Cognitive neuroscience of music



The cognitive neuroscience of music is the scientific study of brain-based mechanisms involved in the cognitive processes underlying music. Music has been a driving force in history.

Historical Context
Music can be powerfully influential on our mood and behavior. The great French dictator Napoleon once said that the person who makes and controls the music of a society is much more powerful than the administrators of the governmental laws. King George of England commissioned the great musician, Handel, to write soothing music for him because he had read in the Bible about Saul being calmed by David's harp and King George needed the same kind of remedy. The widely known mathematician and theoretician, Albert Einstein, was also a musician. He said himself if he did not go into mathematics he would have been a musician and how he thinks in music and sees his life in terms of music and how his greatest joy is his violin. His wife said that he would often play his violin during his work and it caused him to complete his work easily without as much strain. Another prominent historical figure, Thomas Jefferson, used the violin as well during some of his important work. The important work was writing the Declaration of Independence which is widely known that he was the founding father who drafted that historical piece of freedom. When he had trouble finding the correct or smoothly flowing arrangement of words he would go to his violin to straighten out his mind so he could write more competently. Music has shaped our history but how it did is the unanswerable question. Music must evoke chemical and physical changes in the brain in order to cause the accomplishments it did in these historical figures. There are many more individuals who are known as some of the best in their fields that find inspiration from music. There must be some chemical reaction in the brain that improves cognitive function and brings the clarity people have found in music.

Neurotransmitters
Chemicals have significant roles in the brain during periods of music listening. Dopamine, Serotonin, and Norepinephrine are organic molecules that serve as neurotransmitters. Dopamine is known as the "pleasure chemical" because it is produced during activities that make one feel good. Activities such as eating, exercising during sports, hiking or other enjoyable activities, it is also emotionally and mentally healthy to have dopamine released on a steady basis. Dopamine is produced in the brain, thus existing as a brain-based chemical. Serotonin is similar in the way of affecting mood. Norepinephrine is neurotransmitter that is a bodily stimulant such as stimulating heart rate, blood vessels, and sweat glands. Along with having the power to tell the brain to stimulate these functions, it can tell the brain not to stimulate these functions, perhaps if music is being listened to and is calming. The right amount of Norepinephrine can create a sense of well being and create a euphoric state in stressful times which, since music releases this chemical, individuals may listen to music to calm down in difficult situations. Scholars say that music is connected with our deepest reward systems, and it has many times been proved that music is incredibly important to humans but it has yet to be proven why.

Response Research


Many studies have been done to measure response in the brain to music. One such study was done by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology by several collaborating parties such as the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences and the McGovern Institute for Brain Research. Patients were put into Magnetic Resonance Imaging Machines so their responses in separate parts of the brain could be measured. The patients were exposed to many different and various sounds ranging from footsteps to car noises,city talking, acoustic tones, pitches and music. The digital charts displayed the reposes as separate components depending on where in the brain it happened and the selectivity. Four of six components did not stand out any more than what was already anticipated from other works. These four components were different everyday sounds and tones and the brain showed no selectivity toward them compare to the other two components. The two other components were speech and music. The brain showed a much greater selectivity toward music, this means it had a more intense response and more chemical reactions and release than the other sounds. Why music causes a much greater production of pleasure chemicals in the brain and chemical reactions is unknown. It is obvious, however, music hold an extreme importance in our brain and selectivity towards music trumps other sound responses.

Learning Research
Two methods of musical learning are used for academic or studious purposes. These include using orchestra type music for memorizing or studying. The other is actually playing the instrument which lead to increased cognitive function in other aspects of life such as speech distinction and calculative comprehension. Two studies, one of studying with music and one of playing the instrument are described below.

Learning by Listening
A study by the University of North Texas was performed on post graduate students to record how music affects memorization. Three test groups were given three tests, a pretest, a posttest, and then a test a week after the previous test. The tests dealt with memorizing vocabulary words. One group was just strictly read the words, another was read the words with Handel's Water Music (Classical style music written in England in early 1700's) in the background and then the last group was asked to visualize the words as they were read and also had Handel's Water Music in the background. The group, which had the words read with the music and were asked to visualize them performed much better than the other two groups. The conclusion revealed that music does not guarantee memorization but it does certainly improve it. The tempo of the music has an effect on how much it helps and whether it has lyrics or not is also significant. It is even better to have the same music that was used during memorization used during recalling of information.

Learning by Playing
It takes a great deal of talent and skill to learn how to play an instrument. This is no little known fact. Certain areas in the brain have to be improved and developed in order to become a better musician. A study was done to see if the areas of the brain developed or "awakened" in a way by music could help in other academic areas. A group called Harmony Project works with deprived kids who live in neighborhoods ravaged by substance abuse and violent crime. They provide instruments and free lessons to these children three days a week. They are forced to cram into office rooms and storage areas after hours but they have a passion to play music. Previous studies showed that underprivileged youth heard less words than others when they were under five years old. Their hearing became full of static and it became difficult for them to differentiate sounds. This is because their brain would make things up more or less to fill up the quiet emptiness which can be compared to static. In other words what they hear is blurry. Their audio system could not hear precise pitch, timing, or timbre well. A researcher came in and did a study of the kids going through Harmony Project. Already it had been seen that Harmony Project students had higher graduation rates than their neighbors in their low-income communities. However these were not tangible results. The kids in Harmony Project were part of a study that tracked their ability to capture the depth and richness of sounds. Data was taken from one group that only had one year of musical education over two years and then data was taken from a group that had musical lessons during that whole span (two years). Heat maps of brain waves displayed their neurophysiological distinction of consonants (sounds). The group with two years of musical improvement showed much faster development and simply more development in general. The conclusion of this study showed that the sharpness and precision of the students ability to audibly analyze speech (pitch tone and richness) was greatly improved although the background static mentioned earlier still remained. This was significant because it showed playing music improved the brain function. It helped students to relax and better understand academic concepts in school. This last point can not be directly proven, but one student said that when she did not understand a concept or was overwhelmed she would play the violin and that would help her with her work. This is very interesting because, as mentioned earlier, that is exactly what Albert Einstein did when he worked on a math problem, and also what Thomas Jefferson did when he needed to figure the flow of words when drafting the Declaration of Independence. Music has profound physical and chemical changes in the brain.

Video
A description of the differences between listening to music and playing music.

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