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How music effects the brain essay
How music effects the brain essay
An essay on music and the brain
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What is Music?
According to dictionary.com, music is “an art of sound in time that expresses ideas and emotions in significant forms through the elements of rhythm, melody, and color.” Music is the product of sound waves coming from anything making a melodic tone. There are different genera’s of music, ranging from rock to pop to classical. Each person likes different genera’s of music.
No matter what you listen to, music has a way to “play with our emotions”. For example, if you listen to Tchaikovsky (classical) you may feel calm, and if you listen to Eminem (rap) you may feel hyper. If the music you listen to makes you feel good, it is good for you, Daniel Levitin, a Neuroscientist who focuses mainly on music, explains in an interview.
What is The Brain?
The human brain is the control center of the human body. It is the most important part of the body, because without a brain, none of us would be alive. In the brain, there are the cerebrum, the cerebellum, and the brain stem. The cerebrum holds memories, controls movement, and does problem solving and thinking. It is the biggest part of your brain. The cerebellum is underneath the cerebrum; it controls coordination and balance. The brain stem is the part closest to the neck. It controls breathing, heart rate, blood pressure, digestion, etc. (Alzheimer's Assosiation, 2011). The brain has two hemispheres as well as the three major sections; the right hemisphere and the left hemisphere. There is not exactly a “music area” in the brain.
Miscellaneous Facts
The brain is a very powerful organ, no doubt. It tells your body how to react and what to do. But what happens when you listen to music? How does your brain react? Let’s take a look.
According to William J. Cromie, a writer...
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...Link between Music and Happiness?" HowStuffWorks. Discovery, n.d. Web. 20 Oct. 2013. .
Landau, Elizabeth, and Daniel J. Levitin. "This Is Your Brain on Music." CNN. Cable News Network, 15 Apr. 2013. Web. 12 Oct. 2013. .
Schlaug, Gottfried, Andrea Norton, Kate Overy, and Ellen Winner. Effects of Music Training on the Child’s Brain. The Musician's Brain. New York Academy Of Sciences, 2005. Web. 14 Oct. 2013. .
"Scientific American Digital: Digital Archive of All Issues from 1993 to Present." Scientific American Digital: Digital Archive of All Issues from 1993 to Present. N.p., Nov. 2004. Web. 20 Nov. 2013. .
Oxford’s dictionary defines music: as vocal or instrumental sounds or both, combined in such a way as to produce beauty of form, harmony, and expression of emotion. Music, as a form of expression and communication, comes in many forms and styles: classical, folk, country, rock, and electronic
Mannes, Elena. "www.npr.org/2011/06/01/136859090/the-power-of-music-to-affect-the-brain." Mannes, Elena. The Power of Music to Affect the Brain. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2011.
Music has become increasingly popular in today’s society. When we are listening to music, our brain does much more than just process the sound. Music has been known to be able to affect human emotions and moods. The brain first categorizes sound into music through interactions between the low-level and high-level processing units (“How Our Brains Process Music”). The whole task begins with the auditory cortex in the brain which first receives a signal from the eardrum which in turn activates the cerebellum (“How Our Brains Process Music”). The cerebellum is the part of the brain that assists in coordination, precision, and timing of movement (“How Our Brains Process Music”). The ear and the cerebellum together as the low-level processing units allow the brain to start analyzing the sounds and break down the auditory stimulus into pitch, amplitude, timing of different notes, etc (“How Our Brains Process Music”).
Have you ever given much thought about what goes on in the brain when you listen to music? Almost every human being listens to some type of music from country music all the way to religious music. Thinking about it, does music help with anything, is it just something humans like spending their time with or does it harm us in any way or form? I will am going to tell you about what the brain releases when a person listens to music, how music helps people with Alzheimer’s, and other small things that music does to the brain.
Music and the Brain: Processing and Responding (A General Overview). For any individual who either avidly listens to or performs music, it is understood that many melodies have amazing effects on both our emotions and our perception. To address the effects of music on the brain, it seems most logical to initially map the auditory and neural pathways of sound. In the case of humans, the mechanism responsible for receiving and transmitting sound to the brain is the ears.
Whether you’re a devoted music enthusiast or you just listen to the radio to pass time, we all listen to music. However, when listening to music, nobody stops to think about what they are doing. Nobody stops to contemplate how the music they are listening to affects them psychologically. We just listen to the music and enjoy ourselves. In fact however, a great deal of research has been done to determine the psychophysiological effects of music. Many studies have been conducted to determine whether music can help people who suffer from psychological and medical disorders, Scholars continually debate whether music can influence behavior, and researchers are attempting to understand what is happening in our brain when we listen to music.
The brain has many different parts to it which help one function through daily life; parts such as the cerebrum which controls voluntary movement and regulates functions such as thinking, speaking and the ability to recall information. The cerebellum controls the balance and coordination and finally the brain stem, which consists of the medulla oblongata and the spinal cord which controls all involuntary functions such as breathing, heart rate and blood pressure. The brain stem is also able to carry out these actions even when someone is asleep. To fully understand how crucial the brain is to survival one must understand the functions of the brain stem.
First let’s look at what happens when you hear music. Here is a diagram that shows and explains what happens when you listen to music. Outer ea...
When listening to music there is a common feeling of of love, joy, and happiness. That feeling comes when someone is listening to the right genre for the mood that, that person is in. Some people are driven by music it helps them study and concentrate. It helps a lot of people if they listen to classical music when they are studying for a test. Music is one of the most amazing things in the world, because there so many different genres involved in making music. Three different genres of music are Rap, Country and Classical.
The correlation between music and individuals is a very heavily researched topic. This literature review will critically evaluate the claim made by Don Campbell (1997, p.24) that ‘playing Mozart makes babies smarter’. This review will look at the history of the Mozart effect and also look at a range of sources that support and also go against the claim that the Mozart effect makes babies smarter. These claims will be analysed through the three main measurements in relation the Mozart effect these are spatial reasoning, arousal and also mood.
Weir, Kirsten, and Debbie Nevins. "Music And Your Mind.. (Cover Story)." Current Health Kids 34.1 (2010): 10-12. Health Source - Consumer Edition. Web. 9 Jan. 2012.
Levitin, Daniel J. “This is your Brain on music: The Science of a Human Obsession.” Print
The area at the front of the brain is the largest. Most of it is known as the cerebrum. It controls all of the movements that you have to think about, thought and memory.
Music has incredible effects on the brain and body! Ever since the beginning of time, music has been around. It can influence the way a person thinks and behaves, and also social interactions. Teens are more susceptible to this (Revatto 1). Music can be used in therapy by helping people with depression, and can even be a more natural way to heal the body (“How Music...” 1). In some cases, songs and melodies can help or make diseases worse. Music is a powerful thing and can affect your brain and many other things in your body in numerous ways.
Cooper, Belle. " How Music Affects and Benefits Your Brain."lifehacker.come. N.p., 11 22 2013. Web. 3