The incredible effects of music on the brain

Music was already known to have a positive impact on morale, but researchers have found that it can produce other pleasurable effects on the brain and neurological functions. What are these effects?

The different positive effects of music on the brain

When you're playing music, you probably want to dance or move your feet or hands in rhythm. It is music that stimulates the motor areas of the brain.

But it can also give us chills or goose bumps, caused by the release of endorphins that act as natural pain killers, incredible is not it? Thus, music is now offered in some hospitals in addition to analgesic drugs to relieve patients.

And that's not all, another more surprising effect: music can help limit speech disorders due to brain injury. Indeed, music promotes language recovery in stroke victims. For patients, rehab therapy consists of repeating words or phrases by singing or humming.

Healing by dance or piano

In order to help his stroke and head trauma patients recover their motor skills, a German neurologist taught them to play piano to reduce the muscle stiffness and balance disorders caused by Parkinson's disease. The rhythm acquired on the piano helps to relieve these disorders by softening the muscles and joints.

For people with Parkinson's disease, several schools in France and the United States now offer specific dance classes, such as tango, which are especially dedicated to them. These courses are designed to help them recover balance and better motor skills. Thanks to the synchronization of steps, walking becomes more fluid.

Music, good for the memory!

We tell you, the therapeutic virtues of music are incredible, listen to them without moderation! At the brain level, several studies have shown that music stimulates short-term memory. It would therefore be beneficial in school learning because it reinforces the abilities of attention and concentration.

Finally, another study showed that people with Alzheimer's disease, even at an advanced stage, were able to learn new songs by singing workshops, when it was thought that their memory was no longer working. Although lost cognitive functions can not be restored, the music seems to wake up a "dormant memory" but still active.

It can not yet be said with certainty that music preserves the effects of cerebral aging but it is an assumption that could be confirmed one day because we already know that musicians have a cortex thicker than the average and that the practice of an instrument increases the performance of neurons in the brain.