How Music Affects the Brain: 8 Research Findings

41 0 Truth Seeker Sunday, January 19, 2014 Edit this post

Music affects the brain in more ways than most of us notice. It shifts our mood and even how we read other people’s faces, it can help or hurt concentration depending on the task, it is linked to personality, it changes how we drive and how hard we can exercise, and learning an instrument is associated with better motor and reasoning skills in children. Some of the popular claims, though, are overstated.

Below are eight research findings on how music and sound shape the way we think, feel and perform, with notes on how strong the evidence is and what you can actually do with it. Many different brain areas respond to music, from regions that handle sound and rhythm to those involved in movement, memory and reward, so these findings only scratch the surface.

1. Happy or Sad Music Changes How We Read Faces

We can usually tell whether a piece of music sounds happy or sad, and that judgement is not purely subjective: the brain responds differently to the two. In a 2009 study in Neuroscience Letters, Nidhya Logeswaran and Joydeep Bhattacharya played people short excerpts of happy or sad music and then showed them photographs of faces. Participants were more likely to rate a face as happy after cheerful music and as sad after melancholy music, and the effect was strongest for faces with a neutral expression.

Researchers also distinguish between emotions we perceive in music and emotions we actually feel. You can recognise that a song is heartbroken without becoming heartbroken yourself. Because music carries no real threat, we can explore sadness from a safe distance, which helps explain why so many people enjoy sad songs instead of finding them depressing.

Takeaway: Background music may colour how you interpret ambiguous situations, so be aware of what is playing before a difficult conversation or decision.

2. Moderate Background Noise Can Boost Creativity, but Overheard Phone Calls Hurt Focus

Loud music may suit a pile of routine tasks, but creative work seems to benefit from something gentler. In a 2012 study in the Journal of Consumer Research, Ravi Mehta and colleagues found that a moderate level of ambient noise, around the hum of a busy café (about 70 decibels), led to more creative ideas than either a quiet room or a loud one. Their explanation is that mild distraction makes processing slightly harder, nudging the brain toward more abstract thinking, while high noise simply overwhelms it.

Not all background sound is equal. A 2013 study by the University of San Diego psychologist Veronica Galván had people solve word puzzles while overhearing a mundane conversation. Those who heard only one side of a phone call found it more distracting, and remembered more of it, than people who heard both speakers. When half of a conversation is missing, the brain keeps trying to predict the gaps, so it is much harder to tune out. Surveys suggest most people find overheard phone calls annoying, and this helps explain why.

Takeaway: For brainstorming, try a café or low ambient sound. For focused work, move away from people on the phone.

3. Your Playlist Says Something About Your Personality

In a 2006 study in Psychological Science, Jason Rentfrow and Samuel Gosling looked at how much people can tell about someone from their music. Judgements based on a person’s top ten songs were reasonably accurate for openness to experience, extraversion and emotional stability. Conscientiousness, by contrast, was hard to guess from musical taste. The participants were mostly young adults, so the results may not apply to everyone.

A large survey led by Adrian North at Heriot-Watt University, which gathered responses from tens of thousands of people around the world, linked favourite genres with self-reported traits. Some of the patterns reported:

Blues, jazz and soul: high self-esteem, creative, outgoing and at ease (blues and soul fans also gentle).
Classical: high self-esteem, creative and at ease, but more introverted.
Rap: high self-esteem and outgoing.
Opera: high self-esteem, creative and gentle.
Country and western: hardworking and outgoing.
Reggae: high self-esteem, creative, outgoing, gentle and at ease, but less hardworking.
Dance: creative and outgoing, but less gentle.
Indie: creative, with lower self-esteem, less hardworking and less gentle.
Bollywood: creative and outgoing.
Rock and heavy metal: creative, gentle and at ease, but lower self-esteem, less outgoing and less hardworking.
Chart pop: high self-esteem, hardworking, outgoing and gentle, but less creative and less at ease.

These are averages across large groups, based on what people say about themselves. Plenty of gentle, hardworking people love heavy metal, so treat this as an interesting pattern rather than a personality test.

4. Your Favourite Music Can Make You a Worse Driver

Many people assume music keeps them alert at the wheel. A 2013 study by Warren Brodsky and Zack Slor tested 85 newly qualified drivers with an average age of 17, each accompanied by a driving instructor on real roads. They drove with their own chosen music, with music picked by the researchers, and with no music.

The drivers much preferred their own playlists, but with them they made more mistakes, such as speeding, tailgating and driving one-handed, and drove more aggressively. Surprisingly, the researchers’ calmer, less familiar selection produced fewer errors than silence. The study only involved young, inexperienced drivers, so the results may differ for experienced ones.

Takeaway: If you are a new driver, keep music moderate in volume and tempo, and avoid songs that make you want to sing along or speed up.

5. Learning an Instrument Is Linked to Better Motor and Reasoning Skills

Learning an instrument appears to benefit children beyond music itself. A 2008 study in PLOS ONE by Marie Forgeard, Gottfried Schlaug and colleagues found that children with at least three years of instrumental training did better than untrained peers on tests of fine motor skill and telling sounds apart, which is not surprising. More unexpectedly, they also scored higher on vocabulary and on nonverbal reasoning, the ability to analyse visual patterns and spot relationships between shapes.

An important caveat: this kind of study shows an association, not proof that lessons cause the gains. Families who pay for years of music lessons may differ in other ways, and children who stick with an instrument may already have certain strengths. Even so, music training remains one of the most studied ways for children to practise attention, memory and coordination at the same time.

6. Classical Music May Help Attention After a Stroke

Music can matter for adults in rehabilitation too. In a 2013 study in the American Journal of Occupational Therapy, Pei-Luen Tsai and colleagues in Taiwan tested 16 patients with unilateral neglect after a right-hemisphere stroke, a condition in which people fail to notice things on one side of their visual field. Patients did attention tests while listening to classical music, white noise or silence. Scores were generally highest with classical music and lowest in silence, and most patients said they felt more alert after the music.

With only 16 participants, the authors themselves called for larger studies before drawing firm conclusions. The finding fits a broader idea, though: pleasant music raises arousal and mood, and that can sharpen attention.

7. Music Helps You Exercise Longer and More Efficiently

Research on music and exercise goes back more than a century. In 1911, the American researcher Leonard Ayres observed that cyclists in a race rode faster while a band was playing than when it was silent.

One reason is attention. Music competes with the body’s signals of fatigue, so effort feels easier, especially during low- and moderate-intensity exercise. At very high intensity, discomfort tends to win and music has less effect. A 2012 study by Bacon, Myers and Karageorghis also reported that cyclists who pedalled in time with music used about 7 per cent less oxygen to do the same work, suggesting that moving to a beat can make effort more efficient.

Tempo matters too. Research by the sport psychologist Costas Karageorghis and others suggests a ceiling at around 140 to 145 beats per minute, beyond which faster songs add little extra motivation. Matching tempo to the activity helps: slower tracks for warm-ups and walking, mid-tempo songs for jogging and cycling, and the fastest for short, hard intervals.

8. A Common Myth: Mozart Does Not Make You Smarter

The best-known claim about music and the brain is the so-called Mozart effect. In 1993, Frances Rauscher and colleagues reported in Nature that students who listened to a Mozart sonata did slightly better on spatial reasoning tasks for about 15 minutes afterwards. The study never measured IQ, but it was widely reported as proof that classical music makes people, and especially babies, cleverer.

Later reviews did not support that idea. A 1999 meta-analysis by Christopher Chabris found any boost was small and did not reflect general intelligence, and a 2010 analysis of 39 studies found little evidence for the effect at all. Researchers including Glenn Schellenberg have shown that any short-term benefit is better explained by arousal and mood: upbeat, enjoyable music of any style can briefly lift performance, while slow, sad music does not.

The practical lesson running through all eight findings is the same. Music is a powerful tool for mood, motivation and focus, so choose it deliberately for the task in front of you, and enjoy it for its own sake rather than as a shortcut to intelligence.

Sources: Based on an article by Buffer; Logeswaran & Bhattacharya, Neuroscience Letters (2009); Mehta, Zhu & Cheema, Journal of Consumer Research (2012); PsyBlog on Rentfrow & Gosling (2006); PsyBlog on Brodsky & Slor (2013); Forgeard et al., PLOS ONE (2008); Tsai et al., American Journal of Occupational Therapy (2013); Wikipedia: Mozart effect. Image credits: Suites Culturelles, Nature Reviews Neuroscience, Ali eminov, PaceDJ.