How Music Affects the Brain

Links to the sites are in buzz.

"How Music Genres Affect the Brain" by itissaraglows
   The article made me wonder about the effect of music on the brain. I had to narrow it down from just music and this caught my interest. The article talked about how music is broken down for your brain and which parts of your brain control what you feel. It speaks about how the genres have generalized effects on people. Rap, pop, country all seem to make the listener get up and dance or sing with the music, causing your blood to start pumping. It also claims that metal tends to help with coping, depression, and stress. Classical music helps the brain focus and stay calm and is recommended for studying. However, people have different tastes and reactions to music so it can affect them the opposite way.

"How Does Music Affect Your Brain?" by Ashford
   I was instantly hooked by this piece of writing because it goes into even more depth on the subject. Not only is music beneficial to the listener but it also helps the musician. According to the article musicians tend to have better "memory, learning, and auditory processing." Music releases dopamine in your brain when you listen to it. The dopamine is what causes you to feel relief and "we feel rewarded." It helps with feeling more energized and focused. Some music can distract you like pop and rock according to the article.

"'The Power Of Music' To Affect The Brain" by NPR
   The most interesting element of this writing is how music can benefit a person's health. The article states that listening to music can help your overall health. It is used to help people that suffer from strokes and lose their verbal communication abilities. It is also used to help with Parkinson's Disease and Alzheimer's patients as it helps with a person's memory. A pregnant women's fetus also has reactions based on how the mother feels about a piece of music. When the mother feels stressed by the music the fetus' heart rate increases. The same is true of the opposite when the music is soothing the fetus' heart rate lowers.

"Music and health" by Harvard
   Because of this article, I would like to continue to read about the effects of music on someone's health. As it turns out according to the article music has a very profound effect on human health. Beyond the effect that it has on mood and stress, it has great properties. It was proven to help men and women over time keep balance and fall less often, 54% less often. This helps older people as falls can be more dangerous for them. It is also proven that listening to music increases the effect of anesthetic on patents. Also, it tends to also improve recovery from stokes and it reduces the risk of cardiac, heart, problems. People that do not attend or rarely attend concerts also are 1.57 times more likely to die than those that attend often.

"The psychological functions of music listening" by Thomas Schäfer, Peter Sedlmeier, Christine Städtler, and David Huron
   I was instantly hooked by this piece of writing because it is once more talking in-depth about the power of music. This article starts by talking about why we listen to music. It says that music is a social and bonding experience. We as humans are social so this is one of the reasons that music is so popular. Going further in-depth the article states that, "...previous research appears to converge on four dimensions: social functions (such as the expression of one's identity or personality), emotional functions (such as the induction of positive feelings), cognitive or self-related functions (such as escapism), and arousal-related functions (such as calming down or passing time). These four dimensions might well account for the basic ways in which people use music in their daily lives." These are the reason that we listen to the music that we do.

- words and phrases that stick out to you as particularly expressive or interesting. (think mentor sentences)
- What piece of writing does the article inspire you to write?
- What questions does the article raise?
- What claims can you make after reading the article?

Article 1
-"De-stress and heal with soothing music", "Memory recall linked to the Mozart Effect", "Anti-anxiety", "Helps with fatigue and boredom", "Improve your mood"
- This inspires me to write on how music affects mood and daily life.
- Why does music have such a profound effect?
- Music is good for your mental health.

Article 2
-"there's evidence that music can even be good for your health", "musicians often experience improvement in brain functions like: Auditory processing, Learning, Memory", "Classical: enhances dopamine secretion & synaptic function, learning, & memory"
- This piece makes me want to write about how different genres have different effects on the brain.
- Why does music affect people differently?
- The genre of music you listen to has a large effect on how you feel.

Article 3
- "cries of babies just a few weeks old were found to contain some of the basic intervals common to Western music.", "A stroke patient who has lost verbal function — those verbal functions may be stimulated by music", "mother hears music — if she has headphones on, and it is music that she finds soothing — the baby's heart rate lowers"
- This makes me want to write about how music affects babies
- Why does the fetus react according to how the mother feels?
- Even babies and the unborn are affected by the power of music

Article 4
- "Almost as soon as the music began, the patients who were listening showed a drop in their heart rates, breathing rates, and their hearts' oxygen demands.", "these studies suggest that music may help the heart and circulation as well as the brain and mind", "The investigators speculate that music may stimulate specific regions of the brain, causing favorable changes in hormone levels or immune function"
- This makes me want to write about the medical implications of music
- Why does the brain react this way to music?
- Music can increase your physical as well as your mental health.

Article 5
- "The enthusiasm for music is not a recent development.", "work and war songs, lullabies, and national anthems have bound together families, groups, or whole nations", "Using factor analysis, she found 10 underlying dimensions: emotion, friends, family, venting, background, dancing, focus, values, politic, and culture."
- This makes me want to write about why we like and listen to music
- Why did music become so engrained in our society?
- There is music fits everyone so all can gain benefits from it as it brings us closer together.

Do you have a favorite genre of music? Why is that your favorite, and is it related to any of the examples you've provided here about how music effects the brain?
You could probably write an entire article about the history of music, and the ways that it became ingrained into cultures all over the world.

I think it's really wild that listening to music makes you healthier! How do the different genres of music make you feel? I think it would be interesting if you wrote about how each genre affects you personally and if it is similar to the general consensus. Great job with your research and writing!

So as an idea that comes to me is that one could play music alongside imagery that matches what thing music is trying to convey, say like happiness or sadness, these feelings they want the listener/viewer to feel be further enhanced.

All of this information about music and how it affects our health is really interesting. I wonder, if a person had to listen to a genre they disliked if it would negatively affect their health.