Music and the Brain

Researchers at Helsinki Brain Research Centre have reported cognitive recovery in stroke victims who listen to music during rehabilitation. Stroke patients who listened to music a couple of hours a day were happier, more focused and had improved verbal memory compared to those who did not listen to music.

Scientists at National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) found that improvisation and creativity in music is in full swing when the part of the brain that monitors the self - the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex - shuts down and the medial prefrontal cortex becomes extremely active. The scientists speculate that the kind of beauty created by jazz musicians like Coltrane and Miles Davis results when the inhibitory, self-monitoring frontal brain activities are suppressed, allowing creativity to flow. Increased neural activity is seen in sensorimotor processing as well as the systems which regulate emotions, so creativity is not generated from one specific area of the brain.

The brains of musicians are different from nonmusicians - they have more grey matter in the auditory cortex of the right hemisphere. Musician and neuroscientist Daniel J. Levitin says that music activates every region of the brain and effects almost every body function. Music is a universal source of pleasure to humans and we use it to modulate our moods. Teens use music as a distraction from their troubles and as a means to bond with their tribe. Whether we are conscious of it or not, we have all become more or less addicted to altering our brain chemistry through the use of music.

Thank you notorious d.a.v. for use of image Music Tames even the Wildest of Beasts.

Labels: brain, music, music therapy

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