Another Day Another Post
Well this is a very intriguing topic, ever since my 400 level days, I have been intentional about one concept in particular and that’s the effect of music on the brain, my research back then was mainly centered on the effectiveness of nostalgic music on the brain. For me that was a ground breaking discovery toward improving my productivity and Memory retention and recall.
However, I have now opened a Pandora box of curiosity, as further studies into the effect of music on the brain, has made me see the truth behind the melody, the foundation behind the sound. There is a conception that the gateway to your inner man is through, what you see, and what you listen to (Being the eyes and ears).
Often times we are warned about not listening to certain type of music and also certain type of person, that is being the vessel that sings the song. They are both equally important, the music is like a declaration of words over your life as you sing along, and even when your vibing who knows what you are vibing to.
Famous preacher has raised concern over the spirit of music, Lawrence oyor, Emmanuel Iren, and especially Nathaniel Bassey. The biblical backing on the song of David, and when king Saul was tormented by a spirit, and David needed to play a harp to calm him down. Simply put Music is a food for the soul.
All this got me thinking, what is the effect of music on the brain, behavior and what role does it play in memory and retention. This is a call toward intentional living; to filter the song we are listening to.
How music affects the brain
Music greatly affect the prefrontal cortex of the brain, the PFC(Prefrontal Cortex) is general referred to as the CEO of the brain, which manage complex cognitive tasks and regulate behaviour, mood and emotion. Studies have found that music activate the prefrontal cortex faster when doing work and decrease activity They found that music that is generally considered motivational, induced greater activation in the PFC and a decreased activity in the parasympathetic nervous system, which mainly regulate the involuntary, automatic function of the body, such as arousal and excitement.
Another study in 2011, showed the effect of music on patient undergoing surgery under the lighter sedation of spinal anaesthesia where the patients could just barely reply to commands. The study found that patients who were exposed to musical stimuli during the operation had about 20% lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol in their blood and needed about 15% less sedative than the patients in the control group.
Music has also been known to reactivate the part of the brain that is dormant of a person suffering from Parkinson disease, sometime being unable to talk or move. However, during the period that the music is playing such person is able to move, one severe case of a parkinsonian that illustrates the impact of music, was seen in a 2007 study of a patient who had Parkinson disease but she knew all Chopin pieces from memory but the disease made her spend majority of her time in a certain position unresponsive. When someone would say to her ‘Opus 49’, she did not even have to be at the piano to play it. She would light up, also her electroencephalogram (EEG), and play the piece mentally and for the time that the piece would last she was transformed and responsive. Memory associated with music could still engage her neural activity.
How music affect behavior
It cannot be over emphasize that music can affect your mood, and when music affects your mood it can affect your outward perception of the world and your behavior. Hence music plays a key role in influencing a person behavior. Music can also influence your spending behavior.
A study conducted by Clare Caldwell & Sally A. Hibbert, during 1999, titled “Play That One Again: The Effect of Music Tempo on Consumer Behavior in a Restaurant.” This study reveals the effect of music on human behavior, particularly, human behavior in a restaurant and how music is able to influence, Time perception, and money spent.
The study put consumers in two groups and under two music condition Fast and slow tempo music, so hence we will categories them as fast and slow tempo group. The average time in which a consumer spent in the restaurant was 89minute, after the experiment its showed that the consumers in the slow tempo group spent about 13.56 min more than consumer in the fast tempo group. The study also went far as to reveal the perception of time perceived by each of the consumers, in the respective fast and slow tempo music group. The Consumer in the fast Tempo group stated that they spent far longer in the restaurant, then the actual time they spent. Hence there was over estimation of the time spent by the Fast Tempo. While in the slow tempo group there was an under estimation of time. Hence this study reveal how music can affect the human brain perception of time.
The study also reveals that music affected the amount of money consumer spent in the restaurant, and that consumers in the slow tempo music spent significantly higher than the group in the fast tempo music, mostly on drink and side dishes and not the main meal.
How music plays a role in memory and retention
A 2018 study on “The Effect of Certain Genre of Music On The Brain”, conducted by Odeh O. Elijah and ors. The various genre used were classical music, Country music, Rhythm and Blues music and Reggae. In each group, each participant was to study comprehensive passage for 10 minute while listening to music on their earphone, and were further tested on their memory and recall on the said passage. The results show classical genre is most effective in aiding information retention, but however such cannot be said in regards to Rhythm and Blues genre participant performed worst in terms of information retention, and country music is the least favourable.
This finding is in line with Which is with the outcome of Banbury, Macken, Tremblay and Jones, which states that irrelevant sound has negative effect on memory, especially short-term memory. Conclusively, and this is quite funny, the participant preferred type of music, made them actually perform worst on during the test.
Conclusion
This post was originally titled the spirit of music, and my main aim was to show people how music has adverse effect in their daily lives, and how it influences perception their perception of themselves and reality. When used right, music can be a source of behavioural change, boosting memory and recall, and can also be applied within the field of medicine when treating patients of certain class of disease. As you can see, music has adverse effect, hence a warning, to be cautious to the type of music you listen to and who you listen to (The Vessel). We have only just begun this this topic, its deeper than we can ever imagine, stay tuned and Be PRODUCTIVE.
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Reference
Elijah, Odeh, et al. “Effect of Music Genre on Memory 1 2 3journals/International-Scientific-Research-Consortium-Journals/Social-Sci-Jrnl-of-Policy-Review-Dev-Strategies-Vol5-No1-Sept-2018.” Effect of Music Genre on Memory, vol. 5, 2018, pp. 2488–9628, internationalpolicybrief.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/ARTICLE6-65.pdf.
