How Music Affects The Brain Essay

Whether listening to classical music from Mozart or hard core rock and roll, music has become an enormous influence on society today. Music is an interesting work of art because listening to it affects the brain subconsciously. More interesting is to what degree music affects the brain. The brain has many different areas that control the different aspects of a person. These areas are also influenced by music. The Auditory Cortex is mainly part of the temporal lobe (Kassem), which is associated with speech and hearing capabilities (Parts). It analyzes the information that makes up music such as volume, pitch, speed, melody, and rhythm. Another area is the Cerebrum, located at the top of the brain, which controls a person’s memories. More specifically, the Dorsolateral Frontal Cortex is stimulated when music is heard which keeps the song in working memory and summons images that are associated with the sounds which allows a person to visualize the music. Another part of the brain that is impacted by music is the Cerebellum. The Cerebellum, located in the back of the brain, deals with reflex actions such as rhythm. Furthermore, the Cerebellum assists in creating fluid and integrated movements when hearing or playing music (Kassem). Finally, the Limbic System, according to Newark University …show more content…
Nick Perham, a PhD at Wales Institution states, “The poorer performance of the music and changing-state sounds are due to the acoustical variation within those environments . . . This impairs the ability to recall the order of items, via rehearsal, within the presented list” (Hendrick). Although true, these effects only occur when listening to music while performing a task. In fact, listening to music before performing a task has been found to increase cognitive performance. Essentially, music has more beneficial consequences than non beneficial consequences due to the way it influences the