It’s easy to see how music can affect your mental health; all you need is the right song on the radio to lift your mood – or a bit of Justin Bieber to send you into an unholy rage. However, according to wellness expert Molly Edmonds, scientists have now proven how music affects your emotional wellbeing and, as a result, your physical health. Edmonds notes, ‘While music may seem like an impossible subject to study, if only because we all prefer different types, researchers are starting to determine just how ingrained into our biology the processing of music might be.
Even babies enter the world with an ability to determine between different types of music. Understanding the link between a song we’re hearing and how our body reacts to it could have enormous implications for treating disease and brain disorders such as depression.’
Edmonds points out, ‘Music activates so many parts of our brain that it’s impossible to say that we have a centre for music the way we do for other tasks and subjects, such as language. When we hear a song, our frontal lobe and temporal lobe begin processing the sounds, with different brain cells working to decipher things like rhythm, pitch and melody. Many researchers believe that most of this action happens in the right hemisphere, though others say reducing music to a right brained or left brained activity isn’t possible.
Regardless of where the brain activity takes place, it does seem to differ based on a whole host of factors, including how much experience with music the person has, whether he or she is hearing live or recorded music and whether or not the music has lyrics.’
What difference do lyrics make? ‘If the song has lyrics, then the parts of the brain that process language, Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas, kick into gear,’ Edmonds explains. ‘Researchers have found that songs can activate our visual cortex, perhaps because our brain tries to construct a visual image of the changes in pitch and tone. Songs can trigger neurons in the motor cortex, leading you to tap your foot and boogie. Your cerebellum gets into the act, trying to figure out where a piece of music will go next, based on all the other songs it’s heard before.
Hearing a piece of music is also tied to memories: If this is the song that was playing during a first kiss, then the medial prefrontal cortex, where memory is stored, lights up. Since this is one of the last brain areas to fall prey to the ravages of Alzheimer’s disease, researchers have found that people with the condition can remember songs from long ago, even when they can’t remember what they did yesterday.’
But how does this link to your wellbeing? ‘Knowing that music has this impact on the body may eventually influence treatment and care for a wealth of patients,’ says Edmonds. ‘For example, music has been found to boost the immune systems of patients after surgeries, lower stress in pregnant women and decrease the blood pressure and heart rate in cardiac patients, thus reducing complications from cardiac surgery…Music therapy has also proven to be more effective than other types of therapies in patients suffering from depression, and it’s been shown to lower levels of anxiety and loneliness in the elderly.
You don’t have to be sick, though, to benefit from the reduced stress and increased happiness that music can bring. Live music may be the most potent happiness trigger because it provides a way to forge social bonds. When you get in a room with people who like the same thing you do, you might create more friendships, a proven factor in the search for happiness.’
*Our content is not intended to provide medical advice or diagnosis of individual problems or circumstances, nor should it be implied that we are a substitute for professional medical advice. Users / readers are always advised to consult their Healthcare Professional prior to starting any new remedy, therapy or treatment. Your Wellness Group accepts no liability in the event you, a user of n-gage and a reader of this article, suffers a loss as a result of reliance upon or inappropriate application of the information.
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