The Surprising Impact Music Has On Your Brain
Written by Brett Brostrom, Posted on , in Section Relationships That Matter
Music is one of the most powerful motivators to our brains, and is something most people know very little about. This is a no way meant to be any kind of comprehensive list, but it's something worth learning about and can help you in many ways.
1. The Volume Level Will Influence Us In A Positive or Negative way
A lot of people will turn up the music pretty loud when they're going through there today list for the day and trying to clean the house or whatever task it is you're trying to do. But when you're working on some sort of creative project, keeping the volume at relatively moderate level is the best way to get the creative juices flowing.
2. Your Choice Of Music Tells A Lot About Who You Are
Dr. Adrian C. North, professor of psychology at Herriot Watt University, has studied the effect of music quite extensively. Although this graph is not all inclusive (study was only conducted on young adults), it is still very interesting to look at.
3. Musical Training Can Significantly Improve Reasoning And Motor Skills
Blog.bufferapp.com reports that “Learning a musical instrument has a ton of benefits. One study showed that children who had three years or more of musical instrument training performed better than those he didn't learn an instrument in auditory discrimination abilities and fine motor skills.”
4. Music Actually Helps Us Exercise
As it turns out, music actually does distract our brain from receiving certain signals like fatigue or soreness while working out. This is beneficial in more ways than one, as studies have shown that exercise boosts brain activity, releasing endorphins that locked the feeling of pain and is also correlated with the feeling of euphoria.
5. Happy Or Sad Music Affects How We Interpret Neutral Messages
One study tells how our emotions are affected by music. It says that “after hearing a short piece of music, participants were more likely to interpret neutral expression as either happy or sad, depending on the tone of the music they heard.” So if you listen to happy music, it's pretty safe to say that you'll generally be a pretty happy person.
6. Listening To Classical Music Will Improve Your Attention Span
This is similar to number four listed above, where listening to classical music will boost brain activity and cognitive function. Not to say that people who listen to classical music are smarter by any means, but it definitely helps that you're studying for a test or doing homework.
