Notes

hello everybody ! welcome back to this podcast . today , i , jessiel , will be your host and today's topic will be one that i've been very intrigued about recently, which is the science behind music and how it affects our brains. so, we all listen to music, whether its thru our spotify playlist, a radio, in a mall, music is everywhere. it's to the point where music has become one of the more prominent parts of our lives, which, i can definitely say it has been for me. so, this topic is a bit of a hefty one, so let's just dive right into it!

before we start to get into the meat of this topic, let me ask you a question; what do YOU think happens when we listen to music? or more specifically, what happens in our brains? originally, before i even started researching on this topic, i thought, well, surely there can't be too many things going on? i meann, i'm only listening to music for fun or for background music. and if you said the same thing i did, you'd be wrong– very wrong! so, i'm sure you're curious on how a little jingle can do so much in our brains, so let's get into it.

before we start to actually talk about the music, it is also important to talk about what Makes Up music– sound. if you notice, most sounds are a pattern– from birds chirping in the background, the tapping of a keyboard or the sounds of your footsteps, most of the things we actually hear (and not omit), is actually a pattern. and the thing is, is that– we love imitating pattern and rhythm. and This is due to the mirror neurons in your brain– it sees action and it wants to replicate that action. it also explains why certain things like yawning are contagious. this is also due to the fact that the connections in the human brain between the motor controlling the regions of motion & the regions controlling sound share the same part of our brain– the auditory cortex. actually, speaking of contagious, you wanna know what else is contagious? emotions. when we hear someone, or someThing being sad, what do our mirror neurons react with? sadness. this explains why we may feel sad when a sad song is going on or otherwise. but that's not all– which also leads us to our next segment..

and its that– almost everything in our brain correlates emotion and music together. as an example, when we get shocked, our brainstem activates and makes us flinch to the loud and sudden noise. the neocortex is activated when we hear patterns and processes it, including patterns in sounds and music. when we hear something specific, our hippocampus is activated and stores it into our memory. and this is just a small fraction of all of the wondrous things that happen in our brain when we listen to music. for now, considering the abundance of parts that are activated and the limited time crunch, we'll be discussing the most important parts only today.

the first one we'll be talking about is the amygdala. the amygdala and the hippocampus are actually located in the same part of the brain, the temporal lobe. basically, the amygdala controls your emotions. fear, joy, sadness, anger, all of those emotions are processed in your amygdala. remember that little thing earlier, where i off-handedly mentioned how when you hear something emotional, you can feel those emotions as well? that also is controlled by the amygdala. and remember how the amygdala is very closely associated with the hippocampus? this explains why when we hear a specific song, like [insert titanic song here], we get reminded of the emotions and memories we experienced when first hearing the song. it's a strong and emotional trigger response that goes on along with the amygdala and the hippocampus.

and this is only scratching the surface of the amazing things that music does to the human brain. did you know that music can raise up your dopamine (your happy chemicals) levels by a large amount, and lower down your cortisol (your stress chemicals) by a notch? this is why when we listen to music that we like, we get happier, more productive, etc. when it comes to music we Don't like, our cortisol levels get higher and we feel stressed and upset. music talks in so many different ways to a person because it truly has a chemically-deep effect on our brains.

hey, actually, did you know, there was a woman named gabrielle giffords was shot in the left brain and struggled to say specific words ; a condition called aphasia. but when she sang that word she was struggling with, she was able to successfully say it clearly. and you may be asking, why? well, it's because only the left hemisphere pf our brain controls language, whilst there are so many other parts of the brain that have access to music. these pathways can help the brain remember how to say certain words and ultimately, regain language.

what about people who make music? a musician that was assessed had benefits in cognitive skills and decision making, social behaviour, changes in associated brain structures (which alludes to : better connection between both brain hemispheres and more creative&better problem solvers). for reference, a singer was brought to scan his brain whilst he was singing one of his songs. it was noted that the areas that process sensory and motor skills along w sounds lit up. after that, one of the scientist asks him to improvise new lyrics to see what happens when he creates something totally new. parts that were already active were activated even more. his prefrontal cortex (which controls effortful planning&conscious monitoring) shuts down; it was as if he is letting go of his control and letting his creativity flow without any limits. his brain was finally letting go of the self-concious and logical part of his brain.

and this is just a few tidbits of the amazing things that music does inside the brain. unfortunately, i think this is the time for us to depart. i loved talking about this topic to you today and i hope you learned something new today! i'll see you next time then and thank you for clocking in today. byee!!!