In part I of this series of blog posts on music and health (Music Art Entertainment and Medicine Part I Sound and Music), we looked into how sound and music work. In this blog post, we will look further into how music affects us.
The rhythm of the music triggers the areas of the brain that control movement and our body naturally match this beat in what is known as entrainment. In biomusicology (the study of music from a biological point of view), entrainment refers to the synchronization of organisms to an external rhythm. An example is when we tap our foot to a rhythm or walk in time to a beat. Not only does the music affect our muscles and movement, but it also influences our heart rate, respiration rate, and blood pressure. It also has a psychogalvanic effect (pertaining to or involving changes in the electrical properties of the skin caused by mental or emotional stimuli).
It is the tempo or pace of the song, measured in beats per minute (bpm), that has great affect on our heart and breathing rate. Lively music stimulates the brain and increases heart and breathing rate and blood pressure while slow music subsequently slows brain waves and heart and breathing rates and reduces blood pressure. The decreased blood pressure helps in relaxation. In some cases, the speed and flow of the lyrics have greater influence on the energy the music provides than the underlying beat.
Songs that are livelier with higher bpm help energize us during exercise, and can help reduce or delay fatigue by competing for our brain’s attention. This pulls our brain’s attention away from the fatigue or muscle pain. This only works for light or moderate exercise. Music usually isn’t enough to override the increased signals of fatigue and pain during high intensity exercises. Listening to music while exercising also increases muscular endurance and efficiency. We tend to use less oxygen when exercising while listening to music than if we had exercised in silence.
Upbeat music helps lift our mood and “easy listening” music, such as classical music of only 60 bpm, can help relax us. Listening to music causes a release of dopamine, serotonin, and oxytocin. These act as neurotransmitters in the body. Dopamine helps regulate movement and emotional responses and helps control the brain’s reward and pleasure centres; serotonin plays a role in transmitting impulses between nerve cells and maintaining mood balance; and oxytocin plays a role in aiding reproductive functions, but also exerts multiple psychological effects. Oxytocin also influences social behaviour and emotion and may influence romantic attachment and empathy. Music also decreases the amount of cortisol, a stress-related hormone produced by the body in response to stress, in the body. The effect of music on our brain and the chemicals it releases means it can play a large role in helping to regulate our mood, bring pleasure, increase happiness, and reduce stress and anxiety.
Not only does music provide a distraction and motivation during exercise, it can help reduce one’s perception of pain and help reduce chronic pain from conditions such as osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, disc problems, and depression. In some cases, listening to music has been shown to be more effective than some pain medication. Relaxing music reduces sympathetic nervous system activity. Along with its effect on decreasing heart and respiration rate and muscle relaxation, it can help improve sleep. Both listening to and playing music also improves the body’s immune system by increasing the production of immunoglobulin A and natural killer cells, which play a key role in the immune system.
Music activates many areas of the brain and forces the brain to use multiple levels of thinking simultaneously. We don’t often consciously analyze the music, but when listening to it the brain is forced to listen to the sound, perceive and analyze the tones, and interpret any lyrics. This analysis often happens subconsciously. Processing the musical pulse activates motor areas in the brain, which are responsible for dancing, and foot tapping. Playing an instrument utilizes even more areas of the brain as it processes tactile and visual information.
The employment of large-scale neural networks when listening to and playing music make it an exercise for the brain. Music training has been shown to improve concentration and alertness, reading and literacy skills, spatial-temporal reasoning, mathematical abilities, emotional intelligence, visual and language processing, information recall (memory), and creativity. Early music training has been shown to encourage brain plasticity (the brain’s capacity to change and grow), but listening to relaxing music has been shown to improve concentration in all age groups, from infants to seniors, and ability levels, and even a half-hour music lesson can increase blood flow in the left hemisphere of the brain.
Music’s ability to stimulate memory (second only to smell) helps in tapping into memories and recalling events and information. The structure of music makes it an effective mnemonic device and easy tool for teaching concepts, ideas, and information, such as how many people learn their “ABCs” through song. By “tagging” the information, it makes it easy to recall later. The effect of music on memory helps in improving it and protecting against memory problems. Listening to music or playing an instrument can impact brain health and function in people of all ages.
Even sad music can bring a sense of comfort and pleasure. It can provide a cathartic effect, and give feelings of comfort when experiencing loss or going through a rough time. For others, sad music can still bring pleasure since it provides a sort of ambivalent emotion, much like how we may perceive the sadness or struggle of a character in a story without feeling the intensity of the emotion. While the music may be perceived as sad or tragic (known as perceived emotion), the listener may feel less sad, and more relaxed, or even romantic (known as felt emotion).
However, while there are a variety of styles and traditions for creating music, and listening to most types of music, from pop and rock to classical and jazz, has been shown to provide benefits, we still need to be cautious of the music we listen to. It is easy to forget that music not only has the ability to soothe us and uplift our spirits, but to disquiet and disturb us, and increase feelings of anxiety and aggression. Music itself usually does not directly cause violence, but explicit or violent music and lyrics can increase aggressive thoughts, feelings, and behaviours. It can desensitize the listener to violence and can play a role in creating an overall negative, hate-filled view of the world. Certain people, particularly adolescents, may be particularly vulnerable. Sad music, though cathartic for some, can increase anxiety and cause feelings of profound grief in others.
This doesn’t mean we stop listening to music, because music will always play an integral role in our cultures and lives, but it does mean that we need to select songs wisely, and be aware of the influence they have on us. Music has the ability to enhance all moods, whether positive or negative, so we want to choose music that helps improve our overall health and wellbeing. Knowing why we are listening to a particular song and what we hope to gain from it can help in making better song choices.
For instance, if you chose to listen to a sad song, you can ask yourself whether you are listening to it to feel a sense of comfort, or to increase the intensity of your negative emotion. Our moods also influence how we perceive others, particularly how we interpret facial expressions. Happy music can make you perceive other’s faces as happier, while sad music can make you perceive them as sadder. This means that we might project the moods of the music we are listening to onto other people, which in turn can influence our behaviour. The mood of different music can also influence how we perceive certain events, situations, environments, and activities.
Not all music affects us the same way. Some pop and rock music, rather than energize us, can make us feel jittery, and music that it too loud, or jarring can compete for our attention, distract us, and impair thinking. We need to listen to a variety of music, and select those that help improve our state of mind, and help give us what we need at the time, whether it is increased energy, relaxation, or improved concentration.
Ambient or moderate background noise levels increase processing difficulty. Contrary to what we might assume, this increased difficulty can help us by promoting abstract processing and leading to more creative approaches. For some people, music can serve as background or environment and help use regain our focus and concentrate on work. This only works when the music is kept at moderate levels, and it is usually recommended to avoid songs with vocals, since they can vie for your attention, or make you more likely to remember the words of the song rather than what you are studying or working on. Music can also be a distraction while driving depending on the chosen music. Studies have shown that drivers tend to drive more aggressively when listening to their choice of music, and that uninteresting music may be better for safe driving.
Music can be a solo activity or experience, or it can be a social one. Singing together, such as in the case of choirs, can cause heart rates to synchronize, and can create a feeling of connection. Music itself can act as a sort of companion if we are feeling lonely or hurt, but it can also offer a more engaging and interesting form of interaction with others, whether we play in a band or in music class; listen to live performances at concerts, theatres or restaurants; or discuss it with others. For those with impaired social skills, music can help them express their emotions and communicate with others.
In the next blog post, we will look into how music has been implemented as a medicine in the form of music therapy.
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