1. By Austin Everhart
EDUC 6520
Winter 2013
Prof. Quannah Parker-McGowan
Music and the Brain

3. Brain Benefits of Music:
Listening
Therapeutic - strengthens
connections in the cortex,
lullabies, relieve stress
Educational - Mozart
Effect (study showed
improved spatial-temoral
reasoning), enhance recall,
visual imagery, and spatial
thinking (working with
hands)

5. Brain Benefits of Music:
Creating
Closely connected to
mathematics (patterns,
counting, geometry, ratios,
sequences) - activates
same areas of the brain
(left frontal cortex)
Reading - believed strong
relationship (fluency,
decoding, phonological
distinctions)
Verbal Memory

6. Brain Benefits of Music:
Exercise
Music and movement
are connected in our
brains
Increased activity in
cerebellum when
listening to music
Emotions can power us
mentally, making
exercise easier with
music

7. Music: Are we born with it?
Music has been found in every single human culture
Many neuroscientists believe that humans are
hardwired for music
A biological basis is perhaps evident in mothers
cooing their babies, a behavior found only among
humans, helping to form the bond between mother
and child
There are some that disregard the idea that music
is an adaptation, seeing music as a “fortunate
accident of a complex brain”

8. Music Neuroscience - A growing
field...
Research is reaching across disciplines and
topics
Aspects of music
Focused population groups
Techniques (EEG,MRI, etc.)
Music therapy
Education
Psychology
Culture

9. “A commonly held view, in
many differing world
cultures and at many
different times, is that the
experience of music has
both a significant effect on
an individual’s mind, body,
and relationships with other
human beings, and plays a
useful role in the social,
“real world””. - Introduction to The Neurosciences
and Music IV: Learning and Memory

10. Music Therapy
“Music Therapy is an established health profession
in which music is used within a therapeutic
relationship to address physical, emotional,
cognitive, and social needs of individuals” -
American Music Therapy Association
Aristotle and Plato cited healing powers of music
Music therapy’s first reference in 1789 article
“Music Physically Considered”
1800’s - 1st dissertations, interventions, and
systematic experiment

11. Music Therapy - How it could work...
Music may only affect our auditory cortex directly, but our
frontal lobe gets involved and evokes emotions and thoughts
- this is perhaps how music can heal
Musical activity and performance is complex!
Subcortical and interhemispheric pathways
Right Brain (creative, emotional) AND Left Brain (math
and organization)
Limbic system is heavily involved - emotions and
emotional memories
Music exposure also heals with neuroendocrinal changes -
feel good chemicals

12. Music Therapy
When Meds Fail: A Case for Music Therapy:
Tim Ringgold at
TEDxYouth@BommerCanyon
TED Talk - Robert Gupta: Between music and
medicine
Q&A with Robert Gupta

13. Implications/Ideas
Promote the use of music in our classrooms!
Expose our students to different types of
music
Bring music into reading and writing
instruction (songs and rhymes)
Encourage the creation of music - music
programs, instruments, drums, etc.

14. References

15. Image Sources
Slide 1 | Brain_Waves
http://www.newswise.com/images/uploads/2009/04/24/fullsize/Brain_Waves.jpg
Slide 2 | Music-Effect-Infographic
http://www.finerminds.com/mind-power/what-music-does-to-your-brain/
Slide 3 | Headphones on Brain
 http://blog.brainscape.com/2012/09/music-studying/
Slide 4 | Music to Your Brain
 http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=mind-in-pictures-january-12
Slide 5 | Brain Playing Music
 http://www.nature.com/nrn/journal/v8/n7/fig_tab/nrn2152_F1.html
Slide 6 | Swimming with Music
 http://munfitnessblog.com/ever-want-to-use-your-ipod-in-the-water-h2o-audio-has-
something-for-you/