5 Reasons Why Listening to Music is Good for the Brain
If there were one image you’d use to describe how music makes you feel, what would it be?
For me, this image represents how music makes me feel.
Whenever I listen to music, whether it’s slow and acoustic or upbeat and party-like, it’s as if I’m reaching the clouds and touching the sky.
I can always imagine myself in the middle of nowhere, dancing and laughing and spinning around with either myself or a fictional significant other, almost as if I’m in a movie.
A little weird, I know, but that’s the power of music.
Music isn’t something we simply listen to; it’s a universal language of emotion that enters our soul without limitations.
We often feel we have nobody to talk with in difficult or happy times. So we turn to music, which can imitate emotions we want to feel.
Music also activates more parts of our brain than any other human function,. This brings us to the question: how exactly is music good for the brain?
1. Music Triggers Dopamine
Let’s begin with the most obvious reason by remembering how music immediately puts a smile on our face, and how we start tapping our feet to the beat.
A recent study found the following:
Dopamine — a neurotransmitter that plays an important role in our cognitive, emotional, and behavioural functioning — plays a direct role in the reward experience induced by music.
So how exactly does dopamine play a direct role in pleasurable experiences such as listening to music?
Dopamine — a brain-generated neurotransmitter — behaves as a chemical messenger between neurons, and it releases when our brain is expecting some reward.
The right amount of dopamine puts us in a good mood, explaining why we feel happy, motivated, and focused.
Enjoying a piece of music, deriving pleasure from it, wanting to listen to it again, being willing to spend money for it strongly depend on the dopamine released in our synapses.
2. Music is Healthy
Besides exercising and eating right, music benefits our health as it improves our mood and leads us to sleep better.
When we’re listening to music, serotonin and endorphin levels increase in our blood. Music also calms our bodies, helping to reduce stress and enhancing immunity function.
To read more about how to boost your immunity, check out my article “5 Great Ways to Boost your Immunity.”
Let’s come back to our feel-good neurotransmitter. Music also boosts our brain’s production of dopamine, which helps to relieve anxiety!
Maybe it’s time to change the classic saying, “Laughter is the best medicine” to “music is the best medicine,” don’t you think?
3. Music Improves Memory
It’s true; a recent study has shown how classical music improves the memory of Alzheimer’s patients.
How often do you associate music with a specific emotion, and your mind floods with memories related with that emotion?
Neurologist Oliver Sacks says, “Music evokes emotion, and emotion can bring with it memory… it brings back the feeling of life when nothing else can.”
When we pair music with daily activities, we develop a rhythm, that helps to remember that activity.
I would often watch a specific Bollywood movie when I was about four years old, called Aitraaz, back in India. It used to be my favourite movie, and I loved its soundtracks.
Since I was very little then, I didn’t recall much about my experiences with the movie and its songs.
Yet every time I listened to the film’s songs, I felt a familiar emotion that I most likely felt when I was four. I still feel that emotion today.
I would remember a carefree little girl sitting in front of her living room TV, staring at the music videos that she’s seen a hundred times but still loves.
4. Music Increases Focus
How many times has someone told you that you shouldn’t listen to music while studying?
Even though this reason might not apply to those who’re easily distracted, music increases focus for those who seek a tool to study or work effectively.
According to a 2007 study from the Stanford University School of Medicine, music — classical music, specifically — can help your brain absorb and interpret new information more easily.
Although listening to music can’t help us solve a math problem or memorize chemical formulas, it puts us in a good mood. It motivates us to study, resulting in good learning outcomes (i.e., completing an assignment, taking notes).
5. Music Affects How Our Brain Responds
When I listen to music, I tend to pay close attention to the lyrics to process the meaning behind them. A wave of emotions run through me, and something tugs at my heartstrings.
This happens because of the way our brain responds to different types of music.
One study showed that after hearing a short piece of music, participants were more likely to interpret a neutral expression as happy or sad to match the tone of the music they heard.
What’s also interesting is how music affects our emotions.
We often find sad music pleasurable and not depressing, and we wonder how such heartfelt songs can be so powerful.
This is because we can understand or perceive the emotions behind music without actually feeling or experiencing them in our lives.
I’m listening to music as I write this, and this is the fastest that I’ve written a Medium article so far.
Music goes a long way in our lives, which is why it plays a significant role in our lives, whether it’s making us happy or taking us down memory lane.
