Since 2006, two UCF professors neuroscientist Kiminobu Sugaya and world-renowned violinist Ayako Yonetani have been teaching one of the most popular courses in The Burnett Honors College. Music and the Brain explores how music impacts brain function and human behavior, including by reducing stress, pain and symptoms of depression as well as improving cognitive and motor skills, spatial-temporal learning and neurogenesis, which is the brains ability to produce neurons. Sugaya and Yonetani teach how people with neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimers and Parkinsons also respond positively to music.
Usually in the late stages, Alzheimers patients are unresponsive, Sugaya says. But once you put in the headphones that play [their favorite] music, their eyes light up. They start moving and sometimes singing. The effect lasts maybe 10 minutes or so even after you turn off the music.
This can be seen on an MRI, where lots of different parts of the brain light up, he says. We sat down with the professors, who are also husband and wife, and asked them to explain which parts of the brain are activated by music.
How the Brain Responds to Music
Explore
Click on the region of the brain to the right to learn more about how it effects your perception of music.
Frontal Lobe
What
Used in thinking, decision-making and planning
How
The frontal lobe is the most important to being a human. We have a big frontal lobe compared to other animals. By listening to music, we can enhance its functions, Sugaya says.
Temporal Lobe
What
Processes what we hear
How
We use the language center to appreciate music, which spans both sides of the brain, though language and words are interpreted in the left hemisphere while music and sounds are inerpreted in the right hemisphere, Yonetani says.
Brocas Area
What
Enables us to produce speech
How
We use this part of the brain to express music, Yonetani says. Playing an instrument may improve your ability to communicate better.
Wernickes Area
What
Comprehends written and spoken language
How
We use this part of the brain to analyze and enjoy music, Yonetani says.
Occipital Lobe
What
Processes what we see
How
Professional musicians use the occipital cortex, which is the visual cortex, when they listen to music, while laypersons, like me, use the temporal lobe the auditory and language center. This suggests that [musicians] might visualize a music score when they are listening to music, Sugaya says.
Cerebellum
What
Coordinates movement and stores physical memory
How
An Alzheimers patient, even if he doesnt recognize his wife, could still play the piano if he learned it when he was young because playing has become a muscle memory. Those memories in the cerebellum never fade out, Sugaya says.
Nucleus Accumbens
What
Seeks pleasure and reward and plays a big role in addiction, as it releases the neurotransmitter dopamine
How
Music can be a drug a very addictive drug because its also acting on the same part of the brain as illegal drugs, Sugaya says. Music increases dopamine in the nucleus accumbens, similar to cocaine.
Amygdala
What
Processes and triggers emotions
How
Music can control your fear, make you ready to fight and increase pleasure, Yonetani says. When you feel shivers go down your spine, the amygdala is activated.
Hippocampus
What
Produces and retrieves memories, regulates emotional responses and helps us navigate. Considered the central processing unit of the brain, its one of the first regions of the brain to be affected by Alzheimers disease, leading to confusion and memory loss.
How
Music may increase neurogenesis in the hippocampus, allowing production of new neurons and improving memory, Yonetani says.
Hypothalamus
What
Maintains the bodys status quo, links the endocrine and nervous systems, and produces and releases essential hormones and chemicals that regulate thirst, appetite, sleep, mood, heart rate, body temperature, metabolism, growth and sex drive to name just a few
How
If you play Mozart, for example, heart rate and blood pressure reduce, Sugaya says.
Corpus Callosum
What
Enables the left and right hemispheres to communicate, allowing for coordinated body movement as well as complex thoughts that require logic [left side] and intuition [right side]
How
As a musician, you want to have the right-hand side and the left-hand side of the brain in coordination, so they talk to each other, Sugaya says. This allows pianists, for example, to translate notes on a sheet to the keys their fingers hit to produce music.
Putamen
What
Processes rhythm and regulates body movement and coordination
How
Music can increase dopamine in this area, and music increases our response to rhythm, Yonetani says. By doing this, music temporarily stops the symptoms of Parkinsons disease. Rhythmic music, for example, has been used to help Parkinsons patients function, such as getting up and down and even walking because Parkinsons patients need assistance in moving, and music can help them kind of like a cane. Unfortunately, after the music stops, the pathology comes back.
Areas of the Brain
- Frontal Lobe
- Temporal Lobe
- Brocas Area
- Wernickes Area
- Occipital Lobe
- Cerebellum
- Nucleus Accumbens
- Amygdala
- Hippocampus
- Hypothalamus
- Corpus Callosum
- Putamen
What Music is the Best?
Music Can
- Change your ability to preceive time
- Tap into primal fear
- Reduce seizures
- Make you a better communicator
- Make you stronger
- Boost your immune system
- Assist in repairing brain damage
- Make you smarter
- Evoke memories
- Help Parkinsons patients
Did you know?
Use it or lose it We are all born with more neurons than we actually need. Typically by the age of 8, our brains do a major neuron dump, removing any neurons perceived as unnecessary, which is why its easier to teach language and music to younger children. If you learn music as a child, your brain becomes designed for music, Sugaya says.
Oldest Instrument According to National Geographic, a 40,000-year-old vulture-bone flute is the worlds oldest musical instrument.
Hairy Cells The ear only has 3,500 inner hair cells, compared to the more than 100 million photoreceptors found in the eye. Yet our brains are remarkably adaptable to music.
Sing Along In the Sesotho language, the verb for singing and dancing are the same [ho bina], as it is assumed the two actions occur together.