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    Neuroscience and Music

    Uploaded by

    Andrea Roberto
    The document discusses how music affects the brain and cognitive functions, with music having its own specific area in the brain and interacting with functions like language, perception, memory, attention, emotion. It also explores how music can influence mood, motivation, and be used therapeutically to treat illnesses like anxiety and help with sleep.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    Neuroscience and Music

    Uploaded by

    Andrea Roberto
    10 views3 pages
    The document discusses how music affects the brain and cognitive functions, with music having its own specific area in the brain and interacting with functions like language, perception, memory, attention, emotion. It also explores how music can influence mood, motivation, and be used therapeutically to treat illnesses like anxiety and help with sleep.

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    Neuroscience and music

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    The document discusses how music affects the brain and cognitive functions, with music having its own specific area in the brain and interacting with functions like language, perception, memory, attention, emotion. It also explores how music can influence mood, motivation, and be used therapeutically to treat illnesses like anxiety and help with sleep.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    10 views3 pages

    Neuroscience and Music

    Uploaded by

    Andrea Roberto
    The document discusses how music affects the brain and cognitive functions, with music having its own specific area in the brain and interacting with functions like language, perception, memory, attention, emotion. It also explores how music can influence mood, motivation, and be used therapeutically to treat illnesses like anxiety and help with sleep.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    of 3

    Neuroscience and music

    It has been proved that listening to music affects the brain and the cognitive functions of it, that

    music influences a great part of our life and that music has an almost magic healing power and

    therefore it is used as a therapy to heal certain type of illnesses. Many studies have been

    conducted and their outcome is that music is strictly related to the mental functions. In addition,

    as the article “Cognitive Neuroscience of Music” by Petr Janata explains, “The organization of

    Music in the brain is associated with certain brain areas, in the same way that language functions

    are associated with other brain areas.” This means that music too enters in the category of the

    cognitive functions and has a specific area where it resides. We learn that cognitive functions are

    7 and they are: Language, perception, memory, action, attention, emotion and music. Having

    said that, we shall take into account that the organization of music data may interfere with all of

    the aforementioned functions or domains, but it clearly has separate neural substrates where it

    acts. Indeed, for example, there have been situations in which patients that suffered of a brain

    damage due to an accident lost their ability to speak (language function) but didn’t lose the

    ability of understanding and recognizing music; or again other instances where patients lost their

    ability to retain information (memory function) but didn’t lose the ability to remember a tune and

    just simply recognizing a series of notes. It is possible that music engages all of the cognitive

    functions altogether and this is the case of Music Performance. From a performer’s stand point

    where he/ she is actively involved in producing sounds and not just sitting around and passively

    listening, we learn that all the functions are called in and cooperate in their own different brain

    areas where they reside: attention to not commit mistakes, perception of sound, memory of the

    notes and musical ideas, language if there are lyrics, “covert action, such as mental imagery”

    (Cognitive Neuroscience of Music) by Petr Janata. Lastly and perhaps the most meaningful and
    essential side is emotions. Emotions are always involved when music is played or listened to

    since it is exactly the receipt of the musical message that is conveyed, stored and cause of

    feelings.

    Many researchers pointed out that music has a huge influence on our motivation, confidence and

    mental – physical health. For example, music serves as a stimulant in many instances: at the gym

    when we focus our energy on a specific part of the body , we get “pumped up” by the music in

    the background and the training quality enhances; again when we work with the laptop or do

    homework we may experience a lack of attention and listening to some music could recharge our

    focus; it serves as great aid when it comes to heal illnesses such as anxiety and depression.

    Relaxing tunes are capable of producing hormones and dopamine in the brain and therefore re

    establishing a certain balance and treating those pathologies. It has been documented that

    soothing classical music helps with the insomnia: this is the genesis of the Goldberg Variations

    by J.S.Bach. This piece was composed to please the dream of Count Kaiserling who, could not

    fall asleep for he had a high degree of insomnia. The legend says that bach composed this busy

    to put him to sleep and it worked. Of course this is more like a myth than documented, but it has

    been ascertained that music improves sleep quality.

    Classical music is recommended to be played for babies both in their sleep because it lullabies

    them and also, when they are active and awake, listening to music inspires them to develop

    cognitive functions as well as sharpens their senses, gaining more sensitivity and ultimately

    learning how to be more creative and how to proper listen to human beings.

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