How Can Music Affect The Brain? Research Papers Examples

Abstract

The paper aims to discuss the main effects of the listening to music and playing music on the human brain. The author describes the classic and contemporary researches regarding this question and analyzes them from his point of view. The paper concludes that the positive effects of music on the human brain remain undisputed; although the full mechanism of how music affects the human brain remains unclear. Author also states that this question can potentially be considered as the perspective field of further researches in neurology and the whole neuroscience, in general.
It goes without saying that the sounds a human hears might potentially affect his mood, his energy status, his ability to work or think etc. Moreover, some sounds appealing to a human’s ear can enhance his ability to study and work, his ability to think more effectively and creatively; on the contrary, the unpleasant sounds may not only distract a human from something important, but also may have some negative psychological and physical effect, starting with depression and up to frustration and anger. Specifically, some music as a combination of sounds may cause all of the aforementioned effects, as the music that people like or dislike will most probably have some positive or negative psychological effect respectively. Although, the researchers have taken their time discussing and studying what exactly is the effect of music, especially how does the music affect the human brain. There have been various researches regarding this question and a couple of them will be discussed in the next paragraphs.
For example, the researchers from Stanford University School of Medicine have experimentally proved the fact that the music enhances the listener’s attention, his ability to make predictions and his memory, as well. As they have studied the brains’ reactions of the people listening to a symphony, they have achieved a clear picture of how brain reacts to it. Thus, they have registered the fact that the music affected the brain’s areas that are responsible for the memory and attention. Moreover, they have not only studied the music’s effect on the brain, but they have received a clear vision of how the brain recognizes and operates the complicated information data. It does not need to be music, but any complex information that the brain needs to divide on segments and analyze them afterwards.
According to them, the results of their researches update the ones dedicated to the brain’s anticipation, which can be considered as the key factor in the listening experience. It does not matter, whether a person is a musician or a listener, every human brain tends to make predictions of what is going to be next, while listening to some music. For example, the reactions of the brain that guesses what it is going to hear the next second and of the same brain that hears a completely unexpected sound is dramatically different.
Furthermore, the music is considered to have outstanding effects on younger and even developing brains. For example, the study of 1993 claimed that the students showed better results on their tests right after listening to sonatas of Mozart . This research resulted in assumption that listening to Mozart’s compositions enhances a person’s IQ, not mentioning the variety of positive effects on the brain. Although, the scientists doubt that simply listening to music can make people smarter without any additional efforts. For example the scientists accept the fact that learning to play musical instrument and learning compose music can actually enhance some parts of the brain that are responsible for various tasks that are indirectly applicable to playing and composing music. Ani Patel, an associate professor of psychology at Tufts University confirms that and also states that the effect of music on the human brain is not studied properly yet and remains one of the most perspective and challenging fields of neuroscience .
The current results in researches from the neurological aspect describe the motor and emotional effects of music, which can heal the needed patients. Moreover, the music can enhance the human memory to the state, when music is repeatedly being plain in human mind, which can be called the musical imaginary. This effect used to be associated with the mental imaginary and visual imaginary; however, the researches have proved the fact that the brain’s reaction in musical imaginary is dramatically different. This reaction and the persistence of musical imaginary are usually described in the next way. As the music is already completed piece by piece, it is much easier for the brain to memorize it and keep on playing it again and again. The difference with the visual imaginaries is that the visual imaginaries are built individually and from different visuals that are important for the human brain .
Thus, summarizing everything that was mentioned above, it should be stated that the effect of music on the human brain is too complicated to describe it precisely and profoundly. As the variety of different positive effects on the human brain is being continuously studied and researched, it is clear that the music neurology and psychology will undergo the dramatic changes in due time. As for the healing effects of music, the developing effects of music, especially for the younger brains, they tend to appear from one case to another. Moreover, learning to play music will definitely make each person’s brain more developed from the analytical and creative sides at the same time. In addition, playing, composing and simple listening to favorite music remains one of the favorite methods of relaxation till nowadays.

Works Cited

Baker, Mitzi. Music moves brain to pay attention, Stanford study finds. 01 08 2007. 24 03 2015 <http://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2007/07/music-moves-brain-to-pay-attention-stanford-study-finds.html>.
Frances H. Rauscher, Gordon L. Shaw* & Catherine N. KY. "Music and spatial task performance." Nature 1993 10 14.
Hicks, George. How Playing Music Affects The Developing Brain. 17 07 2014. 24 03 2015 <http://commonhealth.wbur.org/2014/07/music-language-brain>.
Sacks, Oliver. "The power of music." Brain 25 09 2006: 2528-2532.