Exploring Music's Influence on Mood, Memory, and Neuroplasticity

This essay delves into the profound connection between music and human psychology, examining how music influences mood, memory, learning, attention, and neuroplasticity. It reviews Barry Goldstein's article, "The Fascinating Ways That Music Affects Your Mood and Mind," and supports or contradicts the author's viewpoints by discussing other relevant literature. The essay highlights music's ability to stimulate emotions, enhance memory (particularly in Alzheimer's patients), promote neuroplasticity, and improve attention. It also touches upon the use of music therapy in various contexts, such as autism treatment and brain injury rehabilitation. The essay further explores the dual nature of music, acknowledging both its positive and potentially negative impacts on human well-being, and concludes by discussing practical methods for harnessing music to enhance mood and cognitive function, such as musical improvisation, singing, and chanting.

Running head: MUSIC AND MOOD
MUSIC AND MOOD
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The aim of this paper is to discuss the connection of music with the human
psychology. From ancient times, music has been the part of culture, community and existence
of people around the world. It has been the simplest way of communicating the most complex
matter. Through music, human beings can relate with their past and present, engage
themselves in understanding their psychological needs and indulge their hearts desire
according to moods. Music has been the most important and most celebrated medium of
communicating things to a large part of population and influence people in numerous ways.
Music is the expression of love, sadness, exultation, faith, knowledge and most
importantly, pleasure. From the ancient period of time when music only had the form of
rhythm, human beings have been connected with it. At that point of time, music used to be
associated with mainly the religiosity and recreation (Särkämö et al. 2016). With the growth
of language and civilization, more complicated emotions have become the subject matter of
the songs or music. Now there is a close connection with the human brain with the music and
it is capable to regulate the human brain easily than any other psychological therapy.
This the reason why the music therapy among the autism patients has gained
popularity. Just as the child can learn fast the rhythmic process of their childhood rhymes,
can also learn and memories the poems better when that listen to their form of song. Music
connect the children with their parents and create an in-depth memory that remain in their
memory for long period of time. Music has been the most effective way to reach the god
since ancient periods of time, similarly has been the path the reach the psychology of people.
This paper will discuss the article “The Fascinating Ways That Music Affects Your Mood
and Mind”, by Barry Goldstein as the chief literature to review and will support or contradict
the points of view of the author by discussing other literature on the same subject.
According to Barry Goldstein (2019), the human brain has a close and deep
connection with the music in all its forms. It is capable to feel the emotion of the music,

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connect the past with present and heal the brain injuries even. According to this author, there
are four ways that music can affect the human brain. This article discusses the methods and
processes how music and effect the mood mainly brain by increasing the memory, emotion,
learning, attention and neuroplasticity. There are many ways that the music engage with the
brain and how musical program can enhance certain functions of brain. It is a well-known
fact that music can stimulate emotion through particular brain circuits. For example when and
a Child listens to rhythmic music he begins to you dance pause miles and experiences an
uplifted feelings of joy from that music disturb in most of the cases parent and child can
connect through music like lullaby. A mother’s lullaby is capable to release Oxytocin which
is called cuddle hormone that calms down a crying baby. According to author the research
indicates that music can I fit mode through producing a range of beneficial molecules in the
biological pharmacy. In addition to this the process of listening to music can higher emotions
and increase amount of dopamine which is a particular neurotransmitter produced in brain
and help to control the reward and pleasure centers of the brain. This is why this process is
used in music therapy where the music is used a mode of communication for increasing
emotional understanding in the autistic children. The emotional stimulus gets influenced by a
special kind of music or a song which one can easily related to is capable to enhance emotion
experienced from the heart. Music affects the brain as well as the heart therefore the
researchers are finding innovative ways to utilize songs to create emotional understanding
among people.
It can be said that music is related to emotion this is why various genres and types of
songs are being created depending upon the mood and emotion, the demand of music have
increased. People listen to sad songs like the compositions of Beethoven to connect the
universal sadness and listen to Pharrell Williams to enjoy the energy. According to the author
memory is also connected with music. The most important example in this aspect can be the

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patients suffering from Alzheimer’s. They cannot remain ever of time or incidents as they
lose memory but music can improve the quality of life bye by the developing the brain health
of these patients. The survey especially interviews have revealed that through music these
patients can we connect with the world around them as well as brighten their mood. The
feeling that they are aware and know their existence can be achieved through music. The
author have pointed out about a study by Petr Janata at University of California where the
researcher had found that a part of brain can associate memories and music when and one
experience some emotionally salient memories. These are triggered by the familiar music
from the past. This happens in the normal person’s also along with the Alzheimer’s patients.
Similarly music has connection with learning and neuroplasticity. This is the ability of
brain to recognize itself through creating new neural link throughout life. According to this
study cover neuroplasticity is greatly affected by harmony of music. Neuroplasticity permits
the Nerve cells to compensate for disease and injury and adjust their activities to response to
the new situations as well as changes in the environment. The research proposes that when
the brain is damaged or suffers from any injury, try to find ways to function properly. In that
case music can help the stimuli for creating this new way and the brain can rewire itself
properly. In the University of Newcastle Australia the patients with brain injury had gained
path breaking result while undergo music therapy. They have experienced a fast recovery
from the injury as Music helped the brain to reconnect the memories which were partially lost
once. In order to support this, the author has referred to the case of former congresswoman
Giffords who lost his brain's language centre and unable to speak but through music therapy
like melodic intonation and singing she has regained her ability to speak properly.
Finally the attention is also connected with music and its variety. According to this
author music can active, improve and sustain attention by increasing the brain and put the
attention in the right track. It is kind of method where the composers intentionally guide the

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listeners to interpret and integrate their music with the brain. Just as the speakers allow
silence in their speech to let the audience to anticipate situations and interpret it with fullest
attention, similarly, true balance in music can heal so that heart and brain cohere.
In this regard the research by Bhatti et al. (2016) can be discussed. In the article of
this authors, it has been found out that the music has the capability to arouse certain human
emotions. Through effective computing especially with the technology of EEG, these authors
have found out that music is a powerful tool that can recognize the emotions like happiness,
anger, love and sadness quite easily and can respond to the various genres of music such as
rap, electronic, metal, hip-hop and rock music styles. In this study the authors have captured
the response of the participants and their emotions while listening to the different genres of
music (Putkinen, Makkonen and Eerola 2017). Therefore, it can be stated that the music
sends signals to brain by using hybrid features of the brain signals. Hence rap and rock genres
great happy emotions in comparison to the other genres.
Similarly the study by Thompson (2015) has pointed out that there are some very
important theories relating to the connection between the music and human behavior. To this
author, there are positive effects of music on human brain but this depend upon whom the
human beings are perceiving the music or the composition. To this literature, the modern
neuroimaging techniques can effectively easier the effect of music on brains and the
psychological processes involved in the imaging, composing and performing music. They
have potential and cognitive advantages of the musical engagement which are mentioned
above in the cases of the patients of autism and those of Alzaimers.
To Koelsch (2015), the human emotion as evoked by the music can relate to the
evaluation, memory, resonance, tensions, understanding, imagination and different social
functions. These principles along with their sub principles are used in the music therapy as
these consider both the reception as well as production of the music along with the relevance

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of the emotion evoking principle s for the music therapy. On the other hand Magee et al.
(2017) has connected the music therapy as the powerful tool to heal brain injuries. To these
authors music interventions can be supportive of the communication outcome in the people
with aphasia following stroke. Music is also having the efficiency to address the recovery of
the people with issues like problems in upper extremity functions, communication process,
mood and emotions problems, effective social skills, cognitive functioning, behavioral
outcomes, feeling of pain and incapability to face adverse event.
In the article by Goldstein (2019), again one can find out that along with the positive
effect of music, negatives are also present. While one set of music can develop imagination,
grow attention, restore memory, surge emotions and heal the physiological and brain injury,
another set of music can be distracting affecting the good of the people in a negative way.
Some songs can negatively engage the attentions when people tend to become the past o the
music. Heavy music is capable go divide the attention of the persons by contradicting the first
set of contractive music. Therefore, the people need to be able to bridge the effects of moods,
increase the focus and gain motivation through music.
In order to understand the effect of music upon the moods of the human beings, the
author has pointed out some very important methods to put the theory into practice. Firstly,
the musical improvisation which is a spontaneous creative idea is the best instance of the
effect of music in every part of the brain. The technical skills are properly used for playing
the instrumental music affect the left side of the brain and the new creative ideas affect the
right side (Lesiuk 2015). This particular skills of playing instruments and improvising the
music can be powerful ways that the music affect the mood and brain. Music connect the
children with their parents and create an in-depth memory that remain in their memory for
long period of time. This process greatly helps the people to find out creative solutions as
well as improve cognitive capabilities along with the spontaneous thoughts to face the

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challenges in the daily lives. Singing with the instruments is also helpful to enhance the mood
of the people. According to the authors like Raglio et al. (2015), singing has beneficial effect
on the heart that affect the brain also. This is also related to the act of singing rather than the
quality of the song or voice. This act of singing provides social, emotional and cognitive
advantages in one hand and also help in improving speech function on the other,
Another important practice of music to enhance mood is the act of chanting. This for
thousands of years have been used to be the form of exalting the grace of gods. In this
process, music is used to be a vehicle to create a deep spiritual connection in human brain
that affect the mood of the human beings. This is true in the case of the sound ‘Om’ which is
seen to be the Hindu religion and contain each and every sound present in the universe. With
chanting, the mind chatter through music and the focus of the people shifts to the deeper
spiritual connection. Chanting along with this, also help people to keep fit physically along
with the spiritual one.
In this global changing scenario, the human beings are changing their process of
listening to music. With advanced technology, the brain wave entertainment has been used.
This is a powerful way to have an impact on brain with vibration, music and sound. These are
associated with the heart entertainment where the external rhythm fully synchronizes with the
internal rhythm of the body. Thus these external rhythm of music can effectively enhance the
mood of the human beings by entertaining the brains to be more relaxed and more focused as
well as attentive to increase the cognitive abilities. The sleep and work ration remains perfect
and support the idea of mediation.
People listen to music when they working out, when travelling, for sleeping and as the
therapy to calm down the disturbed mind. Music is kind of a delivery system of the frequency
for the mind in which the notes are having specific frequency. Music is also capable to embed

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the additional brain wave frequencies outside the standard notes which lead the human beings
to rec the desired state.
Therefore, it can be concluded that the music is a non-invasive, inexpensive and safe
intervention which must be available for everyone who is undergoing therapy. Music can
directly connect with the human brain and manipulate the human being to be connected with
the lyric, notes and tunes of the music. There are many ways that the music engage with the
brain and how musical program can enhance certain functions of brain. It can be said that
music is he purest forms of art and has the most ancient history. Starting for the religion
purpose, to revolution, music can effectively express the voice and thoughts of the musician.
With the change of tie, his need of the human emotions has given birth to different types of
music. These therefore are perfectly supportive of the human brains. The happy music makes
people happy and sad makes them sad. Some music gives way to reveal the frustration of the
people and some music like anthem of the countries can arouse a feeling of nationalism and
courage. This process greatly helps the people to find out creative solutions as well as
improve cognitive capabilities along with the spontaneous thoughts to face the challenges in
the daily lives. Due to such efficiency of the music, the patients of difficulty in learning,
speech, memory and most impotently attention. Therefore it can be said that without music,
the human beings cannot connect themselves with nature, nor they can express themselves
properly in any manner.

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References:
Bhatti, A.M., Majid, M., Anwar, S.M. and Khan, B., 2016. Human emotion recognition and
analysis in response to audio music using brain signals. Computers in human behavior, 65,
pp.267-275.
Goldstein, B. (2019). Music and the Brain: The Fascinating Ways That Music Affects Your
Mood and Mind. [online] Consciouslifestylemag.com. Available at:
https://www.consciouslifestylemag.com/music-and-the-brain-affects-mood/ [Accessed 31
Mar. 2019].
Koelsch, S., 2015. Music‐evoked emotions: principles, brain correlates, and implications for
therapy. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1337(1), pp.193-201.
Lesiuk, T., 2015, May. The Effect of Mindfulness-Based Music Therapy on Attention and
Mood in Women Receiving Adjuvant Chemotherapy for Breast Cancer: A Pilot Study.
In Oncology nursing forum (Vol. 42, No. 3).
Magee, W.L., Clark, I., Tamplin, J. and Bradt, J., 2017. Music interventions for acquired
brain injury. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, (1).
Putkinen, V., Makkonen, T. and Eerola, T., 2017. Music-induced positive mood broadens the
scope of auditory attention. Social cognitive and affective neuroscience, 12(7), pp.1159-1168.
Raglio, A., Attardo, L., Gontero, G., Rollino, S., Groppo, E. and Granieri, E., 2015. Effects of
music and music therapy on mood in neurological patients. World journal of psychiatry, 5(1),
p.68.
Särkämö, T., Altenmüller, E., Rodríguez-Fornells, A. and Peretz, I., 2016. Music, brain, and
rehabilitation: emerging therapeutic applications and potential neural mechanisms. Frontiers
in human neuroscience, 10, p.103.
Thompson, W.F., 2015. Music, thought, and feeling: Understanding the psychology of music.
Oxford university press.