“Without music, life would be a mistake” ― Friedrich Nietzsche
Music plays a big role in my life and undoubtably also in that of others. Whether you play an instrument or just enjoy listening to music on a daily basis like me, music does all sorts of things to your brain. It can have an effect on activities in all brain structures associated with emotions. Although it is worth noting that there are also people with an inability to feel pleasure in response to music. This is called “specific musical anhedonia” (1).
There seems to be an emphasis on the right hemisphere of the brain when listening to music (2). But of course the function of the brain isn’t that black and white, and we can’t just divide the brain into separate sections, each responsible for only one thing like music, language, emotions, …. There is no single brain area that can be regarded as exclusively dedicated to music (3). It’s much more complex than that and I’m sure there’s still a lot more to discover about the human brain.
The brain also doesn’t stay the same throughout the years. The term “neuroplasticity” is used to describe the adaptive capacity of the central nervous system. Neurons and other brain cells are able to change their structure and function in response to a variety of internal and external pressures (4). On top of that, the brain of a musician is organised differently than the brain of a non-musician.
Music is an effective tool to moderate emotional states. People tend to use music to improve their mood, to relax, for distraction and to improve motivation. Just as music can evoke emotions, emotions influence what kind of music a person wants to listen to. When I feel sad I tend to listen to sad-sounding music because that matches with how I feel. But some people might want to listen to happy sounding music when they feel sad in an attempt to improve their mood. Listening to music from a preferred genre can reduce anxiety levels and the familiarity of a music piece can play an important role in the emotional response. Self-selected music can induce more intense emotions than unfamiliar music. Other factors that play a role in the way we experience musically induced emotions are age and context. Professional musicians, for example, experience these musically induced emotions more intensely than non-musicians (5).
Music can also be used as therapy for multiple purposes. Research shows that music can improve mood disorders and has positive effects on patients with depression or dementia (6). In addition, music is also associated with social bonding (1).
So far my little exploration of this topic about music and the brain. I hope I haven't bored you to death, but I really enjoyed browsing through various scientific articles to find out more about this topic. Maybe I'll write some similar blog posts in the future...
References:
(1) Koelsch S. (2018). Investigating the Neural Encoding of Emotion with Music. Neuron, 98 (6), 1075–1079. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2018.04.029
(2) Mula, M., & Trimble, M. R. (2009). Music and madness: neuropsychiatric aspects of music. Clinical medicine (London, England), 9 (1), 83–86. https://doi.org/10.7861/clinmedicine.9-1-83
(3) Warren J. (2008). How does the brain process music?. Clinical medicine (London, England), 8 (1), 32–36. https://doi.org/10.7861/clinmedicine.8-1-32
(4) Wilson, S.J. (2013). Benefits of Music for the brain.
(5) Swaminathan, S., & Schellenberg, E. G. (2015). Current Emotion Research in Music Psychology. Emotion Review, 7 (2), 189–197. https://doi.org/10.1177/1754073914558282
(6) Trimble, M., & Hesdorffer, D. (2017). Music and the brain: the neuroscience of music and musical appreciation. BJPsych international, 14 (2), 28–31. https://doi.org/10.1192/s2056474000001720
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