What Music Does To Your Brain
Even before you are born, the auditory perception of music is processed by the auditory network in the brain. When music is played, brain regions such as the auditory cortex (the brain region associated with processing sound, speech, and overall hearing) , the frontal gyrus, the superior temporal gyrus, and the insula all communicate with each other to allow you to be attentive to sounds, create memories about these sounds, allow for emotional processing of these sounds, and to be able to react to what you are hearing (motor function) 1,2,3,4,5,6,7.
At just 25 weeks of gestation, you could respond to sound at low frequencies of 250–500 Hz, and at 29 weeks, you could respond to sound at high frequencies of 1000–3000 Hz 8. An EEG study revealed that if your parents played a lullaby to you while you were in the womb at 29 weeks and did so 5 times a week, you would have stronger brain-related activity that corresponds to these melodies when they are played after birth 9. These neural representations can even last up to four months after exposure which suggests you created a memory of the song as a fetus while in the whom (also known as fetal memory) 9, 10. If your biological mother played music for you while you were in the womb at 33 weeks, you have stronger connections between brain regions such as the primary auditory cortex and thalamus which are associated with auditory processing, consciousness, sensory-motor signaling; and between brain regions such as the middle cingulate cortex and striatum which are associated with cognitive control, decision making, and reward perception when compared to if your mother had not played music 11.
In your early childhood, if you learned a musical instrument for as little as 15 months, you had changes to your motor and auditory areas in your brain compared to kids who did not have intense musical training, which were associated with benefits in motor and auditory skills 12.[PSJ1]
Even adults benefit from musical training.. Having musical training protects you against impairments in verbal cognition (at least in musicians with epilepsy compared to non-musicians with epilepsy), and the earlier the musicians started playing, the better they performed on learning and remembering melodies13.
The neuroplastic changes of the brain associated with music and skill improvement aren’t limited to infants and children. Music’s neurological effects also extend to people who have TBI, stroke, and degenerative disorders by improving memory, attention, motor regulation, and emotional regulation14,15,16. For mild TBI patients, just playing the piano twice a week for 30 minutes at a time over 8 weeks brought about functional neuroplastic changes in their orbitofrontal cortex networks17, and they improved their cognitive abilities up to a normal level after playing, while six out of seven of them were able to return to work18.
For TBI specifically, music listening and active music making both activate multiple areas of the brain19.Music therapy, specifically neurologic music therapy (NMT), [PSJ2] can help improve executive functioning in moderate and severe TBI patients and can increase grey matter volume (in the right inferior frontal gyrus) compared to the TBI patients who didn’t get NMT. Also, the patients who received NMT first half of a six-month follow up had better executive functioning than the patients who had during the second-half of their six-month follow up20. NMT changed the functional neuroplasticity of resting-state networks of TBI patients, indicating a shift from a hyperconnected state of executive functioning to a more efficient sensory-integrative functioning. This change was achieved in 60-minute sessions, twice a week, which included active music making like rhythmic training, drumming through structured movements, and playing favorite songs on the piano21.
Music therapy can increase your grey matter density22 and volume20,21, as well as and white matter integrity22[PSJ3] and architecture25 in areas such as your motor and premotor cortexes23 and your cerebellum24. Music therapy can also improve your executive functions20,26.
It’s thought that these neurological changes happen because musical training can have specific effects or a range of different effects that other types of trainings don’t have27. For example, musical training requires a wide variety of skills, like translating language into a physical action, memorization, learning rules, and discriminating between tiny differences in sounds and time28. Music might also engage the brain in ways that its areas can link together that otherwise wouldn’t connect29. Actively making music connects areas of your brain that are and are not associated with music, while also activating association cortexes through your memories29,30. But, the research is strongly suggesting that the sooner you start actively engaging with music and frequently, the more beneficial it is for you and your brain9,13,20,21,22,25
1)Trehub (2001); 2. Bhattacharya, Petsche, & Pereda (2001); 3. Janata et al. (2002). 4. Popescu, Robert, Howe, & Auerbach (2004); 5. Blood & Zatorre (2001); 6. Blood, Zatorre, Bermudez, & Evans (1999); 7. Brown, Martinez, & Parsons (2004); 8. Hepper & Shahidullah (1994); 9. Partanen, Kujala, Tervaniemi, & Huotilainen (2013); 10. Chorna et al. (2019); 11. Lordier et al. (2019); 12. Hyde et al. (2009); 13. Bird, Jackson, & Wilson (2019); 14. de Dreu, Nijstad, Baas, Wolsink, & Rsokes (2012); 15. Särkämö & Soto (2012); 16. Ueda, Suzukamo, Sato, & Isumi (2013); 17. Vik, Skeie, & Specht (2019); 18. Vik, Skeie, Vikane, & Specht (2017); 19. Zatorre, Chen, & Penhune (2007); 20. Siponkoski et al. (2020). 21. Molina et al. (2021); 22. Han et al. (2009). 23. Gaser & Schlaug (2003); 24. Hutchinson, Lee, Gaab, & Schlaug (2003). 25. Moore, Schaefer, Bastin, Roberts, & Overy (2014); 26. Vik (2019); 27. Rodrigues, Loureiro, & Caramelli (2010); 28. Norton et al. (2005); 29. Schlaug (2009); 30 Parsons et al. (2008).
