We all naturally react to a beat, and we also learn to associate certain sounds with strong emotions. But why?
Put a great rhythm with a piece of music you know well, which has strong associations for you and it becomes a sound that can trigger surprisingly intense feelings. By scanning peoples brains, scientists discovered that a favorite piece of music can activate the pleasure centers as much as food or sex!
“I think music in itself is healing. It’s an explosive expression of humanity. It’s something we are all touched by. No matter what culture we’re from, everyone loves music.” —Billy Joel
Sounds have a startling effect on us. Music has been scientifically proven to have a powerful effect on the brain. It can help with pain reduction, stress relief, memory, and even brain injuries. I for one can testify for 2/4 of those. Researchers believe that music helps with pain because it triggers the release of opioids, which are our bodies natural pain relievers. Music isn't going to cure anything, but it definitely can play a therapeutic role.
Your associations with music involve many different parts of the brain, and they're very strong. In some cases, you might not even like the particular song, but you like the memories or feelings that you associate with it. In my case, I hate when a good song is ruined because it reminds me of someone I may not like or talk to anymore.
Amazingly, music activates every known part of the brain. Listening to and playing music can make you smarter, happier, healthier, and more productive. In order to prove this, scientists looked at the brains of professional musicians. They have bigger, better connected, and more sensitive brains. Even though we aren't all musicians, we still listen to a lot of music, enough for it to have an effect on our brains as well. I am definitely no musician, but music impacts me every single day.
I'm sure all of you already know this, but listening to upbeat music can improve your mood. Listening to and playing music reduces the stress hormone in our brain called cortisol. You may be wondering why we tend to listen to sad music when we are sad. Listening to sad music can help you get in touch with your emotions to help you heal. This is very good news for me because I always feel like an idiot when I do that. Interestingly enough, music releases the same brain chemical responsible for the feel-good states obtained from eating chocolate. The chemical is called dopamine, the brains motivation molecule and part of the pleasure-reward system. Something you may want to keep in mind: you can further increase dopamine by listening to a playlist on shuffle. This is because when one of your favorite songs unexpectedly comes up, it triggers a small dopamine boost.
Music can even make you more productive and creative. This is especially true if you can choose your own music. Background music enhances performance on cognitive tasks and improves accuracy. When surgeons listened to music while operating, they were less stressed out and worked faster and more accurately. Music can help people perform better in high pressure situations. For you athletes: listening to upbeat music before a game can keep you from choking under pressure.
But what kind of music is best? Research confirms that the best type of music to increase focus and productivity should be music you enjoy!