Let music flow in your heart and your soul
“An increasing wealth of scientific research seems to be telling us the same thing: music is good for you. And it’s not just playing an instrument that causes so many positive effects. Did you know that music activates every known part of the brain, including areas responsible for motor actions, emotions, and creativity?
Processing a musical pulse employs the motor areas of the brain – supporting the notion that music and movement are closely connected. Limbic areas of the brain, known to be associated with emotions, were found to be involved in rhythm and tonality processing. Processing of timbre was associated with activations in the so-called default mode network, which is assumed to be associated with mind-wandering and creativity.
Ahead of Pause, an evening of live music and discussion with guest speakers and carefully-devised musical interludes, we’ve been looking at the amazing processes and benefits that occur when we engage with the mysterious, intangible, utterly essential entity we call music. Here are just a few.
Join Scottish Ensemble and guest speakers for Pause, across Scotland from 11 – 14 September. .
Pleasure
Experiencing (or even anticipating experiencing) music releases the neurotransmitter dopamine, the chemical in the brain responsible for feelings of pleasure and reward. What’s more, we now know that different brain circuits are active in both the anticipatory and achievement phases (specifically, the caudate is more involved during the anticipation of hearing music, and the nucleus accumbens is activated during your peak emotional response). This helps to explain why experiencing tension followed by resolution in music – a perfect cadence, G major stumbling home to C major, that big drop in a dance track that’s been building and building – is so universally satisfying. It’s science.https://scottishensemble.co.uk/magazine/pause-effects-of-music-on-brain-body-soul/
