Music can increase our mood or bring us to different states. While listening to specific music, we can feel depressed, depressed, or also happily and charged. Some of us, too, may feel as if they are breathing, feel very strong emotions. Everything is the result of music being applied to our brains. Let's introduce 4 to the ways in which the music affects our brain.

The four ways music influences the brain

Imagine how music influences the brain and mood by impressing on emotions, memory, learning, neuroplasticity and attention.

1) Emotion

Research suggests that music stimulates emotions through specific brain circuits. We can easily see how the music and the brain deal with moods and emotions when the child smiles and begins to dance into the rhythm. He is experiencing an exciting mood of joy from music.

Music is also a parent-child connection. Did you already hear your mother singing to her newborn baby? Music does not affect the brain only at the emotional level, but it is also written as a physical experience. One of the reasons is a hormone called oxytocin. This hormone can also be created by singing. No wonder that music is such a deep emotional experience in both mother and child's minds!

In addition, research suggests that music affects the mood by producing many other useful molecules in our bio pharmacy. Listening to music can create powerful emotions that increase quantity dopamine, a specific neurotransmitter that is produced in the brain and helps manage brain rewards and entertainment centers.

(dopamine = Probably the most well known function is dopamine in the so-called mesolimbic dopamine pathway leading from the middle brain through the nucleus accumbens to the frontal cortex. This track plays a crucial role in creating motivation, emotions, but mainly in a system of pleasure and "rewards". It produces pleasant feelings, either in response to different events or activities, or due to the ingestion of certain drugs, especially stimulants such as cocaine. Source Wikipedia)

Most people think our emotions come from our heart, but a huge part stems from our brain. Our new understanding of how music influences the brain and heart leads to innovative ways of using music and brain to create emotional understanding among people.

Music as a language

A study from the Journal of Music Therapy shows that using songs as a form of communication can increase emotional understanding in autistic children. The study included specific songs that depict different emotions. For example, Beethoven's composition could be used to present sadness, or the song "Happy" by Pharrell Williams could represent joy. The children could then indicate and identify the emotions based on the songs that represented them.

Music has succeeded where the verbal language has failed. Music was able to bridge the brain and heart. Music evokes and engages our emotions in many phases of our lives, both individually and in groups. Music can evoke the deepest emotions and help us to deal with fear, sadness, resentment, even if these emotions are kept on a subconscious level.

2) Memory

Imagine an old man on a wheelchair. His head drops to the chest, almost unconscious. His name is Henry and is disconnected from the outside world because of Alzheimer's disease. What could bring him back to the world and improve his awareness?

Alive Inside shows how music can help improve memory and quality of life in Alzheimer's patients. One of the workers talks with Henry's family and finds out what kind of music Henry liked before the disease hit. The playlist created in this way subsequently helps Henry to reunite with the world and brighten his mood. He was re-connected with what he loved - music.

A study from 2009 from Peter Janata of the University of California, Davis, found that our brain is connecting music and memories. We are experiencing emotional memories when a song from our past is heard. These principles are what we will use later to create the basis of specially crafted playlists. These would evoke some emotional reactions that we want to produce by interacting with music and brain.

3) Learning and neuroplasticity

Neuroplasticity is the ability of the brain to create new neuronal bonds. According to MedicineNet.com, Neuroplasticity allows neurons (nerve cells) in the brain to improve injuries and illness by creating new connections in response to new situations or changes in the environment.

Surprisingly, music can provide a stimulus to create these new paths and help the brain to recover again in the event of brain injury. For example, in a breakthrough University of Newcastle study in Australia, popular music was used to help patients with severe brain disorders. Their favorite music was released to create personal memories they would not normally have access to. Music can help map this alternative path in the brain!

4) Attention

Have you ever heard a song that took you so deeply that it swallowed you up? Music can also improve our attention!

Using brain images of people listening to short symphonies by an eighteenth-century composer, a research team from Stanford Medical School investigated the power of the connection between music and the mind. He specifically examined whether music would help keep our attention. He showed that the highest attention came during the short pauses between sounds. It is as if one is tense of what is to come. This has led researchers to conclude that listening to music can help the brain predict events and pay close attention.

My theory is that these "silences" are really part of the composer's intention to lead listeners to increased attention and brain involvement in listening to music. It is the space between notes that catches our full attention and allows busy minds to communicate and integrate with the heart.

Influence of mood

In the following rows, you will learn how you can influence your mood with music. Learn how to use music as a bridge to increase attention and motivation.

Practice - How to Influence Your Brain and Mood by Music

1) Instrument Playing - Improvisation

Musical improvisation, which is a spontaneous creative idea, is a perfect example of how music influences both sides of the brain. Our technical skills are used to play the instrument and are devoted to the left side of the brain, while new creative ideas or improvisations flowing through us affect the right side. If you want to influence the influence of music on the brain and heart - improvise!

2) Canto

Singing has a positive effect not only on the heart but it also affects our brain. Keep in mind that it's about singing itself, not about how well you sing! Some studies have shown that singing (even bad singing!) Provides emotional, social and cognitive benefits.

3) Songs, sounds and mantras

For thousands of years, sounds and mantras have been used as a means of creating a deeper spiritual connection in the brain, as well as influencing mood. This is especially true of the sound of man, which is said to contain every sound of the universe.

4) Drummer

Research suggests that particular musical rhythms can affect moods by inducing different brain wave frequencies and can induce a deeply relaxed state. Participation in group drumming has led to significant improvements in many aspects of socio-emotional behavior.

Brain waves and their influence

Another powerful way is through brain waves. While the heart is based on heart rate synchronization at a specific pace, the brain is different. There is everything dependent on brain synchronization with specific musical frequencies that are measured in hertz (Hz).

Specific frequencies trigger different states in our brains:

Beta waves

Hertz Level: 14-40 Hz
Effects: awakening, normal consciousness
Example: Active conversation or engagement to work

Alpha waves

Hertz Level: 8-14 Hz
Effect: calm, relaxed
Example: meditation, leaving work

Theta waves

Hertz Level: 4-8 Hz
Effect: Deep relaxation and meditation
Example: Daydreaming

Delta waves

Hertz Level: 0-4 Hz
Effects: Deep sleep
Example: REM Sleep Experience

Swap waves

We spend most of the day in beta waves - we're at attention. We pay attention to the work of the people around. If we get into a quieter mood, it comes with alpha waves. We can get into this mood, for example, by closing our eyes, slowing down breathing, and listening to quiet music.

When we try to calm down even further, we move into theta waves. Meditation and relaxing music can help us. When our body falls into deep sleep, the delta waves follow.

With the action of waves, it is possible to work further. If we wanted to move into a very creative state, we would use music that includes alpha and theta frequencies. If we have insomnia, we can listen to music that contains delta frequencies.

There are many technologies that are used to trigger and target different brain frequencies, including binaural tones, isochronic tones, monophonic beats, and many more. These are the keys to how music influences your mood.

meditation

I also had the honor to work with Dr. Joe Dispensem, a researcher who led his meditation with more than five hundred participants at each seminar. During these strong meditations, a group of participants was studied using EEG brain mapping to determine specific brain activity. Research has shown that humans have achieved very consistent states of brain waves in a very short time during meditation.

The magic of meditation

Music we recommend

1) "The Wisdom of the Heart" by Barry Goldstein - A beautiful one-hour musical journey that gently draws the heart and brain into a more relaxed, cohesive state and positive mood. Switch from beta waves to soothing alpha waves.

2) "Deep theta 2.0 part 1" by Steven Halpern - Let the shakuhachi bamboo flutes and the legendary signature of Steve Halpern's Rhodos electric piano take you to the deep theta waves.

3) Delta Sleep System Part 1 by Dr. Jeffrey Thompson - The beautiful tapestry of fresh sound and minimal melodies creates the ideal base for falling asleep. Ideally for people who have difficulty falling asleep.

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