Wednesday, January 11, 2012

How Music Affects the Brain and How You Can Use it to Your Advantage

Music can affect people in many ways and people can use it to their advantage.

In this interesting passage, the author, Thoren Klosowski, persuades that music theories, although unproven, is told to be reliable to use in numerous tasks and should be able to be used more often. For example, the text states, "Recently, Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords used music therapy to help her learn to talk again. The still unproven theory revolves around the idea that music is represented in multiple parts of the brain and therefore accesses deeper pathways between neurons. Music then helps patients connect the stored knowledge of words through songs and helps create the new connections needed for speech. This same idea has been used for stroke victims in the past, and has been referred to as the Kenny Rogers Effect." Based on the quote, music can influence and sometimes change what a person thinks in the world. Music is told to also help benefit others educationally, too. "Performing music has been proven to increase memory and language skills," and listeners have used music to recall memories and even restore cognitive function. It works for Alzheimer's patients in the same way it works in everyone else," the article says. Being involved in a few music debuts, performing music does help quicken memory and language skills. Using the skills outside in daily life is easy enough to manage. But sometimes, with a little help from a teacher, the skills can be made better. One of the disproven effects, the Mozart Effect, includes listening to music during one moment, and finding the same past memory when listening to the same music. Listening to a song while doing school work has proven to be very useful when trying to remember the school work a student has done.
Science has also backed up the theory that listening to music can improve the immune system. The text states, "Soothing music is known to decrease stress, and when it does that, it decreases the level of the stress hormone cortisol. It's not just soothing music though, even upbeat dance music is known to increase the level of antibodies in your system. Dr. Ronny Enk, who leads the recent research about music's effect on the immune system suggests, "We think the pleasant state that can be induced by music leads to special physiological changes which eventually lead to stress reduction or direct immune enhancement." It's good to keep in mind that if you're stressed out or feeling sick, then listening to music is a good way to help you stay well and healthy. Along with these effects, music helps people exercise or work harder, lose focus to execute tasks effortlessly, and a good cheerer-upper.

Klosowski reveals the users who provided the article pictures, gives other readers permission to contact and comment on his email, and shows the date in which the article was published, which was pretty recent.  He also presents conflicting evidence in order to not only be truthful in what he says and does, but also explains to all readers(with no bias or slant) to show how powerful music really is.

Any song that someone listens to seems to benefit the knowledge, common sense, and the body physique. Even if the studies aren't true, listening to a little bit of music everyday has never hurt anyone. One thing's for sure, though. Music is the best antidote for a down, blue mood.

http://lifehacker.com/5865032/how-music-affects-the-brain-and-how-you-can-use-it-to-your-advantage

1 comment:

  1. Again, excellent job. Make sure to provide examples to support your claims! For instance, what conflicting evidence is present?

    Keep up the good work.

    ReplyDelete