AKARSH SHEKHAR
How Music Re-tunes Our Brain
What is the favourite part of
favourite song?
Why do we sing or dance to music?
Why do we love the theme song to
our favourite TV show?
Some of us even know the lyrics
to F.R.I.E.N.D.S- “I’ll be there for
you” by heart and some of us sing
the melody of the Game Of Thrones
theme song as if we wrote it – it’s in
our memory forever!
Music has the ability to go deep and
move us. We have all been on the
dance floor when “our jam” comes
on and you just have to pick up the
pace and move with the music. You
had no choice. Contemplate that
for a moment, why is that? Why
does it feel so good to match your
movements to the beat?
Let’s take a look at why we
remember our favourite song, why
we tap our feet or why we turn to
music when get emotional.
Music has involved more parts
of the brain than any other
function that people perform. The
relationships between the elements
of melody and harmony: in tones,
intervals, chords, and scales or
Tonality, for example, affect the
Prefrontal Cortex, the Cerebellum
and the Temporal Lobe.
This means that extremely
processed information from various
sensory modalities is brought here
in a precise fashion to construct
memory, perception, and diverse
cognitive processes.
Temporal factors help make events
predictable. A predictable time
produces expectation and this
anticipation allows tapping to
the beat (for example). If there is
no anticipation we are forever a
millisecond behind, waiting to react
to the sound.
In other words, we remember the
tone of the song, even if we heard it
just once (creating memories) with
the help of these parts of the brain.
We keep up with the next part of
the song, a millisecond before, in
anticipation of that part (we know
what’s coming) because of these
parts too!
In the case of Rhythm, left frontal
cortex, left parietal cortex, and right
cerebellum are all activated. Motor
areas are activated we tap our feet.
Motor control is the function by
which humans and animals use
their brain or cognitive processing
to activate and coordinate the
muscles and limbs involved in the
performance of a motor skill.
So that’s why feel like dancing or
tapping our feet. Brain activity and
rhythm perception are carried out
by these 3 parts!
Lastly let’s look at Lyrics. Areas
like the Visual Cortex- (part of the
cerebral cortex responsible for
processing visual information),
Wernicke's area of the brain
(responsible for helping us to
understand language) and motors
and Broca's area (determining
meaning of sentences or language
comprehension) are all used when
we read lyrics.
We contemplate on the words and
get emotionally moved because
that’s what music makes us feel
with the addition of lyrics to a song.
The psychology of music makes it
clear how profoundly important
music association is to the success
of individuals. Yes, we all listen,
yes, we dance and yes, we sing.
But do we really understand what
happens to us behind the scene?
There’s more to why we like music
than just singing along to a catchy
beat or having fun at karaoke.
Dozens of receptors in our brain
respond to different musical
aspects like lyrics, tone, rhythm
and determining the qualities
we personally favour and do not
favour. If we let music just go in one
ear and out the other we can never
learn how to interpret your brain’s
response to music and benefits of
listening to it.
The
Score Magazine
highonscore.com
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