How Music Can Change Your Brain

The audible range for the human ear is from 20 to 20000 Hz. However, not all sounds are pleasing. Certain sounds can uplift mood, reduce stress, and enhance focus. Deeply riveting sounds and rhythms can evoke powerful emotions and memories and foster a deep sense of connection with the past. Auditory melody is music. Playing or listening to music can improve cognitive abilities, boost creativity, and is a form of self-expression. Music transcends the language barrier and is universally known to elevate joy.

How does music affect the brain?

Listening to music activates various areas that correspond to pleasure. Music stimulates relaxing emotions and memories, positively influencing neurotransmitters (chemical messengers) and releasing dopamine, associated with pleasure and reward. Music can enhance mood, reduce stress, and improve cognition. Playing or creating music enhances neural connections. Music therapy is used to rehabilitate and treat neurological conditions. Music has a powerful impact on brain function affecting emotions, cognition, and overall well-being.

How is music processed in the brain?

• Auditory cortex: Music is initially processed in the auditory cortex, where the brain interprets the basic elements of sound like pitch, rhythm, and melody.
• Emotional processing: The limbic system, responsible for emotions, responds to music, triggering feelings and memories associated with certain tunes.
• Reward system activation: Listening to pleasurable music activates the brain’s reward system, releasing feel-good neurotransmitters such as dopamine.
• Memory and association: Music has a strong connection to memory, activating brain regions linked to recalling past experiences and emotions.
• Motor cortex engagement: Playing music enhances the motor cortex, improving the coordination of movements and actions required for playing instruments or singing.
• Neuroplasticity: Regular exposure to music can change the brain’s structure and function, enhancing cognitive abilities and neural connectivity.
• Cross-hemispheric processing: Both hemispheres of the brain collaborate when processing music, fostering creativity, and aiding in holistic perception.

Effects of music on the brain

Music profoundly affects the brain in many different ways. Music can aid in emotional control and improve mood and reduce stress and anxiety.

• Improves your memory: Music improves our memory by creating emotional connections, using rhythmic patterns to organize information, and engaging multiple parts of the brain. It’s like a friendly exercise for our brain that helps us remember things better.

• Improves your focus: Music can boost our focus by creating a pleasant background, reducing distractions, and influencing our mood positively. It helps create a conducive environment for concentration, making it easier to focus on tasks and stay engaged.
• Increase your creativity: Music boosts creativity by inspiring new ideas, enhancing mood and emotions, and stimulating different parts of the brain. It creates a positive atmosphere that encourages innovative thinking and imaginative expression.
• Provides you with coping mechanisms: Music serves as a coping mechanism by offering emotional support and providing a way to express feelings. Listening to comforting music can help regulate emotions, reduce stress, and provides a sense of companionship during challenging times.
• Improves productivity: Music enhances productivity by creating a positive environment, reducing distractions, and boosting mood. It can help you focus on tasks, stay motivated, and make work more enjoyable, leading to increased productivity.
• Increases your ability to pay attention to visual cues: Music can improve our ability to pay attention to visual cues by enhancing overall brain function. It creates a harmonious environment that supports cognitive processes, making it easier for the brain to process and respond to visual information. The positive influence of music contributes to improved focus on visual cues.
• Improves hormonal balance: Listening to calming music triggers the release of hormones like serotonin and dopamine, which contribute to feelings of well-being. This hormonal balance can positively impact overall health and help manage stress-related hormonal imbalances. Music can help improve hormonal balance by reducing stress and promoting relaxation.
• Music can improve your reasoning and develop motor skill: Music improves reasoning and motor skills by making our brain work hard, improving coordination of our movements, and challenging us to think, which helps us get smarter and more skilled.
• Music makes it easier to engage in social events: Music makes it easier to engage in social events by creating a shared atmosphere. It brings people together, sets a positive mood, and provides a common interest, making conversations and interactions enjoyable and comfortable.
• Music can increase your emotional intelligence: Music lifts our emotional intelligence by helping us understand and express emotions better. Music tunes our emotional sensitivity, making us more aware of feelings, both in ourselves and others. It’s like a guide that enhances our ability to navigate and connect with different emotions.

Other impacts of music

Mood

Music has a calming influence on people’s mind and thereby enhances their mood. It not only brings calmness but leads a person to have a more positive mood that makes the person and others around them happy. Music is said to release happy hormones that help in enhancing mood and the way we behave with others.

Emotions

People often listen to music that expresses emotions they are feeling. Music helps us release suppressed emotions and brings a sense of positivity around us and helps us live in the moment.

Memory

Human beings tend to relate one thing to another. Music does that in case of past memories or events. People relate certain events or memories to a particular song and every time they hear the music, they are reminded of that particular memory. These memories can be happy or sad.

Behavior

Music can influence our behavior too! When we listen to rock or pop music, we tend to be active and behave energetically. When we listen to country music, our behavior is mostly very easy going and fun, similarly with every genre of music, our behavior is affected.

Thoughts and actions

Music has an impact on our thoughts because it stimulates our brain and affects our creativity and problem-solving abilities. Music influences our movements and coordination, thereby impacting physical actions.

Music therapy

How does music therapy work?

In music therapy, music is used as a therapeutic tool to treat physical, emotional, cognitive, or social issues. Skilled music therapists evaluate each person’s objectives and design customized musical therapy. These interventions include singing, playing instruments, or listening to or composing music. Music therapy has been used in de-addiction programs.

Types of music therapy

Music therapy is classified into the following types:

• Active interventions: Music therapy promotes actively taking part in various musical activities with the therapist. Music therapy can either be singing or playing an instrument. The objective is to be creative with music and relax your mind with fun activities.
• Receptive interventions: This type of music therapy involves listening to music that the therapist records or plays for you instead of singing it. This helps you feel your emotions intensely. It is recommended to talk to your therapist about the emotion you feel during particular pieces of music.

Benefits of music therapy

• Reduces anxiety: Music therapy helps relieve physical and mental symptoms of anxiety by facilitating mood adjustment.
• Reduces depression: Music Therapy reduces depression by providing a person with a variety of sounds and expressions which makes them get in touch with their present eventually.
• Reduces stress: Stress affects our heartbeat and causes harm to our health. Music therapy helps an individual to match the rhythm of their heartbeat with the beats of the calming music.
• Promotes a feeling of safety and security: People with past trauma find it difficult to feel safe in many situations. Music therapists are trained to create a safe and judgment-free environment to help relax clients.
• Addresses attachment issues: Music therapy addresses issues such as attachment because therapists use various techniques such as reflecting the client’s music back to them which in return makes them feel heard and valued.
• Promotes de-addiction: The mind is gradually diverted away from the things that people become addicted to.

Factors contributing to the effects of music therapy

• Attention modulation: Music helps an individual avoid negative emotions as it holds our attention and distracts us from any kind of negative feelings such as anxiety, fear, stress, and pain.
• Emotion modulation: Music has been scientifically proven to regulate the brain activity of regions of the brain that are associated with the initiation, maintenance, and termination of emotions.
• Cognition modulation: Music helps in various cognitive processes, including encoding, storing, and decoding musical information and events related to musical experiences.
• Behavior modulation: Tantrums and irrational actions can be mitigated to a certain extent. Habit correction has been observed in music therapy.
• Communication modulation: Music therapy promotes interaction among people, be it verbal or nonverbal. It gives one the freedom to express their emotions easily through music.