This Everyday Noise Can Reshape Your Imagination (M)
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Category: Music
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The right mix of music and sound patterns help quiet anxious thoughts and feelings.
The Brain Recognises Familiar Music In The Blink Of An Eye
Hearing even a tiny fragment of a song can trigger rapid recognition in the brain, highlighting the remarkable power of musical memory.
Hearing even a tiny fragment of a song can trigger rapid recognition in the brain, highlighting the remarkable power of musical memory.
The brain takes as little as one-tenth of a second to recognise a familiar song.
When people hear a familiar song, their pupils dilate and electrical activity in the brain spikes, signalling rapid recognition.
This process begins just 100–300 milliseconds after the song starts.
People in the study were played snippets shorter than one second of 100 different songs.
Despite the extremely short clips, their brains reacted rapidly to songs they recognised.
The finding may help to explain why dementia patients who remember little else will still respond to a familiar tune.
Professor Maria Chait, study co-author, said:
“Our results demonstrate that recognition of familiar music happens remarkably quickly.
These findings point to very fast temporal circuitry and are consistent with the deep hold that highly familiar pieces of music have on our memory.”
Burst of recognition
The study included 10 people who listened to the 100 song snippets while their pupil dilation and their brain’s electrical activity were measured.
Some of the songs were familiar to them, others were not.
The results showed that pupil dilation was the first sign of recognition, occurring within 100–300 milliseconds.
Electrical activity in the brain showed a characteristic burst of recognition around 500-800 milliseconds after the start of the song.
Professor Chait said:
“Beyond basic science, understanding how the brain recognises familiar tunes is useful for various music-based therapeutic interventions.
For instance, there is a growing interest in exploiting music to break through to dementia patients for whom memory of music appears well preserved despite an otherwise systemic failure of memory systems.
Pinpointing the neural pathway and processes which support music identification may provide a clue to understanding the basis of this phenomena.”
Related
The study was published in the journal Scientific Reports (Jagiello et al., 2019).
How Playing A Musical Instrument Boosts Brain Health
People in the study listened to and then played a Tibetan singing bowl.
People in the study listened to and then played a Tibetan singing bowl.
Playing a musical instrument can help protect against cognitive decline.
The reason is that learning to play changes the brain’s ‘wiring’.
The neuroscientists found that the brain can compensate for disease or injuries.
Dr Bernhard Ross, study’s first author, said:
“Music has been known to have beneficial effects on the brain, but there has been limited understanding into what about music makes a difference.
This is the first study demonstrating that learning the fine movement needed to reproduce a sound on an instrument changes the brain’s perception of sound in a way that is not seen when listening to music.”
The research involved 32 young, healthy adults who listened to and then played a Tibetan singing bowl.
Brain scans showed that playing the singing bowl was enough to change brain activity.
Dr Ross said:
“It has been hypothesized that the act of playing music requires many brain systems to work together, such as the hearing, motor and perception systems.
This study was the first time we saw direct changes in the brain after one session, demonstrating that the action of creating music leads to a strong change in brain activity.”
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- These 10 Musical Styles Will Unlock Calm, Clarity, Focus, Motivation, Meaning, Happiness & More (P)
The study was published in the Journal of Neuroscience (Ross et al., 2017).
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Musical Training Boosts Attention and Focus, Research Finds
Learning an instrument enhances critical areas of the brain.
Learning an instrument enhances critical areas of the brain.
Musical training provides lasting improvements to attention and focus.
Musicians have greater control over their attention and are less distracted.
The more musical training a person has, the better they can control their attention.
Musicians also develop better memories, previous studies have shown.
Brain imaging research has even shown critical areas of the brain to be different in musicians.
Changes in the dorsolateral frontal regions (the top front of your head), in particular, are linked to better memory, error detection and goal-oriented behaviour in musicians.
Dr Paulo Barraza, the study’s lead author, said:
“Our study investigated the effects of systematic musical training on the main components of the attentional system.
Our findings demonstrate greater inhibitory attentional control abilities in musicians than non-musicians.
Professional musicians are able to more quickly and accurately respond to and focus on what is important to perform a task, and more effectively filter out incongruent and irrelevant stimuli than non-musicians.
In addition, the advantages are enhanced with increased years of training.”
Ignoring distractions
The conclusions come from a study of 18 professional pianists with an average of 12 years of practice, who were compared with non-musicians.
All were given tests of their attentional systems.
The results showed that musicians were better at ignoring distractions while doing a complex task.
Dr David Medina, the study’s first author, said:
“Our findings of the relationship between musical training and improvement of attentional skills could be useful in clinical or educational fields, for instance, in strengthening the ability of ADHD individuals to manage distractions or the development of school programs encouraging the development of cognitive abilities through the deliberate practice of music.”
Related
The study was published in the journal Heliyon (Medina & Barraza, 2019).
10 Amazing Ways Music Changes Your Brain And Enriches Life (P)
Music doesn’t just move us: it transforms the brain, memory, thinking and even our relationships.
The Best Genres Of Music To Improve Your Athletic Performance
Research reveals which types of music improve which types of athletic performance.
Research reveals which types of music improve which types of athletic performance.
Listening to jazz can improve your performance on the putting green. And jazz is not the only music that’s been linked to athletic performance, as one of the study’s authors, Dr Ali Boolani, explains:“Other research has shown that country music improves batting, rap music improves jump shots and running is improved by any up-tempo music. But the benefit of music in fine motor control situations was relatively unknown. Hopefully, this is the first step in answering this question.”
Jazz is calming
In the small experiment, 20 good golfers tried five different putts while listening to one of the following types of music:- Classical
- Country
- Rock
- Jazz
- Hip hop/rap
- No music
“…jazz is derived from improvisation, which appears in similar arts such as the theatre. Although speculative, listening to jazz may encourage greater improvisation from the listener. Thus, participants in the present study may have better observed the grain and slope of the green and were more open to creativity in the putt.”Cute answer, but their second explanation is probably more accurate:
“…jazz serves to act as a calming effect, as opposed to other genres which generally have higher tempos and could increase levels of arousal.”
Related
The study was published in the Journal of Athletic Enhancement (Baghurst et al., 2014).Why The Songs You Loved At 17 Still Move You Decades Later (M)
Why teenage tunes still make you feel so much.
The Subtle Skill That Separates The Highly Intelligent From The Rest (M)
The skill has a particularly strong link to higher nonverbal IQ.
