Listen to this playlist and call me in the morning

As you finish your doctor appointment, you are given your treatment plan: “I’d like to see your blood pressure a bit lower, so let’s go with 15 mg of Atenolol to be taken each night, along with a daily dose of music listening. I’ll prescribe a 15 minute regimen, and send you the playlist that needs to be administered 15 minutes daily, preferably in the morning”

This may sound a bit goofy, but advances in brain image scanning over the past 30 years are demonstrating clear neurological benefits of listening to and playing music. As a result, there is new science to support the claim that music can be used to strengthen and heal our brains. As a classroom teacher, I am curious how some of these discoveries can be used to help “strengthen and heal” learning in the classroom.

What is Music Medicine?

Music medicine is broadly defined as the use of listening to music to facilitate healing. It is different from music therapy, which uses a trained music therapist to guide patients through an active process of engaging with and exploring music. In music medicine, music with specific qualities is “prescribed,” similar to the way pharmaceuticals are prescribed, to bring about specific healing in the body. Playlists are developed by medical professionals, musical specialists and creative therapists to create positive changes and combat specific clinical conditions. 

How is Music Medicine Being Used?

Music medicine is being employed in a variety of ways. In hospitals such as the Cleveland Clinic, music is played to help alleviate stress and anxiety before medical procedures. At The Houston Methodist Center For Performing Arts Medicine, which is a hospital that focuses on performing artists, patients in the waiting room enjoy live music on a grand piano! Music has been shown to improve memory recall, mood and general well being of patients with dementia and Alzheimer's disease.  Some dementia patients receive personalized playlists to help them connect with memories that have been lost (musical memory is stored  in the parts of the brain that are generally less affected by cognitive loss).  Listening to music has shown benefits for cancer patients, and one study found evidence that listening to music during chemotherapy improved mood and reduced negative stress. Studies show that babies in Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICA) can improve their sleep habits and overall development by listening to specially designed music or lullabies.

What Is The Neuroscience Behind Music Medicine?

Musical instruments as old as 40,000 years have been discovered, begging the question as to how music might have been involved in the process of language development. Some scientists believe that the use of music was an integral part of how humans created spoken language, and that our capacity to be musical is an evolutionarily essential part of our brain’s development. Recent advances in brain scanning technology allow us to “see” what happens in the brain when we listen to music. The results have given us the ability to look “under the hood” as we listen to music and discover what is happening in the brain.

There are two main reasons why music is beneficial to the brain. The first and most readily apparent is the ability of music to regulate our emotions. Everyone has favorite songs that affect them in different ways. Some are helpful to relax, some to get psyched up, some to recall happy or even sad memories. Brain studies show that music activates the “award center” in the part of our brain called the nucleus accumbens. When we hear music we love, we release the neurotransmitter dopamine, which is associated with the good feeling we get from award seeking. Studies show that the ability of the brain to predict what we expect to come next - and then have that prediction exceeded by something better than our expectation - is one of the ways the release of dopamine is triggered. This is what creates the sense of “chills” when listening to music we love. An example of this is when a great singer like Celine Dion performs a song we’ve heard before, but sings it in a new,  beautiful and unexpected way. For our brains, hearing this is like putting one dollar in a slot machine and getting $100 - every time we hear the song! 

Music uses a “language” built from vibrations to connect directly with our auditory system and induce states of joy, pleasure and all of the other emotions. The physiological effects of these emotional states can be observed and measured using brain scanning techniques. Scientists have connected a number of positive changes in the brain to music, which include reducing cortisol (the hormone released when dealing with stress), increasing dopamine and serotonin (neurotransmitters that lead to positive feelings), lowering blood pressure, and even improving the immune system with by increasing proteins called cytokines. Lullabies played to babies have been shown to help regulate breathing and to promote better sleep.

The second way that listening to music affects the brain is through the use and connectivity of different parts of the brain. Listening to music activates the corpus callosum, which connects the right and left hemispheres of the brain, the amygdala, which regulates emotions, the nucleus accumbens, which regulates rewards, the hippocampus, which stores memories, and the cerebellum, which manages balance (among many other functions). This is not to mention the auditory cortex, which processes the sound, the prefrontal cortex, which makes sense of what we hear, and the motor cortex, which responds when we move to the music, which is hard to avoid with any music that has a good funky beat. The connection between different parts of the brain opens neural pathways that benefit learning, memory and brain functioning.

In order to effectively trigger the multiple parts of the brain, It is important that music is actively listened to - rather than passively listening as in background music. The process of engaging the full brain enhances connectivity, and leads to “flow” states. A flow state occurs when being fully immersed in an activity without distraction. In a flow state there is the optimum balance between being alert and relaxed. 

One innovative study currently underway at Rice University is studying the potential for music medicine to benefit in the treatment of stroke victims. fMRI brain scans revealed that listening to familiar music causes an increase of blood flow into the damaged parts of the brain. Scientists hope that as a result of this study, they may be able to use music as a non-invasive but transformative means to rehabilitate stroke victims. 

How Can Music Medicine Benefit Students?

How might teachers use this new understanding of music in their classrooms? Music can be a gateway to help students understand the way their brain works. Because music is accessible and easy to connect with, it offers a fun way to make the understanding of the technical parts of the brain seem more “real.” For example, students could be encouraged to find their “dopamine” playlist - consisting of the songs that they want to listen to over and over. They might find their favorite part of these songs - the part that gives them chills -  and identify these parts as the  “dopamine moment.” They could use music as a way to “practice” engaging their emotions and fight or flight system. One way to do this is to show a scary scene from a movie without the sound. Students will notice that the scene seems a lot less scary and triggering of emotion when the music is missing. Play the scene again with music, and have them notice if their heartbeat increases. This could lead to a good discussion about the way our brain’s amygdala and limbic system responds to stress by triggering our fight or flight response.

Students could create their own “music medicine” by creating music playlists with specific purposes. They might create one playlist with music that helps them relax when they are feeling anxious, one playlist that helps them to get energized, and another that helps them to get focused when they need to study. It would be helpful for them to “test” their playlist and experiment with the best order of the songs. Doing this is also another opportunity to connect a little brain science into the process. For example, you could explain how we tend to match our breathing to the tempo of music, so slower songs often help to put our breathing into a more calm and slow state for relaxing, and faster songs work when we want to be in a more excited state. It would be fun for students to track how these playlists help them at home, and find ways for them to try to use their personal playlists in school if possible.

To help students get the most out of their “music medicine,” it is important to help them become active listeners. Music is heard so often that it often becomes like wallpaper - sensed, but not really noticed. To fully engage the brain, students should learn to focus on something about the music that holds their attention. They might notice what kind of instruments are playing (in a lot of pop music today, I find it hard to recognize ANY of the instruments playing…), what is the meaning of the words, what part of the song they like best and why, or what the form of the song is (verse, chorus, bridge). You can also have them think about how the music affects their bodies: does it make them want to dance? To air guitar? To relax with their feet up? Students with experience playing an instrument may find it easier to actively listen, so they can share their expertise with others. 

Just by sharing your curiosity about music and its ability to affect the brains of your students, you will help them ignite their own curiosity and interest in music. Looking at music as “medicine” for the mind, can help bridge the gap between the music students like and the music we as teachers like - which for me can often seem like two different worlds. Sharing music is a great way to connect with students who might find it difficult to connect with academic areas in school. And, the next time you hear Kylie Menogue sing “Can’t Get You Out of My Head,” or Marvin Gaye sing “What’s Goin On,” you’ll have some good information to share!