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How many times have you turned to music to uplift yourself even higher in happy times, or seek the comfort of music when melancholy strikes?
Music concerns us all. But it is only recently that scientists have sought to explain and quantify the impact of music on us on an emotional level. Research into the links between melody and the mind indicates that listening to and playing music can actually change how our brain works, and therefore our body.
It seems that the healing power of music, on body and mind, is only just beginning to be understood, although music therapy is not new. For many years, therapists have advocated the use of music – both listening and studying – for anxiety and stress reduction, pain relief. And music has also been recommended as an aid in positive change in mood and emotional states.
Michael DeBakey, who in 1966 became the first surgeon to successfully implant an artificial heart, said: “Creating and performing music promotes self-expression and provides personal satisfaction while giving pleasure to others. In medicine, more and more published reports show that music has a healing effect on patients. “
Doctors now believe that using music therapy in hospitals and nursing homes not only makes people feel better, but also heals them faster. And across the country, medical experts are starting to apply the new revelations about the impact of music on the brain to treat patients.
In a study, researcher Michael Thaut and his team detailed how victims of stroke, cerebral palsy and Parkinson’s disease who worked on music made larger and more balanced progress than those whose therapy had no accompaniment.
Other researchers have found that the sound of drums can influence the functioning of bodies. Quoted in a 2001 article published in USA Today, Suzanne Hasner, chair of the music therapy department at Berklee College of Music in Boston, says that even people with dementia or head trauma retain their musical abilities.
The article reported the results of an experiment in which researchers at the Mind-Body Wellness Center in Meadville, Pa., Followed 111 cancer patients who played drums for 30 minutes a day. They found a strengthened immune system and increased levels of anticancer cells in many patients.
“This repeated music is deeply ingrained in our long-term memory,” says Hasner. “It’s processed in the emotional part of the brain, the amygdala. This is where you remember the music played at your wedding, the music of your first love, that first dance. Such things can still be done. remembered even in people with progressive diseases. It can be a window, a way to reach them … “
The American Music Therapy Organization says music therapy can provide “emotional intimacy with families and caregivers, relaxation for the whole family, and meaningful time spent together in a positive and creative way.”
Scientists have made progress in exploring why music should have this effect. In 2001, Dr. Anne Blood and Robert Zatorre of McGill University in Montreal used positron emission tomography, or PET, to find out if particular brain structures were being stimulated by music.
In their study, Blood and Zatorre asked 10 musicians, five men and five women, to choose moving music. Subjects then received PET scans while listening to four types of audio stimuli – selected music, other music, general noise, or silence. Each sequence was repeated three times in random order.
Blood said that when subjects heard the music that gave them “chills,” PET scans detected activity in parts of the brain that are also stimulated by food and sex.
It is still unclear why humans have developed such a biological appreciation for music. Food appreciation and sexual desire evolved to aid the survival of the species, but “music did not develop strictly for survival purposes,” Blood told The Associated Press at the time. .
She also believes that because music activates the parts of the brain that make us happy, it suggests that it may be beneficial for our physical and mental well-being.
This is good news for patients undergoing surgeries who experience anxiety in anticipation of these procedures.
Polish researcher Zbigniew Kucharski, from the Warsaw Academy of Medicine, studied the effect of acoustic therapy on fear management in dental patients. During the period from October 2001 to May 2002, 38 dental patients aged 16 to 60 years were observed. The patients received variations of acoustic therapy, a practice where music is received through headphones and also vibrators.
Dr Kucharski found that negative feelings were increased five-fold in patients who received 30 minutes of acoustic therapy before and after their dental procedure. For the group who only heard and felt the music before the operation, the feelings of fear decreased by a factor of only 1.6.
For the last group (the control), who received acoustic therapy only during the operation, there was no change in the degree of fear felt.
A 1992 study identified listening to music and teaching relaxation as an effective way to reduce pain and anxiety in women undergoing painful gynecologic procedures. And other studies have shown that music can reduce other “negative” human emotions like fear, distress, and depression.
Sheri Robb and a team of researchers published a report in the Journal of Music Therapy in 1992, highlighting their findings that music-assisted relaxation procedures (listening to music, deep breathing, and other exercises) effectively reduced anxiety in pediatric surgery patients on a burn unit.
“Music,” Esther Mok said in the AORN journal in February 2003, “is an easy-to-administer, non-threatening, non-invasive and inexpensive tool for relieving preoperative anxiety”.
So far, according to the same report, researchers cannot be sure why music has a calming effect on many medical patients. One school of thought believes that music can reduce stress because it can help patients relax and also lower blood pressure. Another researcher claims that music allows the body’s vibrations to synchronize with the rhythms of those around it. For example, if an anxious patient with a fast heartbeat listens to slow music, their heart rate will slow down and synchronize with the beat of the music.
Such results are still somewhat mysterious. The incredible ability of music to affect and manipulate emotions and the brain is undeniable, yet still largely inexplicable.
Besides brain activity, the effect of music on hormone levels in the human body can also be quantified, and there is compelling evidence that music can lower cortisol levels in the body (associated with excitement and stress) and increase melatonin levels (which can induce sleep). It can also precipitate the release of endorphins, a natural pain reliever in the body.
But how does music manage to arouse emotions in us? And why are these emotions often so powerful? The simple answer is no one knows … yet. So far, we can quantify some of the emotional responses caused by music, but we cannot yet explain them. But it’s OK. I don’t need to understand electricity to benefit from the light when I turn on a lamp when I walk into a room, and I don’t have to understand why music can make me feel better emotionally. This is just the case – our Creator created us that way.
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Source by Duane Shinn
