Your Brain on Music: How Tunes Can Impact Your Mind

When you hear a song you love, it can scratch just the right kind of itch in the back of your brain. Whether it’s the Jurassic Park theme song from John Williams or the latest and greatest from Taylor Swift, the music we listen to has the power to pump up our creativity and jumpstart the cells in our brain.

Endovascular neurosurgeon Farah Fourcand, MD, explains all the ways music impacts your brain and how it can actually help heal your brain, too.

How music affects your brain

“Music is a very primal thing,” says Dr. Fourcand. “By arousing or activating various parts of your brain, music has the ability to impact your physical and mental health, memory, emotions, thoughts and beliefs. It can help improve your mood, reduce stress and enhance your memory.”

Music impacts nearly every part of your brain, including:

• Your limbic system, which contains your hypothalamus, amygdala and hippocampus. When activated, this area of your brain helps regulate your emotional response to music.
• Your cerebral cortex (or gray matter) houses your motor cortex, which, when activated, this area triggers your body to dance and move to the rhythm of music.

Cognitive functions

Music activates parts of your brain that help:

• Preserve and improve memory
• Enhance creativity
• Improve attention, focus and concentration
• Decrease reaction time
• Improve spatial reasoning (the ability to mentally visualize or imagine 2D and 3D objects)
• Promote brain development in children and adults

“Your hippocampus holds all of your memories, and your limbic system is responsible for emotion, pleasure and reward,” explains Dr. Fourcand. “When these areas are activated, it gives you a sense of nostalgia.”

For example, if there’s a song that resonated with you as a teenager, and you hear it again 20 or 30 years later, your hippocampus and limbic system create a nostalgic memory. That’s why you experience that same rush of emotions you once had when you heard the song for the first time or during an important moment from your past.

Researchers have also discovered that rapid modulation — or quick changes in key and tone — within a single piece of music can help you stay focused and complete tasks more efficiently. That’s because music activates your frontal lobe and prefrontal cortex, which are responsible for judgment and self-control. So, background noise can be useful for anyone who’s unmotivated or distracted, especially those living with ADHD.

“People with ADHD sometimes need external stimuli to be able to focus, and music can help them strike a balance by giving them just enough arousal,” further explains Dr. Fourcand.

“The potential downside is that something that’s overstimulating can just as easily trigger them in a negative way and cause their mind to wander, so people with ADHD will have to play with it and test out different kinds of music to see what works best to help them focus.”

Physical benefits

Music also has many physical benefits. It can:

• Decrease cortisol levels
• Lower heart rate and blood pressure
• Motivate your body to move
• Create new neural connections and increase neuroplasticity

“After any brain injury, the brain is able to heal and adapt in different ways based on individual differences,” says Dr. Fourcand. “The injured part of the brain has a wound, and billions of brain cells and neurons work together to make new connections and new electromagnetic signals to minimize the scar. Music helps your brain with neuroplasticity so it can stay moldable, malleable and adaptable.”

The triggering of your motor cortex and muscle memory is what causes you to subconsciously tap your foot or move to the beat of the music. In fact, music is so effective in motivating your body to move that it can positively impact people who’ve had traumatic brain injuries.

“Sometimes, music and song activate so many parts of your brain that you can see a person with Alzheimer’s disease recite a song and remember the song perfectly,” she continues. “You can see someone with aphasia express themselves. It’s really beautiful.”

Emotional and psychological effects

Our emotional responses to music happen because of our amygdala, which helps with emotional regulation and forming emotional memories.

We all feel and express our emotions in different ways, so it’s no wonder some of us love to listen to sad songs and still find the same satisfaction as those who prefer listening to more upbeat music. It’s ultimately not about the content of the song itself, but the kind of hedonic motives (or arousal) music evokes in us.

“Everybody has their own collection of experiences and things they’re comfortable feeling and places they’re comfortable going,” illustrates Dr. Fourcand. “Some people thrive in chaos and some people need a lot of positivity. Whatever you vibe with, your mind will make these associations in your amygdala and your limbic system.”

As a result, music can:

• Trigger emotional responses
• Reduce stress and anxiety
• Facilitate emotional processing
• Help communicate difficult emotions
• Regulate mood

Enhanced brain activity

Performing music has its own benefits, too. It can help:

• Improve hand-eye coordination
• Develop motor skills
• Promote brain connectivity and enhance cognitive potential

“Learning an instrument at any age is such a wonderful thing you can do for your brain,” enthuses Dr. Fourcand. “Performing music helps optimize your cognitive potential because you’re using and activating so many different parts of your brain.”

Can music have a negative impact on your brain?

Listening to the right kind of music can have profound, positive effects. But the wrong kind of music (or unpleasant sounds) can have some negative effects, too.

“Music is extremely arousing, so it can sometimes be overstimulating if it’s too loud or too aggressive,” notes Dr. Fourcand. “Someone may also associate a song with a bad memory because it reminds them of something negative. In those moments, a song or a sound can trigger PTSD in someone who’s experienced a trauma.”

You may want to explore different musical genres or test out what kind of music works best for you. There may also be times when silence is needed. But at the end of the day, music will always be there to inspire you and bring a little rhythm to your life.

“Music brings people together,” says Dr. Fourcand. “So much of what we do when we celebrate life is centered around music and dance.”