|
 advaita25 rated 26 months ago - Excerpts from the page:
Music and emotions
The acoustic nerve runs to the middle brain and is located very close to the centre which regulates hunger, satiety, metabolism, and level of consciousness, as well as the centre which controls overall hormone regulation. One can therefore easily imagin...
|
|
2 Reviews
-
-
- ChEyEnNe5030 rated 26 months ago
- From the page: "Music and treatment in cultural perspective
The use of music in connection with the treatment of illness has been known in a number of classical cultures for millennia. Music has been used in India, Greece and China, and perhaps most effectively and beautifully, in the Arabic culture, where music played on string instruments combined with the sound of water from fountains was a significant element of the environment at hospitals and healing centres.
What is new is that, in a number of clinically reliable studies, science has demonstrated that music influences our hormone system, the involuntary nervous system which controls breathing and heart rate, the body's hormone regulation in stress situations, and also has an effect on the immune system..."
- advaita25 rated 26 months ago
- Excerpts from the page:
Music and emotions
The acoustic nerve runs to the middle brain and is located very close to the centre which regulates hunger, satiety, metabolism, and level of consciousness, as well as the centre which controls overall hormone regulation. One can therefore easily imagine that stimulation of the middle brain, which is directly connected to the ear, could affect our degree of alertness and our hormonal status.
The middle brain is our emotional brain. It plays a central role in the regulation and mediation of the effect of music on our basic mood. One could imagine that the activation of codes located in the middle brain's emotion region, the "limbic system", triggers positive feelings.
A basis for the belief that this part of the brain is receptive to harmony and consonance, and that harmonic musical stimulation can provide a foundation for the integration of sensory perceptions.
The most consistent clinical effect of music therapy on conditions such as schizophrenia and depression is improved communication ability and social interaction.
The brain's electrical activity
The electrical waves in the brain - EEG registrations - can be influenced by music. Brain function is coordinated by patterns of brainwaves which can be measured using electrodes to plot an EEG.
EEG waves are divided into high and low frequencies. The high frequencies: Beta waves are associated with activation of the brain, a high degree of alertness, agitation, intellectual activity, tension, activity directed towards the outside world.
Stress is often linked to an over activation of these Beta waves, corresponding to an inadequate ability to relax.
Relaxation appears to be directly linked to the extent to which brainwaves move from a Beta pattern to the lower frequency Alpha wave pattern. Alpha waves are particularly associated with relaxation, imagination, and states in which we let our minds wander and forget thoughts of the outside world.
The Alpha pattern can be effectively disrupted by sensory stimulation, reasoning, and strong emotions. Alpha waves are most easily triggered by preventing sensory stimulation, for example, with the eyes closed.
Dreams, day dreams and states of meditation produce alpha waves, especially in connection with internal images, for example, induced by music.
The even slower Theta waves accompany deeper meditation and sleep-like states. A large proportion of sleep provides EEG readings at this level. Creative skills might flow out of this frequency pattern. The lowest frequency Delta waves correspond to brainwaves during deep, dreamless sleep and are also present in unconscious patients.
The effect of music on brainwaves
Many trials have been carried out which show that the slow rhythms in classical music cause the brain to change from Beta to Alpha activity, and rhythmic music can produce the lowest frequency waves.
The brain processes music at several levels, and much of the research taking place is focussed on the interplay between music and the brain, the "musical brain". Brainwave activity can be reduced, from dominance by Beta-level electrical oscillations, to lower frequencies - to waves at the alpha and theta level.
Recent studies have shown that musical stimuli can increase activity in the new brain (neocortex) which is associated with learning and coordination, and strengthen the connection between the two brain hemispheres. Studies suggest that music can enhance the ability to solve problems which demand higher mental functions.
|
