Musical Medicine?

Can music have healthy benefits as we get older? Many experts believe than it can. But why is this, and how does music have such a positive effect? I really wanted to understand more and I’m not alone here. At the Music, Imaging, and Neural Dynamics Lab at Northeastern University in Boston, scientists study how the part of the brain relating to musical perception and processing interact with the parts of our mind that control learning, memory, and emotions. They say that our brains are hard-wired to predict and anticipate familiar rhythms and melodies, including voices and music. The best part? When our minds are engaged by these enjoyable sounds, the brain’s reward system produces the hormone dopamine in response. This allows us to feel satisfaction and motivates us to seek out and learn new information. In addition to making people happy, dopamine also engages the part of our brains that processes memories about ourselves. Because the ability to retrieve these memories slows done as we get older, it’s important to keep this function active. Listening to familiar music does just that. So it appears that not only does music trigger the desire to learn, it also stimulates memory function as well. Thank you music!