Role of music in creativity and innovations
Music has overlapping effects on various parts of the brain and maintains a healthy communication between those areas.
Large part of the brain is involved during learning and playing instruments. In various research studies, music has been found to be a tool of raising intelligence and overall exams scores among students.
In a special study carried out by different experts and musicologists, students who enjoyed music during reading, studying and research have more higher scores in their exams and experimental results than those who have ignored this blessing for human mind healing and well-being.
If music therapy is used as an adjuvant for traditional psych therapies, it will help reduce the intensity of depression symptoms.
Music therapy sessions, and regularly listening to and playing music helps the addictive patients to cure the addiction.
It could bring out the struck person while thinking and carrying out certain business and creative project and brings writers out of the writer blocks. Sufferers can feel flow of ideas and mental clarity after listening to soothing music and playing musical instruments.
Music therapy has been proved to be highly motivational for learning social skills and creativity.
The brain waves created as a result of playing and listening to music have great impact on the body’s nervous system, respiratory system, blood pressure and pulse rate, and also enhances thought process, as a result of which brain growth and neuroplasticity occurs.
Neuroscientists have found that the prefrontal lobe of the brain is employed in construction of language and music.
It is found that our training in playing and creating music helps us develop our language, ideas and cognitive abilities, and it empowers our mind for greater imaginations, reasoning and development of logic in our brain.
We can improve our thinking, speaking and wellbeing in our life by listening to and playing music. According to a historical case study, Russian music composer Vissarion Shebalin suffered a stroke in 1953 which resulted in loss of his language capabilities.
He was suffering from impairment of speech. But his writing skill remained unaffected until his death in 1963 which shows the marvellous impact of music on human brain.
In another case study it was found that music has influenced the Alzheimer’s sufferers in pronouncing and remembering the written words better than spoken words.
Cognitive and neurological responses in musicians are better than in non-musicians because most of the musicians’ brains remained engaged in perception and interpretation of music and creativity. It was found that musicians who started playing music before age have more developed areas of the brain than those who have started playing and listening to music in later life.
A research study performed on four, and five years old children, shows that those children who have developed areas of brain have been exposed to music from their childhood, while those who have less developed brain have been found to be ignoring or neglecting this blessing for their minds. In some cases, a hyper development in the brains has been found due to music addictions.
Different tunes of music have different effects on mind and mood of listeners. For example, listeners to sad music recollect negative and emotional events like war and crime. On the other hand, listening to cheerful music reminds you of positive and happy events in your life.
The fact is that music enhances intelligence. The research studies on the learning abilities of disabled students show that students who carried on listening to cheerful music earned higher scores than those who did not listen to any music during studies which is the proof of increasing of intelligence with music.
However, music lacking the complex rhythms and tunes, may even detract your intelligence and critical thinking.
Music has great abilities to make a harmony and understanding among different minds and souls. In human history every society has had one or any other form of music in their culture.
Various musical instruments have been used in human cultures to play music like Flutes, Jaw, Herps, and other instruments. Music has great transcendental and mental developmental abilities, and various religious and cultural rituals are performed by playing and singing music.
Music is considered as a great gift for the mind of those geniuses who are creating for healing and optimizing effect for humanity.
Psychotherapists used music to stabilize the uncontrollable emotions. Medical expert advice is to regularly listen to music for those who suffer from fatigue and high blood pressure to maintain homeostasis.
Music also impacts body electrical properties and maintains the flow of electrical current within different parts of the body organs and can trigger positive emotional reaction in the body.
Music also produces emotional reaction which means music has a psych galvanic effect on the body. Different pitch of music has different effect on human body like music with melodic pattern effects mood and physical properties of the body.
Music with low pitch produces calming effect while music with high pitch produces acceleration in body and heart rhythm.
Similarly, music with ascending melodies increases anxiety, tension, and loss of emotional control, and increases pain. Medical students have been found to frequently listen to music to cope with high level of stress due to exams and studies load.
Now physicians are recommending music to patients for its calm effects on the mood of patients.
Medical experts are recommending music for patients’ pre and post operation and surgeries. It is believed that listening to music shoot the production of pleasure hormone like neurotransmitter like endorphin, dopamine, and serotonin in the brain.
The person listening to music experiences the thrill in pleasure centres of the brain. A person may feel the pleasure of eating a chocolate and ecstasy of opium and drugs.
Music therapy helps to coherent the verbal communication in patients who have difficulty in finding words to express their emotions.
Such a condition is called alexithymia in which patients feel difficulty in distinguishing and appreciating the emotions of others which leads them to be unempathetic.
This condition is found in 10% of the population. Music therapy helps such a patient to understand the emotions and meanings of others and promote the empathy with other people.
Music therapy is helpful for others in such a way to harmonize and synchronize the emotions and empathy for others. —Concluded.
—The writer is contributing columnist, based in London.
