People around us have a variety of relationships with music, knowing that the role that music can play in everyday life can change from person to person. The effect it can have on everyone is not the same either and depends on a whole lot of parameters related to the personality, to the social environment but also to specific characteristics of the brain structure.
How can music increase our happiness?
According to an experiment conducted by Dr. Valorie Salimpoor, a neuroscientist at McGill University, listening to music causes our body to produce considerable amounts of dopamine, which gives rise to a feeling of well-being, of excitement, happiness and joy.
Music would also be useful against depression
Another study, this time by Dr. Hans Joachim Trappe in Germany, shed light on the fact that music has a potential beneficial impact on people with depression. It turned out, however, that the effects varied according to the type of music being listened to, which is why patients experienced an improvement in mood by listening to classical or meditative music, while listening to "heavy metal" or the "techno" was rather the opposite that occurred.
The music would even be able to reduce the appetite
Georgia Tech University did a study that found that eating in an environment with soft lighting and soft music had the effect of reducing appetite, resulting in less ingestion. calories and we enjoy each meal better.
What our way of reacting to music can tell us about ourselves
Mattew Sachs, an undergraduate student at Harvard University, did an experiment to understand why some people react to music differently than others and how the body exhibits certain sensations to listen to specific music. . As part of this study, Sachs tried to examine 20 students, ten of whom said they had chills while listening to music, while others said they had no particular feeling.
He discovered something impressive: it turned out that people who were emotionally and physically attached to the music had a divergent brain cell structure compared to those who had not really reacted to the music. listening session. This is explained by the fact that the fibers present in the brain cells of the first group were more abundant than those of the other students, a characteristic that allows the cells to better communicate with each other.
These fibers serve as binding between the parts of the brain, which are responsible for the emotions and the auditory cortex, hence the increased emotional sensitivity of these people. The young student said that having more brain fibers made it possible to enjoy greater efficiency in the treatment of information between different areas of the brain. Which also means that those who have had chills while listening to music tend to be more sensitive but also more receptive. Not to mention that these sensations come from memories related to a specific song.
Despite the fact that the study is done on a very small scale, however, it highlights the difference in brain structures that people can have, which directly affect their reaction to certain things around them. Today, Mattew Sachs is continuing its efforts to learn more about this neurological activity as well as the potential treatments that can put an end to psychological and mental disorders.
