Magical Effects of Music on Your Brain and Body

That music has a significant impact on the way you act, feel and think is an undeniable fact. But for those of you that still need proof, here’s another infographic for you: The level of impact that music will have on people’s brains and bodies is not necessarily the same. First because different genres have different effects on different people, and second because the appeal of the song is a crucial factor. “The effect of music on the brain or body depends in part on its genre,” Frank A. Russo, PhD, associate professor of psychology at Ryerson University, tells Yahoo Health. But it also depends on whether or not you like the song. “Someone who is a ‘metalhead’ will be able to hear all sorts of emotions in music that others would generally hear as being aggressive,” he says. Via Yahoo! Makes you happy In a test study, participants that did not feel the urge to be happy while they listened to upbeat music did not experience any changes in their mood. The study concluded that listening to positive music could be an effective way of improving happiness, and the effect is increased when the listener wants to be happier. Listening to “Happy” by Pharrell Williams can actually cheer you up. Research published in the Journal of Positive Psychology shows that listening to upbeat music improves mood, with one catch — it only works if you have the desire to be happy. Via Yahoo! The study also revealed that when listening to music, dopamine (or the ‘feel-good’ neurochemical) is released. This same chemical is released when we satisfy our desire to eat, sleep or reproduce. So when we anticipate and then go on to actually experience a feeling of pleasantness while listening to music, our brain translates this as an experience worth releasing dopamine for. Better performance at work If you’ve heard about the ‘Mozart effect’ then you probably know it has to do with making you work better when listening to classical music. But it’s not just classical music that has this effect. A study published in the journal Intelligence shows that people exposed to music performed better at spatial tasks than those not listening to music, but this was not dependent on the musical genre. One of the researchers in the Mozart effect study, Frances Rauscher, explained the implications to NPR: “The key to it is that you have to enjoy the music. If you hate Mozart, you’re not going to find a Mozart effect. If you love Pearl Jam, you’re going to find a Pearl Jam effect.” Via Yahoo! Better memory Research shows that playing music is one way to improve your working memory. In fact, musicians have been found to perform better than non-musicians on various memory tests including visual, phonological and executive memory tests. Ever listen to a song and get vivid flashbacks? “Music can definitely support the recall and even formation of memories,” Russo says. “Enjoyable music may lead to dopamine release in the [...]

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