Music on the brain: Listening can influence our brain’s activity
People have long tried to use music as a tool to improve their abilities. Soldiers chanted songs when marching into battle, sailors sang songs on long voyages, and cloth makers sang when weaving. But do we have any evidence that music makes a difference for any of our activities?
We’ve only recently started to ask that question scientifically. It began with the Mozart effect, which seemed to link classical music to improved mental performance. Named after the famous composer, it was shorthand for the apparent boost in IQ tests that people listening to his music experienced. But the phenomenon turned out not to be real. “Background music was thought to help with work. [It was] found to be the noise stopping the person from being distracted,” says Professor Concetta Tomaino, executive director and co-founder of the Institute for Music and Neurologic Function.
However, research into music and its effects on human abilities continued and eventually resulted in the discovery of an effect called brain entrainment, which appears capable of improving memory, focus, sleep, and physical activity.
Making waves
The technique involves manipulating some of the waves of activity that are part of normal brain behavior. We’ve discovered five types of brain waves: alpha, beta, theta, delta, and gamma. David Sonnenschein, founder of iQsonics, a company that is developing tools for autistic children, says that alpha waves mark resting states and that beta waves are for waking consciousness. However, their effects also overlap; Tomaino says that “Gamma and beta waves help with attention and theta and delta waves help with sleep.”
In theory, you can tune difference in music frequency to boost the activity of any one of these brain waves. “In essence, brain entrainment is the production of specific brain patterns from certain types of music that has specific phase difference,” says Sonnenschein, whose tools for autistic children are based on the idea. Brain entrainment works by having a person listen to music with two different frequencies using headphones. “You can have music at 408 Hz and music at 400 Hz—this creates a difference,” Sonnenschein said, “and that difference is the frequency of brain waves you produce in the brain.”
Beyond these frequency effects, the exact benefits of different types of music are still hotly debated. Some researchers suspect that brain entrainment has a very large effect regardless of the type of music. This group includes Adam Shea-Hewett, who has worked on using music to improve human abilities for nearly two decades and is co-founder of Evoked Response, a company that provides music it claims improves individual capabilities.
However, there are others, such as Mari Tervaniemi, research director at the Centre of Excellence in Music, Mind, Body, and Brain at the University of Helsinki, who differ. “In most cases, it is the favorite music which is beneficial—beneficial to changing the emotional state. Positive emotions can then also contribute to improving cognition. It depends on the music that person likes,” she told Ars. However, she does caution that there are very few studies on South America or Africa, so any cultural differences in how music is appreciated remain unexplored.
There is evidence that the music itself matters. A study with 50 volunteers used brain entrainment that stimulated theta brainwaves but used different means of doing so: either white noise or music. A simple memory test showed that those listening to music saw a much greater boost in performance.
Lots of questions
However, everyone we talked to agreed that music has an effect. But how large is this effect, and how long does it last? That is a question researchers have been struggling with for quite some time.
Research indicates that the effects can be wide-ranging, from improving memory to increasing attention. However, these effects do not last forever. Both Tervaniemi and Tomaino say that you can use it for one or two sessions throughout the day. More than this and you would adapt to the music, limiting its effect.
There is some data on how long changes last following exposure to music. Music produced by Evoked Response has been shown to increase focus in an attention-based task, and the effect seemed to last well after the music was shut off. “We don’t know how long the effects last, but an improvement was seen compared to those without music after two hours from the session," says Shea-Hewett. Evoked Response and others have found similar timing when music was used to influence memory, physical activity, and attention—effects last for one to two hours after the music listening phase.
Another study looking into the effects on sleep showed that individuals who listened to music as they fell asleep saw an increase in their slow wave oscillations (brain waves of a certain frequency), which occur during the later hours of sleep and are essential for memory consolidation. The group that also used the specially crafted music showed a doubling in their time spent in deep sleep and over a halving in the time taken to fall asleep.
Self-medication?
While many people are excited about the prospects of using music to boost everyday performance, others have tested it for its therapeutic value. "Many studies in this area are normally focused on people with pathological conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease, insomnia, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder,” says Tomaino. “For example, music has been shown to improve memory of dementia patients or focus for people with ADHD.” But the greatest effect is on those with Parkinson’s disease, which is marked by uncontrollable movements. “Training with music can lead to a recovery of movement, and the effects are seen instantly.”
Given that listening to music has a long history and is deeply ingrained in many cultures, it’s tempting to view these results as a clear benefit. But the benefit is unlikely to be uniform. For example, there are people who suffer from amusia. “These people do not detect musical pitch and so will not get an effect from music,” Tervaniemi told Ars. Amusia may be as common as dyslexia and is currently poorly studied. We also don’t know whether the benefits of music are influenced by the interaction between the type of music and the culture and background of the listener.
Finally, it’s important to recognize that improving focus and memory aren’t always benefits. Laura Carbrera, a professor of engineering at Penn State, suggested, “Some memories you want to strengthen, but some memories you want to weaken. All memory is related.” And, as the above should make clear, we’re still in the process of learning the details and limitations of how music influences human performance.
So, by all means, enjoy your favorite music. Just have reasonable expectations about the benefits.
Abdullah Iqbal is a freelance science journalist based in northern England who covers medicine, health, neuroscience, and climate science.