How Music Affects Your Brain
Music is fun, but did you know it can improve your health? Scientific studies have found that music can benefit mental, cognitive, and even physical health, improving your overall happiness and wellbeing. This article will discuss several benefits music can provide and how they can impact your life.
Academics
One way that music can be academically beneficial is by boosting auditory processing, or the ability to understand what you hear (Musacchia 2007). This allows students to understand lessons quicker. Additionally, because musicians strengthen neural pathways by learning and practicing their instruments, the areas of their brain involved in auditory, visual, and motor functions become greater in size than those of non-musicians (Schlaug 2008). This means that they use these areas of their brains more often and thus have an easier time making connections within them.
These academic benefits become evident in grades and test scores. In a study conducted by Tim Gill, in which he reviewed data from Key Stage 4 (KS4) exams in England and compared it to participation in music programs, it was found that there is a significant positive correlation between involvement in music and students’ KS4 test scores (Gill 2020). The educational benefits of music are undeniable.
Mental Health
Listening to music has been shown to help with stress by decreasing levels of cortisol, the stress hormone, and increasing levels of oxytocin, the love hormone (Akimoto et al.). Therefore, it can ease your mind and promote positive emotions.
Cognitive and Physical Health
Additionally, music can delay cognitive decline and the onset of dementia (Wu et al.). This way, music can help you to stay sharp for longer and enjoy more of your life. Music can also improve your physical health, because leisure activities–which are any voluntary, enjoyable non-work activities–have been useful in the prevention, management, and treatment of mental and physical illness (Fancourt et al.). It can keep you healthy to spend time with your loved ones.
In all of these ways, music can improve mental, cognitive, and physical wellbeing. Thus, it can improve your performance in all aspects of your life, from your work to your social life. Engaging with music is an excellent way to become a happier, healthier person!
Learning creative skills like playing a musical instrument is more important than ever because AI cannot replicate the creativity of a musician. The nuances and unique ideas generated by humans and enhanced by music will not be replaced by it. You can read more about ways to engage with music at www.music-advocacy.com, a website created by the K.C. Strings Master Luthier, Anton Krutz.
Works Cited:
Academics
One way that music can be academically beneficial is by boosting auditory processing, or the ability to understand what you hear (Musacchia 2007). This allows students to understand lessons quicker. Additionally, because musicians strengthen neural pathways by learning and practicing their instruments, the areas of their brain involved in auditory, visual, and motor functions become greater in size than those of non-musicians (Schlaug 2008). This means that they use these areas of their brains more often and thus have an easier time making connections within them.
These academic benefits become evident in grades and test scores. In a study conducted by Tim Gill, in which he reviewed data from Key Stage 4 (KS4) exams in England and compared it to participation in music programs, it was found that there is a significant positive correlation between involvement in music and students’ KS4 test scores (Gill 2020). The educational benefits of music are undeniable.
Mental Health
Listening to music has been shown to help with stress by decreasing levels of cortisol, the stress hormone, and increasing levels of oxytocin, the love hormone (Akimoto et al.). Therefore, it can ease your mind and promote positive emotions.
Cognitive and Physical Health
Additionally, music can delay cognitive decline and the onset of dementia (Wu et al.). This way, music can help you to stay sharp for longer and enjoy more of your life. Music can also improve your physical health, because leisure activities–which are any voluntary, enjoyable non-work activities–have been useful in the prevention, management, and treatment of mental and physical illness (Fancourt et al.). It can keep you healthy to spend time with your loved ones.
In all of these ways, music can improve mental, cognitive, and physical wellbeing. Thus, it can improve your performance in all aspects of your life, from your work to your social life. Engaging with music is an excellent way to become a happier, healthier person!
Learning creative skills like playing a musical instrument is more important than ever because AI cannot replicate the creativity of a musician. The nuances and unique ideas generated by humans and enhanced by music will not be replaced by it. You can read more about ways to engage with music at www.music-advocacy.com, a website created by the K.C. Strings Master Luthier, Anton Krutz.
Works Cited:
- Akimoto, Kaho, et al. "Effect of 528 Hz Music on the Endocrine System and Autonomic Nervous System." Health, vol. 10, no. 9, 2018, pp. 1-10.
- Gill, T. (2020). The relationship between taking a formal music qualification and overall attainment at Key Stage 4. Cambridge Assessment Research Report. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Assessment.
- Fancourt, Daisy, et al. "How Leisure Activities Affect Health: A Narrative Review and Multi-Level Theoretical Framework of Mechanisms of Action." The Lancet Psychiatry, vol. 8, no. 4, 2021, pp. 329-339.
- Wu, Yu-Tzu, et al. "Lifestyle Factors, Cognitive Reserve, and Cognitive Function: Results from the Cognitive Function and Ageing Study Wales, a Population-Based Cohort." The Lancet, vol. 388, 2016, pp. 114-115.
- Musacchia, G., Sams, M., Skoe, E., and Kraus, N. (2007). Musicians have enhanced subcortical auditory and audiovisual processing of speech and music. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, vol. 104, no. 40, pp. 15894-15898. 1 doi: 10.1073/pnas.0701498104
- Schlaug, Gottfried. "'Music, Musicians, and Brain Plasticity.'" In The Oxford Handbook of Music Psychology, edited by Susan Hallam, Ian Cross, and Michael H. Thaut, Oxford University Press, 2008, https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199298457.013.0018 (accessed November 15, 2024).