Table of contents:
- What are the effects of music on brain performance?
- 1. Music triggers brain development
- 2. Helping the brain think more creatively
- 3. Help learn a new language
- 4. Trigger distraction
- 5. Helps remember
Just like other sounds, music that is received by the ear has an effect on the brain and produces certain perceptions. But not only that, the tone of music can also affect how the brain works and responds to stimuli, both from outside and inside the body.
The phenomenon of how music affects the human brain has been studied for a long time. You may not realize it, but it takes cooperation from different parts of the brain to recognize and assemble the sounds we receive when we listen to music.
What are the effects of music on brain performance?
1. Music triggers brain development
At birth, the baby's brain is not the same as the adult brain. The brain will undergo a process of differentiation during childhood. This process occurs by recognizing the surrounding environment, especially recognizing certain sounds, speech, and tones.
A study by Nina Kraus posted on the Live Science website shows that people who practice playing a musical instrument respond better to sound and language. They will also tend to experience a slower brain aging process. In another study, Kraus also found that practicing a musical instrument can improve a person's ability to hear in a noisy atmosphere and recognize the emotional aspects of speech.
2. Helping the brain think more creatively
Every time we listen to new music, our brains form new small structures based on a series of tones that are heard. This process also helps us form new ways of thinking.
Another interesting fact is that if we are diligent in following music trends or listening to new music, it can increase creativity.
Indeed, many people, especially those who are no longer young, prefer to listen to songs from their youth than to the new songs that are trending. These new songs may not be very pleasant to hear because our brains are not used to these tunes, but listening to new music regularly can actually encourage the brain to understand new things.
3. Help learn a new language
The tunes of music elicit a response similar to language. Both tone and language are stored in brain structures related to the process of motivation, reward, and emotions.
Learning the language of the lyrics of certain songs that use a language other than our native language will make the brain faster to remember and predict the sentence structure and the language used in the song. In this way, language is processed and memorized along with the tones in the cerebellum and amygdalla, not in the frontal lobe which is used for memorization or memory.
4. Trigger distraction
Distraction occurs when the brain does not respond to a stimulus normally. This is certainly useful if we want to avoid stimuli that make us stop doing our activities, for example when we are exercising.
When exercising, the most common stimulus is fatigue sent by the body to the brain, which commands it to stop and rest. By listening to music, the brain will process more of the sound it receives, rather than focusing on feeling tired. But this method may only be effective for light sports activities with repetitive movements, and does not cause pain.
For an effective distraction effect, listen to music that keeps you motivated. Choose music with moderate tempo but not too fast and not too noisy with an intensity of around 145 bpm. The tempo of moderate music is easier to adjust to brain waves, because the brain can still process information from sound. Meanwhile, if it is too fast and too noisy, the brain cannot process information and will not make the brain more motivated.
5. Helps remember
Music can trigger the brain's work in digging up information that someone remembers. It is still not known how this mechanism actually occurs, but there is a theory that it is similar to the phenomenon of synesthesia in which a person's brain generates perceptions in the form of images and emotions when hearing music or a song.
Based on the results of several studies, the researchers also agreed that tone sequences could help patients with dementia or brain trauma to remember better.
