It is a stark reality that memory tends to fade with the passing of the years especially in middle age people and older. “To do lists” usually become part of older people’s daily routines. Methods to decrease such negative effects are widely sought to counter this evil: from self-help books, brain games, and supplements such as Ginkgo Biloba. Scientifically there are a small number of studies indicating that music may help people’s mood and emotion, and thus improve positive effects on memory processes. Memory involves three processes encoding, storage, and retrieval, (Ford-Martin, 2001). As the research of each of these processes could be extremely long to conduct, this work aims to study how music could help middle-age people to free-recall. …show more content…
Free-recall is associated with memory: the ability to store and latter remember events and facts previously learned. The element of attention (focus on particular tasks ignoring the rest) is essential in free-call. There are many factors that can affect free-recall: concussions, brain ailments, to the normal aging process to name a few. On another issue, a technique used to help children memorize educational material has been music, (Ford-Martin, 2001). Music is an integration of various elements: melody, harmony, tone, and rhythm. To process music, the human brain follows an ordered sequence. For this to take place, several areas of the brain must be simultaneously activated. Music has even the power to evoke various affective states in humans: emotions and/or moods, (Bigliassi, León-Domínguez, & Altimari, …show more content…
The prefrontal cortex (PFC), the amygdala, hippocampus, and midbrain are among some of the brain regions that have been corroborated been activated by the music, (Bigliassi et al., 2015). Additionally, It has been found that exposure to uplifting music has strong effects on P3a, P3b and reward systems in the brain. Currently, it is believed that P3a depends on the frontal lobes and reflect attracting attention for a distractor stimulus; whereas P3b amplitudes have consideration processes on memory upgrading, (Riby, 2013). Moreover, music can promote the release of dopamine through the mechanisms of pleasure. Music perceived as pleasant can stimulate learning opportunity, (Gebauer et al.,
Music and the Brain: Processing and Responding (A General Overview). For any individual who either avidly listens to or performs music, it is understood that many melodies have amazing effects on both our emotions and our perception. To address the effects of music on the brain, it seems most logical to initially map the auditory and neural pathways of sound. In the case of humans, the mechanism responsible for receiving and transmitting sound to the brain is the ears.
Simmons-Stern, (2010). Music as a memory enhancer in patients with alzheimer's disease. Neuropsychologia, 48(10), 3164-3167. doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2010.04.033
Also children as young as 3 or 4 years of age are able to recognize basic emotions in music (Cunningham & Sterling 1988). Emotional contagion it has been argued, facilitates the mother-infant bond (Darwin 1872), as well as social interaction in general terms (Preston & de Waal 2002). In support of this, this emotional contagion seems to create liking and affiliation (e.g. Lakin et al. 2003) which is perhaps beneficial for social interaction (Juslin, P.N. and Vastfjall D., 2008, p.565).
Music does not just have connection with memory. Music has emotional or drug like effect on the brain. When a person listens to music he/she finds pleasing often this results in a sort of “high”. This “high” is the result of dopamine being released when there is emotional arousal.
Thaut, M. H., & de l'Etoile, S. K. (1993). The effects of music on mood state-dependent recall. Journal of Music Therapy, 30(2), 70-80.
The memory systems include: episodic, procedural, semantic memory, classical conditions, priming and non-associative learning (Henke, 2010). All memory systems are independent of each other and are controlled by different regions of the brain (Henke, 2010). It’s very probable that memory systems did not evolve for the purpose of memorizing everything (Nairne, 2010). If all the information ever presented is stored, there could be storage problems (Nairne, 2010). To avoid this, selectivity of memory is required and memory systems can respond to specific fitness-related information that it receives due to the incorporated biases of the various types of memory (Nairne, 2010). This literature review will focus on investigating the mechanism behind procedural memory and examining the effects of music on human
There have always been discussions of the effects music has on ones behavior, and how it’s related to Psychology. The truth has never really been verified among common knowledge, but it’s usually something that intrigues people. They say heavy metal and rap can make teenagers violent, sad and depressing music can make teenagers sad and depressed, and some say it’s best to listen to classical music when doing schoolwork because it makes your brain more active. There have been many people that reported how music has effects on their behavior. It can lift their mood, “fuel the fire” when they’re angry, or even make it easier for them to fall asleep. People never really get the chance to research the actual science of music, and how it changes people attitudes.
...ing...”). Music is known to increase performance rates for many perceptual and cognitive tasks (Reck, Ovary, “Preface...”), but only recently has it been observed to literally transform our brain, as far as what we use to hear and process it. What music training and music therapy do is use music to tone auditory skills through listening exercises and in many cases be put to use to help with psychological issues such as ADHD, autism, dyslexia and central auditory processing disorders (Kraus et. al.). Through this process, however, the brain’s fundamental structure often changes or adapts itself to the circumstances of exercising auditory components in our brain. These capabilities are both radical and rare, but are scientifically proven. Music has the ability to influence our fine motor skills, coordinated movement, and also fundamentally alter our auditory functions.
Vaidya, Geetanjali. "Music, Emotion and the Brain." Serendip. N.p., 2004. Web. 7 Jan 2012. .
What is a Music / Music? According to dictionary.com, music is “an art of sound in time that expresses ideas and emotions in significant forms through the elements of rhythm, melody, and color.” Music is the product of sound waves coming from anything that creates a melodic tone. There are different genre’s of music, ranging from rock to pop to classical. Each person likes different genre’s of music.
Music and the Brain. (n.d.). Music and the Brain. Retrieved April 25, 2014, from http://tdlc.ucsd.edu/research/highlights/rh-music-and-brain-2011.html
It can be proven, through literary research and personal experiences, that music has a positive effect on learning and memory. It can be concluded that these positive effects have an impact on patients with Alzheimer’s, on the motor skills and auditory memory of mentally disabled children, on students attempting to remember subject manner that they are learning, and on the affectivity of advertisements. On a personal note, music has facilitated my ability to remember things, both positive and negative, a number of times. For example, in high school I memorized the days of the week in French by singing them along with a tune that was already familiar to me. I have also had multiple experiences in which I remember things that I do not want to remember such as advertisements and negative experiences because they were accompanied with specific music. Despite the miniscule negative effects of music on memory, the powerful ability of music to trigger memory production and recall is undeniably beneficial. The profound effect of music on memory and learning makes music a great tool for helping people who want to improve cognitive function, whether they need to receive treatment for a mental disease or learn new information.
The first theoretical statement of the middle-range MMM theory is that music produces the psychological response of altered mood leading to improved health outcomes (Murrock & Higgins, 2009). Based on the musical elements of rhythm, melody, pitch, harmony, and interval there are psychological responses that are elicited once music passes through the auditory cortex of the brain to process it (Murrock & Higgins, 2009). The right hemisphere of the brain helps with response and cognitive recognition of music and in turn is able to alter the mood, leading to various health outcomes (Murrock & Higgins, 2009). In a stu...
Cooper, Belle. " How Music Affects and Benefits Your Brain."lifehacker.come. N.p., 11 22 2013. Web. 3
Music has incredible effects on the brain and body! Ever since the beginning of time, music has been around. It can influence the way a person thinks and behaves, and also social interactions. Teens are more susceptible to this (Revatto 1). Music can be used in therapy by helping people with depression, and can even be a more natural way to heal the body (“How Music...” 1). In some cases, songs and melodies can help or make diseases worse. Music is a powerful thing and can affect your brain and many other things in your body in numerous ways.