-good states obtained from eating chocolate, orgasm, and runner’s high. OXYTOCIN has been called the “trust molecule” and the “moral molecule” since it helps us bond with and trust others.
There’s evidence that the oxytocin bump experienced by music lovers can make them more generous and trustworthy.
Helping Us to Learn
Many schools have cut music programs due to loss of funding, and this is widely believed by parents and educators to be a big mistake.
The last item on this list spatial intelligence, helps students understand how things work together.
This skill is critical in careers like architecture, engineering, math, and computer science.
Effects of Training on Young Brains.
In the 1990s, the effects of music on the brain were popularized by the MOZART EFFECT.
This theory purported that listening to music composed by Mozart can make you smarter.
Parents had their babies listening to the music of Mozart to give their brains a jumpstart, often even before they were born.
The accepted theory now is that taking music lessons as a child enhances brain function and structure, but that there’s nothing uniquely beneficial about the music of Mozart. Children with musical training do better in subjects like language, reading, and math.
Music and Decompression
A study from New York examined how music affects surgical patients. Forty cataract patients with an average age of 74 volunteered for the trial. Half were randomly assigned to receive ordinary care; the others got the same care but also listened to the music of their choice through headphones before, during, and immediately after the operations. Before surgery, the patients in both groups had similar blood pressures; a week before the operations, the average was 129/82 millimeters of mercury (mm Hg). The average blood pressure in both groups rose to 159/92 just before surgery, and in both groups, the average heart rate jumped by 17 beats per minute.
The Benefits of Listening to Music
Heartbeats
You don't have to be a neurophysiologist to understand that music can affect the brain and at least a few of its many functions. And even if you're not a cardiologist, you may be interested to learn that music can also help the heart and circulation.
One way is by reducing stress. A study from Wisconsin evaluated 45 patients who had suffered heart attacks within the previous 72 hours. All the patients were still in an intensive care unit but were clinically stable. The subjects were randomly assigned to listen to classical music or simply continue with routine care.
All were closely monitored during the 20-minute trial. Almost as soon as the music began, the patients who were listening showed a drop in their heart rates, breathing rates, and their hearts' oxygen demands. Music did not affect their blood pressure; however, nearly all heart attack patients are given beta-blockers and ACE inhibitors, both of which lower blood pressure on their own.
The cardiovascular improvements linked to music lasted for at least an hour after the music stopped, and psychological testing also demonstrated lower levels of anxiety.
No matter your age, it’s never too soon or too late to fill your life with music, so sit back and enjoy the ride in peace.
Written By - Hossam Elsakran
Edited By - Kashish Chadha
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