MUSIC AND HUMAN BRAIN

In the beginning,

Music is an art form whose origin dates back in the Paleolithic era. Creation and response to music have been one of the unique features of our world and probably gives a hint about our earlier evolutionary development. The first musical instrument used by our ancestors was the voice. Music is all around us. From high-voltage Rock concert to soothing Classical performances, various genres of music have touched our hearts. Even the nature has its own music. But an intriguing biological question arises that why music is so loved universally and how it can elicit so many emotions?

 

Researches on music and the human brain

Neuroscientists don't yet have the ultimate answers. Recent studies reveal music engages many areas distributed throughout the brain, including those that are usually involved in other kinds of cognition. Actually, various areas of the brain are involved in processing various components of music like melody, rhythm, harmony and timbre. Brain responses also vary based on experience and training of the listener. Although ear has the fewest sensory cells comparatively, it is our brain which responses to the music astonishingly. Another study reveals that tuning of brain cells might be altered during learning or listening to  music such that certain cells become extra sensitive to that sound and are stored in the memory. Probably this is the reason why we can recognize a familiar sound even after a very long time though we might have forgotten the lyrics. People suffering from memory loss due to diseases like Alzheimer's can still remember the music they learned in the past due to the aforementioned reason.

 

 Musicians Vs Non-Musicians

Stop and think of any piece you love and play it in your head. Where in the brain the music is playing? Neurological studies in 1999 initiated by Robert Zatorre and Andrea R. Halpern disclosed that certain areas in temporal lobes that were involved when listening to music gets activated when those melodies are merely imagined. In simple words, you just activated the parts of temporal lobe in your brain by just playing your favourite piece in your head. Musicians, on the other hand, exhibit hyper-development of certain areas in their brains, especially in grey matters of  the motor and auditory portions. Musicians usually display greater responses to sounds, because their auditory cortex is more extensive that the volume of this cortex is 130 percent larger. Despite differences, studies have shown that the human brain has an implicit musical ability. Emotional response to a certain piece of music is universal. For example- whenever major chords are being played, it gives a feeling of joy but when minor chords are strummed, it's usually saddening. These emotions are strictly universal.

 

Music Therapy

A number of studies have shown that rhythmic music can facilitate the recovery of movement in patients with stroke, Parkinson’s disease, cerebral palsy, etc. A study of 2014 showed that listening to relaxing music of the patient’s choice reduced pain and increased functional mobility significantly. Researchers believe that music eases pain because listening to it triggers opioids— the body’s natural pain relievers. Studies linking music to memory recall have increased since the early 20th century, when the research first emerged. Listening to certain music can take your mind back in decades within an instant which can be helpful for patients with diseases like Alzheimer’s disease. These data suggest that the effects of music therapy in the treatment of neuro-psychiatric disorders should be further explored. Through music,we have learned about human origins and the human brain but it may be used in a therapeutic way by accessing and stimulating specific cerebral circuits. Mostly Western-style composition is used in music therapy but other genres of music may be considered for therapy in the future. Various researches have already been done on 'Rabindra-sangeet' or songs composed by Rabindranath Tagore to be used in the therapy.

 

Conclusion

How the brain elicits strong emotions? How the brain process the auditory aspect of music? are still among the BIG questions of science. Recently, scientists got certain clues which may help us to know little about the brain mechanism involved. One clue, though, comes from a woman known as I.R. (initials are used to maintain privacy) who suffered bilateral damage in her temporal lobes, including auditory cortical regions. She couldn't differentiate between two different pieces of music properly and couldn't make any sense of it, though her intelligence and other motor activities remain the same. Blood and Zatorre added a further clue of how music evokes pleasure. The scanned brain images of musicians, when they are listening to music, reveals that music activates same reward systems that are stimulated by food, sex and addictive drugs. As research on music and the human brain continues, we expect further understanding of music and its effects on our psychological, social and cultural life.

 

 

Shuvayan Dasgupta

Biotechnology 2^nd year

 

Sources:-

https://www.scientificamerican.com/