Music Affects Almost Every Brain Region
The brain controls the body, so to understand how music impacts us it makes sense to study music's influence on the brain
Hiya!
Why does music captivate us the way it does? I’ve written about music’s influence on us several times before because while I possess zero musical abilities, I love music. I love singing (off tune), dancing, or just sitting still and allowing a song to course through me. It’s no wonder we long to understand our connection to it.
Music impacts us on a mysterious and biological level. It’s an alluring force simultaneously flowing within and through us. We’re learning more about how our bodies respond to music, but the brain is the body’s conductor. So understanding how music affects the brain would provide tremendous insight into how it affects the rest of the body too. Luckily for us, researchers are investigating exactly that.
Music Activates Numerous Brain Regions
The many years of research into which brain regions respond to music show that music simultaneously activates numerous brain regions and networks. So many, in fact, that participating in social activities is the only other situation that compares.
A simplified explanation of music’s journey through our brains is that listening to music first activates our auditory cortex in our temporal lobes near our ears. From there, music stimulates our limbic system, or emotional center, and synchronizes brain function. Research shows that, intriguingly, music also activates our motor systems — which some suggest helps us pick out the music’s beat.
For a more technical breakdown of which brain regions are affected by music and in what way, I recommend playing around with the University of Central Florida’s website. It offers a simple, visual, and interactive resource breaking down music’s influence on twelve brain regions. In addition to our auditory cortex and the primary areas encompassing our limbic system — the amygdala and hippocampus — music also affects our:
Broca’s area, which enables us to speak and enunciate our words.
The Cerebellum helps store our physical memories and coordinates movement.
The Corpus callosum allows communication between the two hemispheres.
Our Frontal lobe lets us think and make decisions or plans.
The Hypothalamus does a whole lotta things, including regulating our thirst, appetite, mood, heart rate, sleep, metabolism, sex drive, body temperature, and metabolism. Oh, it also links our nervous and endocrine systems.
Nucleus Accumbens is who we have to thank for releasing dopamine.
The Occipital lobe processes what we see. Technically, music activates the occipital lobe in musicians even when they aren’t playing music. Whereas non-musicians, like me, use the auditory region in the temporal lobe.
Your Putamen regulates your body movements and coordination and processes rhythm.
And Wernicke’s area helps us understand spoken and written language.
Activating this many brain regions, let alone simultaneously, is bound to impact more than just our mood. Understanding how the brain processes music will undoubtedly also shine a light on how music influences mental processes for all ages, from child development to Alzheimer’s disease and dementia in older adults. Not to mention various psychological conditions such as schizophrenia, Parkinson’s disease, and delirium.
Music’s Effects on Brain Networks
Founder and Director of the International Arts + Mind Lab Center for Applied Neuroaesthetics at Johns Hopkins University, Susan Magsamen, who studies “how the arts help us to heal, learn and flourish,” wrote an excellent article in Time magazine aptly titled, How Music Affects Your Brain.
The feelings music evokes in us can be challenging to describe or pin down, but I think two sentences in Magsamen’s article perfectly illustrate the effects music has on us. She writes:
We are wired for music. We bring the world into our bodies and brains through our senses.
Magsamen uses the song Drift Away by Dobie Gray to paint a picture of what happens to her as she listens to it. She artfully explains how the song triggers the release of dopamine, a neurotransmitter that responds to pleasurable stimuli. Dopamine not only helps us feel good, but it also helps us think clearer, focus better, and improve communication between our cells. The song initiated the release of dopamine which led Magsamen to have “an emotional peak experience that triggered a physical reaction.”
Thankfully, the connection we have with music is well-researched. In fact, Magsamen claims that “music is the most studied art form.” Thanks especially to technological advancements over the last two decades, experts can literally see how the arts, including music, impact our brains. In all, she summarizes the effects simply by stating that,
[W]hen I was listening to ‘Drift Away,’ the music and sound activated my eardrums, which caused fluid in my inner ear to move. The fluid bent hairs on my cells, which converted to nerve impulses that traveled to my brain. These impulses moved through my brain’s neural networks, evoking strong emotions and memories—and altering my mood and outlook almost instantly.
Over the last few years, researchers have begun to better understand some of how music influences intricate physiological networks of interconnected brain regions. In addition to releasing neurotransmitters like dopamine, we now know that nearly every area of the brain responds to music. And since we know the brain prefers being active over stagnant, it’s no wonder it enjoys music so much.
Perspective Shift
I personally enjoy a wide variety of music and a plethora of genres. What I listen to depends entirely on my mood or activity. I’m terrible at remembering the names of songs or the artists who sing them, but I rarely forget the lyrics once I learn them.
I have a playlist strictly for writing and helping me get in the flow, which includes songs like Asgard by Echo Grid or In the Mirror by Konoba. I’ll listen to Good Morning by Max Frost or Geek in the Pink by Jason Mraz from my “Feel Good” playlist when I want to feel optimistic or motivated.
The song Lost Boy by Ruth B. in my “Meh” playlist is a comfort when I’m melancholy, or Moon by Little People when I don’t want to think. I meditate to Shamanic Dream by Anugama, then listen to Purple Hat by Sofi Tukker and Alive by Lil Jon, Offset, & 2 Chainz to get amped up for a workout.
Music is one of our greatest tools. Music inspires and comforts us, drives and energizes us, and helps us break beyond physical and emotional barriers. We’re just beginning to comprehend music’s influence over us, but we do know that it all starts in the brain. In a way, it’s as though music dances with and throughout our brain regions like a conductor’s baton, and our body and emotions are the orchestra.
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Fascinating!!