According to udiscovermusic.com, “numerous scientific and psychological studies have shown that music can lift our moods, combat depression, improve blood flow in ways similar to statins, lower levels of stress-related hormones such as cortisol, and ease pain.”
Alumnus Gavin Moxley adds that, “I listen to it in class, because it helps me focus. It helps me block out the background noise and feel less stressed about everything going on.” Pfizer.com says, “listening to (or making) music increases blood flow to brain regions that generate and control emotions. The limbic system, which is involved in processing emotions and controlling memory, “lights” up when our ears perceive music.”
The source continues to say, “The chills you feel when you hear a particularly moving piece of music may be the result of dopamine, a neurotransmitter that triggers sensations of pleasure and well-being.”
Psychology teacher Mrs. Melissa Winter says, “I know music deals a lot with your memories and your feelings, so that would be a part of the limbic system, which is the emotional part which includes the hippocampus, which is your long term memory part of your brain.”
She continues that that reason “is why when we listen to songs, it jogs back memories and has such an emotional tie to it.”
Moxley comments, “I think that each type of music affects the brain differently. I think there are types of music that can calm you down, get you happy, and there are kinds that can make you reminisce of when you were younger, and that is comforting.”
According to npr.com, “Neurons in the brain even fire with the beat of the music, which helps people feel connected to one another by literally synchronizing their brain waves when they listen to the same song.”
Winter states, “I think that if both people are connected to the song, then you would bond over that and that is how you could be tied to the other person but I don’t know how that all happens… [brain waves] are just kind of the energy that goes around in your brain, it’s hard to describe. But it’s kind of the energy that is put out by your brain.”
