This is how music affects your brain

Last Updated on December 18, 2020

2. Music improves your memory

It’s true. Music can improve your memory by helping you process and categorize new pieces of information. It also increases neurogenesis in the hippocampus, a process by which neurons are produced, which is absolutely essential to maintain the hippocampal capacity for memory. In its physical essence, memories are simply electrical impulses that travel between neurons through synapses. Some experts claim that classical music is a particularly great trigger for retrieving memories, so keep that in mind.

3. Music affects your mood

You probably already know this because you’ve experienced it first-hand time and time again. A lot of people use music as a way to cope with the end of a relationship, to mourn the death of a loved one (music can have a really powerful cathartic effect), or simply to have a good time. And its effectiveness is weirdly strong. How many times have you found yourself smiling and singing in the car while you were stuck in traffic – a pretty stressful situation, by the way – just because your favorite song of the moment started playing on the radio? Music has such a thorough effect on your mood for two reasons. First, it stimulates the release of dopamine, a chemical released in the brain by the neurons. Dopamine is known as the chemical responsible for pleasure. Levels of dopamine usually increase when people are eating great food, having sex, exercising, and listening to their favorite songs. And second, it lowers the levels of cortisol, a steroid hormone that is released in response to stressful situations. This can be an essential help to keep your stress levels under control. But that’s not all. When you are listening to music with other people, your brain produces more oxytocin. This hormone plays a key role in social bonding, and it is probably the reason why so many people fall in love on the dance floor.

4. Music offers great health benefits

Strange as it may sound, music has the ability to reduce heart rate, lower blood pressure, and even reduce the perceived intensity of pain. Furthermore, it can also boost your physical performance and improve your focus before a game – that’s why you see many professional athletes arriving at the stadium with headphones on their heads. The benefits of music on mental health are also proven. It can reduce stress, improve your mood (through the processes described above), and help relieve symptoms of depression. Given all these health benefits of music, it is not surprising that music therapy is such a well-accepted and respected medical practice. Music therapists can work in a great variety of healthcare facilities, and they can use their techniques to help patients accomplished all kinds of goals. Lately, this therapy has achieved great success in patients with Alzheimer’s disease. It can help them remember things and keep their memory as responsive as possible by exerting changes in neurotransmitters levels. It can also trigger a positive response in patients at a more advanced stage of the disease. It’s a glimmer of hope for people who have to deal with this horrible mental disease.
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