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The effects of music on the body and brain
Introduction about music and brain
Research on how music affects learning
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Recommended: The effects of music on the body and brain
Music Education Improves Academic Performance
Music educators have always believed that a child’s cognitive, motivational, and communication skills are more highly developed when exposed to music training. Now, study after study proves that music instruction is essential to children’s overall education because it improves their academic performance. The positive effects of music education are finally being recognized by science, verifying what music teachers have always suspected.
Music enters the brain through the ears. Pitch, melody, and intensity of notes are processed in several areas of the brain such as the cerebral cortex, the brain stem, and the frontal lobes. Both the right-brain and left-brain auditory cortex interprets sound.
Feza Sancar (1999) writes that the right-brain auditory cortex specializes in determining hierarchies of harmonic relations and rich overtones and the left-brain auditory cortex deciphers the sequencing of sound and perception of rhythm.
Many studies have been performed to examine the affect of musical instruction on the brain. For example, researchers at the University of Munster, Germany, (1998) reported that music lessons in childhood actually enlarge the brain. The auditory cortex is enlarged by 25% in musicians compared to those who have never played an instrument. According to the study by Frances Rauscher of the University of California, Irvine, (1997) links between neurons in the brain are strengthened with music lessons. Dr. Frank Wilson’s study (1989) involving instrumental music instruction and the brain reveal that learning to play an instrument refines the development of the brain and the entire neurological system.
Curriculum areas that music instruction affects most i...
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...who took coursework in music as compared to those with no music coursework.
University of Munster, Germany (1998) Researchers find active music making expands the brain. Nature, April 23,1998. Retrieved April 23, 2003, from http://www.childrensmusicworkshop.com/feature.html.
A discussion of their 1998 discoveries concerning how and where the brain is enlarged through practice at playing a musical instrument. Their findings include the earlier a student begins musical training, the larger some portions of the brain appear.
Wilson, F. (1989). Music and the brain. Retrieved April 23, 2003, from http://www.childrensmusicworkshop.com/musicopensmind.html.
Dr. Wilson reports that learning to play an instrument refines the development of the brain and the entire neurological system. He believes music instruction is necessary for the total development of the brain.
O'Donnell, Laurence. "Music and the Brain." "Brain & Mind" Magazine. 1999. Web. 24 Mar. 2010. .
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”).
This review aims to address the debate as to whether or not playing classical music enhances the cognitive development of infants. This question is raised in response to the claim made by music educator Don Campbell (1997), who states that ‘playing Mozart to babies makes them smarter’, by aiding their intellectual and creative development. It is important to determine if there is sufficient evidence behind this statement as people are paying money for their children to experience the claimed effects. This review will draw upon, analyse and interpret a range of empirical research studies involving school-aged children to adults exposed to different forms of music (including Mozart) to measure the effects. Campbell’s claim will be critically evaluated and proved otherwise that playing Mozart to babies does not improve overall intelligence. It will be argued that the empirical studies are based on children and young adults not infants, that the effects were found to be temporary and relative to specific measure on intelligence, and that other forms of music can influence spatial reasoning.
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.
As seen in the final step of sound transduction, the information relayed by the neural signal branches and processing occurs at different sights. No consensus has been reached as to where music is processed in the brain. Most researchers agree that the different components of music are processed in different parts of the brain, as exemplified by the branching pathway of the cochlear nucleus which facilitates the separation of sound timing and loudness with the sound quality analysis. But this information is not sufficient to answer the question of where our sense of music originates.
Throughout history music has had a profound effect on a person’s mind, body, and consciousness. A song or piece of music can trigger vivid memories, and induce emotions ranging from deep sorrow to unabashed joy. Music can drive listeners to patriotic fervor or religious frenzy, or it can soothe the savage beast we call human. There have been many advances in technology that have let us study how music affects the brain. Music causes all sorts of activity in the brain, especially during musical improvisation. Music can tremendously help people with certain mind damaging diseases, and in some cases it can have negative effects.
The position that is being argued is that music should stay in schools. This author is making the claim that music makes children excel in their education. This author uses many different sources. The author relies mainly on studies to back up his argument. The article is recent.
Many people do not realize the positive effect that popular music has on children. At a young age one of the breakthroughs for children is music’s benefit for language development. According to the Children’s Music Workshop, the effect of music education on language development can be seen in the brain. Studies have indicated that musical training develops the left side of the brain known to be involved in processing language and can actually wire the brain’s circuits in specific ways. The relation between both music and language development can also have advantages children. Listening to music can also improve children test scores and IQ levels. Dr. Schellenberg found that a small increase in the IQs of six year olds who were given weekly vocal and piano lessons. This leads to the fact that music is very helpful when it comes to education. Professor Christopher Johnson revealed that students in elementary schools with better music education programs sc...
The strongest hypothesis would be that the brain areas involved are identical for imagery and perception, but this is almost certainly not the case. Despite how vividly detailed music in your head can be, you can tell the difference between music in your head and actual music. The only cas- es where people can’t tell the difference are musical hallucinations, which are the sub- ject of Chapter 15. How much overlap is there in the brain areas involved? The two broad approaches in the cognitive neuroscience tool kit are lesion studies and brain Earworms and Imagery 7 imaging.
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.
The idea of the Mozart effect began in 1993 with a study conducted by Rauscher, Shaw & Ky. This study involved 36 university students taking three different IQ spatial reasoning tasks and for each test used either Mozart’s sonata for two pianos in D major and relaxation music was played, silence was also used. The results of this experiment showed that students who had listened to the music of Mozart had better results for the spacial reasoning tests in comparison to silence or relaxation music. The results also showed that the impact of Mozart’s music was only temporary and only lasted for 10-15 minutes. Overall this study was very basic and had numerous flaws such as the sample size and also the variety of tests used to look at the impact of music (Rauscher, Shaw & Ky, 1993). In 1997 Don Campbell’s book The Mozart effect popularised the claim that music makes children smarter. This book created a public interest in music and brain development. The book uses Rauscher’s experiment as an example of what Mozart’s music can do which in this experiment shows a temporary increase in spatial reasoning, this however was misinterpreted by the public as an increase in IQ. The popularisation of the...
"Music and the Brain." Music and the Brain. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Mar. 2014. .
When we listen to music a number of things occur: we process sound through the auditory complex, an artist’s movement through the visual cortex, dancing and other rhythmical movement through the cerebellum. The Motor Cortex also enables movement such as foot tapping or hand clapping. Our Hippocampus stores our experiences through music and enables musicians to remember musical pieces. Finally, the Amygdala allows for emotional reactions to music. Because music is a combination of our different senses, we as individuals can process things differently and naturally we will like some genres more than others. Music is one of th...
FUN Music Company "How Does Music Stimulate Left and Right Brain Function and Why is