Music serves as a global language that can provoke deep emotional and mental reactions. In this literature review, we investigate the complex connection between music and the brain, covering its decoding by the nervous system and its therapeutic possibilities in different disorders. Music activates a varied network of brain areas and pathways, involving sensory-motor processing as well as cognitive, memory, and emotional aspects. Brain network oscillations induced by music happen in particular frequency ranges, and listening to favored music can facilitate access to these cognitive functions. Additionally, musical training can lead to both structural and functional alterations in the brain, and research has indicated its beneficial impacts on social connections, cognitive skills, and language comprehension. We will also cover how music therapy can be utilized to recondition damaged brain circuits in various conditions. Grasping how music influences the brain can create new pathways for music-centered therapies in healthcare, education, and wellness (1).
We might not be aware of it while enjoying a beloved song, but music engages various areas of the brain, as stated by Harvard Medical School neurologist and psychiatrist David Silbersweig, MD. These consist of:
The temporal lobe, which includes particular temporal gyri (protuberances on the lateral surface of the brain’s wrinkled exterior), assists in the processing of tone and pitch.The cerebellum, which aids in processing and managing rhythm, timing, and bodily movement. The amygdala and hippocampus, which are involved in emotions and memory. Different regions of the brain’s reward circuitry (2).
Specialists are working to comprehend how our brains are capable of hearing and creating music. A stereo system emits vibrations that move through the air and eventually enter the ear canal. These vibrations stimulate the eardrum and are converted into an electrical signal that moves through the auditory nerve to the brain stem, where it is reconstructed into something we recognize as music.
Researchers at Johns Hopkins have had numerous jazz musicians and rappers create music while reclining in an fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) machine to observe which regions of their brains activate (3).
Music is intricate; it encompasses pitch, timbre, rhythm, dynamics, and much more. Interpreting music is a significant challenge for the brain because it needs to “combine the ordered sequence of sounds into a unified musical understanding,” as stated in an article featured in the Journal of Biology. The cognitive functions required to combine distinct sounds into a comprehensive understanding of a song closely resemble the process the brain undertakes in reading, where it begins by identifying individual letters and sounds and then derives meaning from sentences and paragraphs. Working memory plays a role in both functions, and researchers think there is significant overlap between working memory for musical cues and for verbal cues.Feelings, naturally, improve recall. Many adults can remember every lyric of the songs they cherished in high school—mainly due to the intense emotions of adolescence. The repetition of those songs also contributes to this memory! Research indicates that engaging with music may enhance the efficiency of brain cells in processing information and may support the brain’s capacity to adapt. According to findings published in the journal Brain, stroke survivors who listened to music every day saw notable improvements in verbal memory and cognitive functions after two months compared to those who either listened to audiobooks or didn’t engage with music or audiobooks daily (4).
Research connecting music to memory recall has grown since the early 20th century, when it first began. Hearing specific music can instantly transport your thoughts back many years. In a prior blog entry we released, called “Studies Show Music Enhances Brain Activity in Alzheimer’s Patients,” we referenced the documentary Alive Inside, which documented how music revived patients with memory impairment. Neurologist Oliver Sacks stated, “Music stirs emotions, and emotions can trigger memories. … It restores the sensation of life when nothing else will.”
In a 2014 study involving 89 dementia patients, participants and their caregivers were randomly placed into a 10-week music listening coaching group, a 10-week singing coaching group, or standard care. The findings indicated that “in comparison to standard care, both singing and listening to music enhanced mood, orientation, and remote episodic memory, and to a lesser degree, also attention, executive function, and overall cognition.” Singing improved both short-term and working memory, along with caregiver well-being, while listening to music positively influenced quality of life (5).
Resources: 1.https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10765015/#:~:text=Music%20engages%20a%20diverse%20network,access%20to%20these%20brain%20functions.
2. https://hms.harvard.edu/news-events/publications-archive/brain/music-brain
3. https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/wellness-and-prevention/keep-your-brain-young-with-music
4. https://www.pfizer.com/news/articles/why_and_how_music_moves_us
5. https://www.thetabernaclechoir.org/articles/the-powerful-effect-of-music-on-the-brain.html?lang=eng
