The Positive Effects of Music

It has been scientifically proven that music has a powerful effect on the brain. Recent research has revealed that music can help many aspects of the human brain, including stress relief, pain reduction, memory, and brain injuries. For stress relief, it was discovered that it depends on the kind of music you listen to, “relaxing music can alleviate stress by lowering cortisol levels, which is the hormone released in response to stress” (The Tabernacle Choir). Studies convey a link between listening to music and decreased stress in pediatric emergency room patients. Music also helps with pain reduction as it was discovered that music is very helpful for fibromyalgia patients. This study also revealed that your own choice of music heavily effects your reduced pain and increased functional mobility. This is believed to be caused by music triggering opioids in the brain. This was confirmed in a 2013 study when, “people given the opioid blocking drug, Naltrexone, experienced less pleasure while listening to their favorite song, suggesting music activates the release of pain-relieving opioids” (The Tabernacle Choir). Music has similarly been closely linked with improving memory. Listening to music can take your mind back to memories that you may have stored deep in your brain. In a study with patients who have dementia, the results showed that listening to music and singing improved mood orientation, remote episodic memory, attention, executive function, and general cognition. Singing also enhanced short-term and working memory of the patients. Music has had a large impact on the recovery from seizures, strokes, and other brain injuries. It was reported that people with epilepsy respond differently to music than people who do not have epilepsy. “Persons with epilepsy synchronize before a seizure. However, in our study, patients with epilepsy synchronized to the music without having a seizure”, said Christine Charyton. Stroke patients who listened to music in the early steps after a stroke showed a major improvement in recovery. Music helped to better the verbal memory of the stroke victims by 60 percent. This information was what led a treatment called Melodic Intonation Therapy, that was developed to aid stroke survivors to be able to communicate again. The purpose of it was to convert singing in to speech. Music has many positive and negative effects that have helped create the debate if it is good or not. I believe that the benefits of music on the brain outweigh the detriments that it has and if listeners are responsible then music will positively affect them.

Works Cited:

"Music Lessons Combat Poverty's Effect on the Brain." Scientific American,

     www.scientificamerican.com/article/
     music-lessons-combat-povertys-effect-on-the-brain/. Accessed 28 Jan. 2019.

"The Powerful Effect of Music on the Brain." The Tabernacle Choir, 1 Feb. 2018,
     www.thetabernaclechoir.org/articles/
     the-powerful-effect-of-music-on-the-brain.html. Accessed 28 Jan. 2019.