Music therapy
You don’t need a neuroscientist to tell you that music can be invigorating. The physical thrill you sometimes get from a powerful song is what psychologists are now phrasing as ‘skin orgasms’. The sensation seems to be triggered by songs that slightly diverge from our expectations – a swift key change, a sudden switch from soft to loud, or a note that clashes with the tune’s melody. The sensation, known as a skin orgasm, produces a feeling of pleasure so intense, it can be felt all over their body, can produce trembling, sweating and even arousal.
American psychologist Psyche Loui and her team of researchers discovered in a study that 80% of people had a physical reaction to music, with 24% of them experiencing tears, 10% getting shivers and 5% getting goosebumps on their skin.
LISTENING TO MUSIC DURING SURGERY REDUCES PAIN, ANXIETY
Listening to music before, during and after surgery reduces people’s pain, anxiety and need for painkillers. A team in London analysed the results of 73 randomised controlled trials looking at the impact of music on postoperative recovery, compared with other interventions such as massage. Music was effective even when patients were under general anaesthesia.
MUSIC TRAINING NURTURES HEALTHY BRAINS
Getting trained in music can have greater benefits than simply being enjoyable. A new Northwestern University study has found that music training, which is initiated as late as high school, may help to improve the teenage brain’s responses to sound and sharpen skills for hearing and language. It has been found that teens who undertake in-school music training maintained a heightened state of neural consistency throughout high school.
SONGS MAKE PEOPLE FEEL SAFE IN PUBLIC
Introduction of bird songs or human vocal sounds can increase the sense of security even in public places that are not well-lit or crowded. Both bird sounds and human vocal sounds make people feel a social presence, which then give them an increased sense of safety.
WORKOUT MUSIC RELEASES NATURAL PAINKILLERS
Listening to music while exercising releases chemicals in the brain which can dull pain and make you less tired, according to an Oxford psychology professor. The brain releases chemical opioids when it hears music. These are natural painkillers which act like morphine. Interacting with music, by singing or dancing for example, increases the opioid signals much more than listening alone does.
MUSIC BOOSTS LANGUAGE SKILLS
Neuroscientists have made a surprising link between music, rhythmic abilities and language skills. People who have a better sense of rhythm and can move to a beat show more consistent brain responses to speech than those with less rhythm. The findings suggest that musical training could possibly sharpen the brain’s response to language.
NEW FRONTIER IN EPILEPSY TREATMENT
“We believe that music could potentially be used as an intervention to help people with epilepsy ,“ said one of the researchers, Christine Charyton from Ohio, US. The researchers compared the musical processing abilities of brains of people with and without epilepsy. Brain wave activity in people with epilepsy tended to synchronise more with the music, especially in the temporal lobe, than in people without epilepsy .
YOUR TASTE IN MUSIC REVEALS HOW YOU THINK
Now, science proves that music is an expression of who we are. A study of 4,000 participants found that people who score high on empathy prefer mellow music (R&B, soft rock, adult contemporary genres), unpretentious music (country, folk, singer-songwriter), and contemporary music (electronica, Latin, acid jazz, Euro pop). They did not like intense music such as punk and heavy metal. Systemisers (those who understand the rules that underpin systems like car engines, music or the weather) love intense music. The same held true within specific genres: empathisers liked mellow or unpretentious jazz, while systemisers preferred the more complex and avant-garde jazz. High on empathy: Come Away With Me Norah Jones All of Me -Billie Holliday Crazy Little Thing Called Love -Queen High on systemising: Concerto in C Antonio Vivaldi?
God Save The Queen The Sex Pistols Enter Sandman -Metallica?
