The Brain's Role in Music

Introduction

It's clear to everyone that we all enjoy music. We all have our own preferences. It's a good feeling when you find someone who has the same music taste as you! I know my life would be so boring without music. It is a big part of my favorite sport, dance. Whether I am lying down on my bed or getting ready, music is always there. Music will forever be in our lives from ways such as our culture and environment. I know we all hear songs every day on TikTok and get them stuck in our heads. This happens to me way too often but have you thought about why we enjoy music and what does our brain have to do with it? Well, you have come to the right blog.

How does our brain take part in why we like music?

Our brain liking music has do to with how we can even hear music in the first place. As found by Robert J Zatorre, a big part of why we can even hear music in the first place is because of our Auditory Perception System. This has to do with the brain circuits in the auditory cortex, most importantly the dorsolateral frontal cortex and the posterior areas in the parietal lobe. He stated that someone that lacks these connections will have a harder time with sound. (Zatorre 2018) Just think about a game that needs 4 players to play, and you only have two players; you will not be able to play. Similarly, if some of your brain circuits in the auditory cortex are not functioning, it would affect your hearing. Another system involved is the Reward System. Another important aspect that Zatorre found, is the perceptual mechanism in the perceptual system. This mechanism is responsible for predicting the next sound from a pattern in sounds that it finds. If the sound is not as expected, it can be either not likeable or even better than the expectations. (Zatorre 2018) Think about it this way, you tell yourself you will earn 100% on your test tomorrow but you end up failing your test, therefore unable to meet your expectations. You will definitely not enjoy the fact that you failed and this is similar to how the Reward System and Perceptual System work together to make us enjoy music!

How does music help me?

First of all music is involved in my favorite activity, dancing. However if I were to think about how it helps me, I would say it sometimes helps me to focus when I am writing and gets me to release emotions. When I am happy I get to play energetic music that helps me get to release my energy or slower music when I am in a calmer mood and want to focus. Just being able to listen to some of my favorite artists makes my day better. So far, in most of my blog posts, I like listening to music while I am typing because it clears my mind of other things such as the homework that is waiting for me. With music playing I can just focus on what I am doing in the moment rather than what I will do in the future. This is the opposite when I am doing homework for subjects, for instance math. I cannot focus on what equation I am solving when music is playing because it is a distraction for me. I start to listen to the lyrics of the song rather than thinking of how to solve it. For example, when I was doing my math homework the other day I was listening to music and had to turn it off because I could tell my attention was shifted towards the music. Overall, I would say my relationship with music is good in some ways but a distraction in other ways even so, I could not see my life without it.

Conclusion

Music is included in my life so much, and it's nice to know a little a bit about the brain's involvement in why we enjoy music. The Auditory Perception System helps us to hear sounds while the Reward System takes part in saying if our expectations of sounds are enjoyable or not. They are both important and contribute to more than just liking music and are key parts in our brain. Thanks to my brain, I can continue to dance to music and listen to it whenever I please. Furthermore, there are so many other parts of the brain that take part in our every day lives, and I cannot wait to share them with you all. Thank you for reading this and remember you are not alone!

Works Cited

Zatorre, Robert J. “Why Do We Love Music?” Cerebrum : The Dana Forum on Brain Science, U.S. National Library of Medicine, 1 Nov. 2018, pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6353111/#sec4.