Music moves brain to pay attention
Using brain images of people listening to short symphonies by an obscure 18th-century composer, a research team from the Stanford University School of Medicine has gained valuable insight into how the brain sorts out the chaotic world around it.
The research team showed that music engages the areas of the brain involved with paying attention, making predictions and updating the event in memory. Peak brain activity occurred during a short period of silence between musical movements—when seemingly nothing was happening.
Beyond understanding the process of listening to music, their work has far-reaching implications for how human brains sort out events in general. The findings are published in the Aug. 2 issue of Neuron.
The researchers caught glimpses of the brain in action using functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI, which gives a dynamic image showing which parts of the brain are working during a given activity. The goal of the study was to look at how the brain sorts out events, but the research also revealed that musical techniques used by composers 200 years ago help the brain organize incoming information.
The team used music to help study the brain’s attempt to make sense of the continual flow of information the real world generates, a process called event segmentation. The brain partitions information into meaningful chunks by extracting information about beginnings, endings and the boundaries between events.
See Video & Read more @ Stanford University School Of Medicine news release
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12 comments:
We have used this knowledge in "learning how to learn" (Metalearning) for many years know. And done several experiment with adolescent learning processes and different kinds of music (alpha, beta waves). It is remarkable what some kind of music can destroy learning skills and on the other side of the coin: How music can be a communicative scaffolding for those with learning difficulties.
Music can do so much
It can energuse us, inivigorate us
and it can sooth & relax us.
Horses fot courses, music for moods
Enhancing the moment, flowing like waves, waves of sound flowing thru our days, inducing neural waves in our brains, enter the music domains
It's so interesting how the brain works with music in more ways than one.
I am smarter when I listen to music. It keeps me sharp.
So does chewing gum.
xo
Blue
Hi Mavin, indeed.
And now days with MRI we can see much more activity going on
lol Blue,
it all translates to brain activity.
Now the results from chewing gum would be interesting to see.
all of our kids learning DVD's involve music.
It sucks them in right away!
Music does do so much, and depending on the type of music I choose, I can be silly and giddy, or sensual and romantic, or deep in thought, or moved to tears. I used to listen to music during my college years while I was studying...I always thought it was to keep me awake lol! Little did I know that functional MRI would prove my inner disposition correct :)
Hi Bert, this research was into not just how music is reflected in brain activity, but expectation of what comes next ... too
Hi Serenity, I suppose youngster could argue that having background music playing on their earphones does activate brain area, and therefore aids 'concentration' and learning.
Generally people listen to music that they like, and if they like it presumably it makes them feel good - excited or relaxed - as the mood takes us. I dare say there is a reason for ambient or airport music too.
And many musicians do volunteer to play at hospitals for its therapeutic effects, though of course the first therapy is giving the patient something to do or look forward to (anticipation), to literally take their mind off the problem, illness or pain - and/or remove anxiety.
soooo..there is an attribute to how much is absorbed during the time the music is playing..
I know that my younger son's mood instantly improves when I put music on.
Of course it's stimulating.
And soothing when needed.
Do you think there is a corelation between people who learn better with music and those who need a very stimulating learning environment like ....sports?
I have 2 very active, busy boys.
This is what I notice with them..
How would that relate to vibrations as opposed to music? say for example: a profoundly deaf person, such as a famous composer?
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