Vital turning points and formative relationships are played out to the soundtrack of our teens and young adulthood — never to be forgotten.
How to use music to give your brain a boost.
People walking on a treadmill reported feeling thy were exerting themselves less while listening to this music.
People in the study were only played up to one second snippets of 100 hundred different songs.
Music students end up one academic year ahead of their non-musical peers.
Music can have a magical effect on people who are not habitually active.
The most popular genre of music for better sleep.
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’, new research finds.
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.”
The study was published in the Journal of Neuroscience (Ross et al., 2017).
“Where words leave off, music begins.” ― Heinrich Heine
“Where words leave off, music begins.” ― Heinrich Heine
Beautiful but sad music can help improve mood when people are feeling blue, research finds.
For the study 220 people recalled something depressing that had happened to them.
They then recalled what type of music they had listened to afterwards.
Choosing beautiful but sad music emerged as the only strategy that people thought had cheered them up.
Dr Annemieke van den Tol, the study’s first author, explained the results:
”We found in our research that people’s music choice is linked to the individual’s own expectations for listening to music and its effects on them.
The results showed that if an individual has intended to achieve mood enhancement through listening to ‘sad’ music, this was in fact often achieved by first thinking about their situation or being distracted, rather than directly through listening to the music chosen.
Indeed, where respondents indicated they had chosen music with the intention of triggering memories, this had a negative impact on creating a better mood.
The only selection strategy that was found to directly predict mood enhancement was where the music was perceived by the listener to have high aesthetic value.”
The study was published in the journal Psychology of Music (Van den Tol & Edwards, 2014).
Even a year after taking part in the study, the way some older people’s brains processed language was more akin to young people.
Even a year after taking part in the study, the way some older people’s brains processed language was more akin to young people.
Only tasks which involve sustained mental effort can help protect the brain from ageing, a new study finds.
Activities like digital photography or quilting can provide the necessary mental stimulation.
Socialising, listening to music or playing simple games, though, did not have the same beneficial effects, researchers found.
Dr Denise C. Park, one of the study’s authors, said:
“The present findings provide some of the first experimental evidence that mentally-challenging leisure activities can actually change brain function and that it is possible that such interventions can restore levels of brain activity to a more youth-like state.
However, we would like to conduct much larger studies to determine the universality of this effect and understand who will benefit the most from such an intervention.”
The study involved assigning older adults to both high-challenge and low-challenge activities.
They continued these for around 15 hours a week over 14 weeks.
Only the activities that provided an active learning component were beneficial.
People who learned quilting or digital photography showed impressive improvements:
Some of these gains were maintained up to one year later.
The way these older people’s brains processed language was more akin to young people than their counterparts in the low-challenge group.
Dr Ian McDonough, who co-authored the study, said:
“The study clearly illustrates that the enhanced neural efficiency was a direct consequence of participation in a demanding learning environment.
The findings superficially confirm the familiar adage regarding cognitive aging of ‘Use it or lose it.'”
Dr Park added:
“Although there is much more to be learned, we are cautiously optimistic that age-related cognitive declines can be slowed or even partially restored if individuals are exposed to sustained, mentally challenging experiences.”
The study was published in the journal Restorative Neurology and Neuroscience (McDonough et al., 2015).
Tree brain image from Shutterstock
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