The sound of healing
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The sound of healing
The idea that music can promote non-verbal bonding gained further support from a 2008 study by neuroscientists Nikolaus Steinbeis of the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognition and Brain Sciences and Stefan Koelsch of the University of Sussex in England. They used functional magnetic resonance imaging to show that a certain area of the brain responded to chords but not words, in a test in which volunteers listened to both. The responsive region was the superior temporal sulcus: a part of the brain's surface, near the ears, that responds to nonverbal social cues — such as body movements and gazes. Activation of this region indicates that music can help forge social bonds. Whatever its origin, such cohesion is extremely valuable for community animals like us, and so traits that enhance such unity tend to persist across generations.
The basis of our conscious impressions of a tone is physiological effects. Studies show that joyful, tense, or exciting music can physically excite the listener, triggering a fight-or-flight response: heart and breathing rates increase, the person may sweat, and adrenaline enters the bloodstream. This effect explains why so many people enjoy listening to rock or hip-hop while doing gymnastics – music triggers responses from the physiological system to perform high-energy movements. The psychological effect is also important: distraction makes exercise more fun. In general, energizing melodies tend to improve our mood, making us more awake when we are tired and creating a feeling of excitement.
In a workout rhythm: strong beats activate brain systems and prepare the body to perform movements that demand a lot of energy On the other hand, music can calm down, reducing the levels of the stress hormone, cortisol, in the bloodstream, lowering the rates cardiac and respiratory and relieving pain. A classic example of anxiety reduction: a mother lulling her baby with a song. Clinical studies also reveal that music is a powerful tool to relax patients undergoing surgery, help control pain and ease agitation in children and people with dementia. In 2000, nurse Linda A. Gerdner, a researcher in gerontology at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, introduced 39 severely ill Alzheimer's patients to music they liked twice a week for a month and a half. The favorite song reduced the patients' agitation levels during and after the session much more than classic relaxation songs. Neuroscientists have also found that listening to much-loved music can reduce pain — and this analgesic effect persists for some time when the music stops. And of course, intuitively, people self-medicate with music all the time. It is common for people to use them for the purpose of improving or altering their emotional state. Scientists wonder if, given the indisputable human attraction to music, its processing could have a unique root in the brain, in addition to the “free ride” it takes in other systems. The medical literature records a number of injuries that impair a person's ability to feel emotions inspired by music but not by other stimuli. Lawrence Freedman, a friend of Sacks, for example, lost his passion for classical music after a concussion in a bicycle accident. Freedman could still recognize the classics he used to love and was still moved by visual arts and other experiences, but music no longer gave him any pleasure. Possibly, the accident damaged a part of the brain dedicated specifically to enthusiasm for these forms of expression, although no one knows exactly which brain area this is.
Other researchers argue that music has independent origins because the ability to enjoy it seems to be defined at birth. Several studies show that many babies quickly pay attention to songs and seem to prefer them to speech. In studies published in July 2008 in Nature Precedings, neuroscientists Maria Cristina Saccuman and Daniela Perani, from the Vita-Salute San Raffaele University in Italy, showed that music activates regions in the brain of newborns in a similar way to what happens with listeners of other ages. They used functional magnetic resonance imaging (FMRI) to see how the brains of 3-day-olds responded to classical music and found a pattern that mirrored adult processing: the children's right hemisphere auditory system responded more strongly than their left. The researchers also altered the music, cutting off a part of the piece and skipping to another note or playing the entire segment with just beats. The loudest passages activated the newborn's left inferior frontal cortex, an area involved in processing musical syntax in adults, and the limbic system, which is responsible for emotional responses - just as it does in older people, which led to a conclusion : the brain seems to be born ready to process music.
This innate readiness is thought to be linked to the peculiar melodic way adults use to talk to babies. The universal adoption of this feature has led some experts to speculate that this may constitute an original initial moment for both music and language. Experts such as cognitive archaeologist Steven Mithen of the University of Reading in England theorize that language and music evolved from a musical proto-language used by our ancestors. Vocal cord structures of Neanderthals and other extinct hominids suggest they could sing. And they certainly played instruments, as researchers have recovered prehistoric flutes made from bone. We may never know why music exists. Still, we can use it to cheer us up or calm us down, ease pain and anxiety, or form bonds. As Sacks wrote, music is perhaps the closest thing we have to telepathy.
Text by KAREN SCHROCK
Source: www.uol.com.br