The Effects Of Music On The Brain

Since the beginning of human history, we have sought out different forms of pleasure in order to relax and feel good. One of the earliest forms of pleasure that we have created and sought is the soothing and calming tones and rhythms of music. All around the world, in every culture, there are distinct forms of music that influence our daily lives and help us enjoy our day-to-day activities. But why are humans so interested in music? What makes us so drawn to it that we seek out music for a significant portion of our lives? Whether it is listening to music in the car on our way to work, listening to a portable music player while exercising, or even going out to see a musician live in concert, we all seek out music for various reasons. Not only used for pleasure, music can also be used in learning at all ages to help improve cognitive performance in many different forms as well. It’s all due to the interworking of the brain including all the different mechanisms and neurotransmitters that are responsible for our senses and cognitive when listening to music and causing us to seek it out on a daily basis.

One of the most influential and commonly sought reasons for music is that it gives us a pleasurable experience for about three or four minutes. But how does it do this? There are many different parts of the brain, neurotransmitters that are released and connections that are made, change, and work together to give us the feeling that we perceive as pleasure. Of these, one of the most well known neurotransmitter that is associated with pleasure is dopamine. One study that was conducted looked at the limbic system when people listened to pleasurable music and were said to get ‘chills’ (Habibi & Damasio, 2014). Results of this study showed that when the occurrence of chills increased, there was also a positive increase in regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) in the ventral striatum, orbitofrontal cortex, along with both the insular and anterior cingulate cortices (Habibi & Damasio, 2014).

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Included in their findings was a decrease in rCBF in the amygdala, hippocampus, and ventral medial prefrontal cortex (Habibi & Damasio, 2014). Their findings led to the conclusion that pleasurable music activates the dopaminergic reward system in the brain (Habibi & Damasio, 2014). In addition to the dopaminergic reward system, there have been six proposed mechanisms that produce emotion and pleasure for a person when listening to music that consist of episodic memories, visual imagery, emotional contagion, brain stem reflexes, and anticipation (Gebauer, Kringelbach, & Vuust, 2012). Of these, anticipation has been found to be the most important in perceiving pleasure because it directly links the various musical and psychological mechanisms in the brain (Gebauer et al., 2012).

The amygdala also plays a large role in perceiving music as pleasurable or not. One study described an investigation of the emotional effects of harmony expectancy violations and found that unexpected irregular chords in different types of music elicited a more unpleasant feeling than unexpected regular chords and that the unpleasant feeling was most associated with higher amygdala activity (Gebauer et al., 2012). This could mean that when we listen to music we enjoy, our amygdala isn’t as active because while pleasurable music does create a positive emotional response, music we don’t enjoy creates a stronger negative emotional response. The amygdala has also been seen to have a part in music processing as well. In a lesion study, the participant had previous damage to the left amygdala and showed selective loss of pleasurable experiences for music (Habibi & Damasio, 2014). This finding might indicate that the amygdala on either hemisphere is responsible for different emotions. In this case the results could show that the left hemisphere amygdala is more responsible for pleasurable emotions while the right hemisphere amygdala is more responsible for non-pleasurable emotions.

The implementation of music can also further induce emotions when paired with other congruent stimuli. This can best be represented in films. Typically, music that elicits a specific emotion is played in the background of a movie scene that is also supposed to elicit that same emotion and the viewers usually have a greater emotional response. In a study to test this, participants were first shown either sad or fearful images by themselves and then shown again along with congruent music accompanying them (Habibi & Damasio, 2014). Results showed greater activation in the amygdala, parahippocampal cortex, and hippocampus (Habibi & Damasio, 2014). This finding could indicate that because those regions were activated during congruent trials, participants were subconsciously remembering previous experiences with similar situations and experiences and therefore were reacting in a similar manner.

There are also different areas of the brain that are associated with music preference and personal judgment based on those preferences. There have been multiple studies conducted that have concluded that the orbitofrontal cortex, specifically the medial orbitofrontal cortex, in positive experiences that are associated with aesthetic judgments of preference of music (Brattico & Pearce, 2013). Studies have also concluded that the dopaminergic reward system is also activated by personally preferred music that one perceives as ‘beautiful’, specifically the dorsomedial midbrain nuclei (Brattico & Pearce, 2013).

The effects orbitofrontal cortex can also be seen in people with vastly different music tastes. The cortex is responsible for decision-making, and in this context, deciding whether or not one likes a certain type or style of music and how they will react to it. One genre of music that is wildly popular and likeable amongst its fans but is generally disliked by the more general population is Death Metal. This genre, characterized by fast paced tempos, drums, guitars, and low, guttural, growling vocals and often accompanied by explicit, vulgar, and gruesome lyrics is actually very calming and pleasing to the connoisseurs of this genre. In a study to figure out why some people like this style of music and some find it repulsive, participants were presented clips of death metal songs that were said to exemplify the genre (Thompson, Geeves, & Olsen, 2018). After listening to the clips, the participants reported the evoked emotions they felt (Thompson et al., 2018). Fans of the genre reported positive emotions consisting of strength, happiness, stress relief, and pleasure while some negative emotions elicited included fear and anger (Thompson et al., 2018).

This suggests the activation of the dopaminergic reward system along with the release of serotonin and dopamine itself. On the other hand, Non-fans reported generally negative emotions such as anger, distress, fear, and sadness while some positive emotions included curiosity and amusement (Thompson et al., 2018). This likely indicates there were elevated levels of cortisol as well as lowered levels of both serotonin and dopamine in the brains of the non-fans when listening to death metal. Also, these findings suggest the activation of the sympathetic nervous system, particularly the innate fight or flight response, and the release of both norepinephrine and epinephrine. These findings show the orbitofrontal cortex at work. In some people’s brains, they find pleasure and relaxation in fast and explicit music while others show signs of stress and sadness. It all has to do with preference of the individual.

Even though the main use of and reason for creation of music is for pleasure to the listener, it can also be used in other ways as well. Music is often used in schools as an effective method of learning. Teaching with music can come in many different forms, from learning languages, to memorizing certain things, and keeping pace. There are many different acquired skills one can achieve by using music, but in addition to acquired physical skills, it can also help with the development and wiring of the brain. It has been found that when looking at the brains of expert adult musicians, they show signs of benefits in different perceptual, cognitive, and motor tasks (Tervaniemi, 2017). A study was conducted to test the higher cognitive abilities of expert musicians, specifically in the genres of classical and rock (Tervaniemi, 2017). Results showed they had enhanced neural coding and greater response to different aspects of music such as mistuning, time keeping, and the contour of melody (Tervaniemi, 2017). These findings could indicate a more developed cerebral cortex, basal ganglia, and cerebellum, along with higher cortical surface area and better myelination of neurons.

Learning by music does not only help adults, but is very affective with children as well. Most schools use music in some form to help aid learning and cognitive ability in growing children, whether it is actually learning to play an instrument or just learning things such as the ABC’s with a song to help remember them. When tested, children who were taught musical lessons typically scored higher on IQ tests than children who were taught drama lessons, concluding that music helps improve and promote intellectual development (Misuraca, Miceli, & Teuscher, 2017). Additionally, learning with music has been shown to specifically improve visuospatial abilities along with reading, mathematics, and overall memory (Misuraca et al., 2017). These improvements in abilities coincide with a more developed right hemisphere dealing with visuosaptial abilities and left hemisphere dealing with reading and language. Further, there would be signs of a more advanced hippocampus in the brains of children who are taught with music.

There are countless different reasons why we listen to music in our everyday lives. Ranging from pure enjoyment, to enhancing emotion with some other type of media, therapeutic uses, and even learning and developing our brains, music is used all over the world. When we listen to music, our brains light up with activity to comprehend what we are hearing and deciding whether we like and enjoy it or not. If we do like what we are hearing, our brains flood with dopamine and can make music act like a drug that we become almost addicted to. During the array of activity our brains engage in when listening to music, many new connections are formed in the brain and can lead to better understanding of what we are listing to along with better functioning on many different tasks outside of music, such as memory, pace-keeping, neural encoding, and visuospatial abilities. Music is a vital part of our lives and helps us develop and grow in ways beyond what we would expect it to and we should continue to use it as a means of self-expression, pleasure, and learning.

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