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Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Missouri, USA
Posts: 4,814
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7 Ways Music Affects The Body (According To Science)
7 Ways Music Affects The Body (According To Science):
7) Repair Brain Damage
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Melodic intonation therapy, or singing until you can talk, takes advantage of the fact that language functions are located in the left brain, but music lives over on the right side of the brain. So, if you lose your ability to speak, you can train your brain to move those functions to the other side by associating music with language. This essentially rewires a lifetime of growth and an entire history of evolution.
Listening to actual non-terrible music has an additional effect, since pleasurable music releases dopamine that simply makes certain parts of your brain function better (particularly if they were damaged before).
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6) Overcome An Addiction
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As it turns out, performing music can be relaxing and can create a distraction from withdrawal symptoms; songwriting can help patients confront impulse control and self-deception and allows an output for negative emotions. It has even been found that listening to music can help aid the detox stage of recovery from drug addiction, and if applied frequently, could cut down on the number of pain-killers patients need.
Music directly affects chemicals called neurotransmitters which relay information in our head. Drugs work in a similar way, except they make your brain lazy and convince it to stop making its own chemicals, because why do work when drugs are there to making everything all better? But when you stop taking drugs, your brain isn't making enough chemicals and it doesn't know why because it relies on those drugs to get enough, so your body fails to function correctly.
Introducing music can increase levels of some chemicals associated with heavy addictions, like dopamine and norepinephrine, but significantly cuts back on suzziness. In addition, certain music lowers things like heart rate, blood pressure, muscle tension, etc.
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5) Boost Your Immune System
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Music doesn't just attack from one side, it brings out a multi-pronged assault. To start, music reduces stress by reducing cortisol levels, a chemical in your brain that causes you to feel stress in the first place. Jazz, bluegrass and soft rock have been found to be especially effective at reducing stress and increasing health because of their similar musical qualities.
In addition to simply lowering stress levels, music also raises immune markers in your system, creating more antibodies to fight disease. This effect is compounding: Over time, the body can learn to recognize certain types of music (particularly choir or classical music) as immune boosting, continuing the improvement of the immune system.
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4) Prevent Seizures
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It's been shown that music by Mozart played on the piano reduces seizure-causing activity in the brain within five minutes of exposure, with many cases showing immediate results in what scientists should called Seizure Wolfgang-banging. Experimentation with other forms of music has been minimal, but for some reason there appears to be a connection between our brains and piano music.
It's theorized that "the superorganization of the cerebral cortex . . . may resonate with the superior architecture of Mozart's music."
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3)Regain Lost Memories
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Medical practitioners have found that music shows the potential to unearth memories associated with music for patients, even ones in late stages of dementia.
Listening to music engages many areas of the brain in both hemispheres, which is why it can create brain activity other methods, like conversation, can't. Another area it engages is the hippocampus, which handles long-term memory storage.
When you listen to music you know, feelings associated with the song are returned by the hippocampus. Sometimes the memories even manage to come along with the relevant feelings. Even if memories aren't recovered, emotions and attitudes are.
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2) Increase Spatial Reasoning
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Mozart music, especially piano music, can raise your spatial reasoning the equivalent of nine IQ points. And that's an average, meaning there are people who get even more of a boost from it.
There are a lot of theories, but some claim that Mozart's music focuses the listener more. Others say it increases activity in crucial regions of the brain.
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1) Cure Parkinson's Disease
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Victims of Parkinson's suffer from muscle spasms, locking muscles, and balance problems. As it turns out, applying music can instantly resolve the physical issues of Parkinson's in many victims.
Take Rande Gedaliah, who was diagnosed with Parkinson's in 2003 and found she had muscle spasms, balance problems and difficulty walking. The disease eventually led to a serious fall in the shower. Things were looking pretty grim until one day she found out she could listen to music and suddenly be able to move with ease, the type of music determining the speed she walks at. We Are the Champions let her walk a slow clip and Born in the USA made her move faster still.
When you're locked in your room, listening to your old N'Sync CDs, have you ever noticed your foot tapping on its own? That's not just because you have terrible taste in music. It's because the portions of the brain which deal with rhythm and movement are so automated that it requires no conscious attention to move to a beat.
This movement isn't handled by the same process as walking up the stairs or hilariously farting with your armpit. Suddenly, patients with bradykinesia--an inability to initiate movement--can move instantly as their brain interprets the music and sends movement signals to their legs, essentially tricking their bodies into moving. We'll say that again for you: Music can trick your broken, unresponsive body into obedience.
Music also helps other Parkinson's-related issues, including loss of balance and spasms. It's also been found that playing music creates an improvement in people with the disease, and drum circles are being used as treatment in music therapy groups.
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07-12-2011, 10:17 PM
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