Music and mindfulness are known for promoting happiness, reducing stress, and even transporting individuals to another world. However, these two forms of relaxation may change more than just our mood. Researchers are working to understand how music and meditation can positively affect the brain.
This article takes a deep dive into the latest research on how these two practices have measurable and visible effects on the brain and how this benefits our mental, cognitive, and physical health. We also reveal insight from a thought leader on the intersections of psychology, philosophy, and music on how individuals can combine music and mindfulness for better mental health. We end by offering other tools that can help improve overall mind-body wellness.
The Brain Benefits of Music
“It doesn’t matter if it’s Bach, the Beatles, Brad Paisley, or Bruno Mars. Your favorite music likely triggers a similar type of activity in the brain as other people’s favorites do in theirs,” states Jonathan Burdette, M.D. Burdette researched music’s effects on the brain at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. Burdette and his colleagues used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to study how music preferences might affect brain connectivity (Science Daily). Scans were made of people while listening to music they liked and disliked and to a piece of music they had named as their favorite. What the study found included:
-
The listeners’ music preferences impacted brain connectivity, especially in the default mode network (which includes the medial prefrontal and posterior cingulate cortices) involved in focused thought, empathy, and self-awareness.
-
Listening to favorite songs altered the connectivity between auditory brain areas and a region responsible for memory and social emotion consolidation.
We can see that music directly affects connectivity between brain areas, but what about cognitive function? Researchers at the University of California, Irvine, investigated how listening to music affects cognitive function and spatial-temporal reasoning. In their first study, they administered IQ test questions to groups of college students. They compared those who listened to a Mozart piano sonata with a group that listened to a relaxation tape and one that waited silently. Listening to Mozart consistently boosted test scores and helped improve spatial reasoning. However, researchers also found that listening to any music helps organize nerve cells firing in the right half of the cerebral cortex. This brain area is responsible for higher functions such as memory, judgment, emotion, and attention (Dartmouth Medical School). They also noted that music acts like an exercise that warms up selected brain cells, helping them process information more efficiently.
According to Stanford University, researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston also used rhythmic light and sound stimulation to treat attention deficit disorder (ADD) in elementary and middle school boys. The study found that rhythmic stimuli sped up brainwaves in subjects and increased concentration in ways similar to ADD medications such as Ritalin and Adderall. Following a series of treatment sessions, the children made lasting gains in concentration, IQ tests performance, and had a striking reduction in behavioral problems compared to the control group.
Latest Research on Mindfulness and the Brain
Mindfulness is the practice of paying attention to what is happening in the present without judgment. Studies have shown that mindfulness-based meditation provides benefits against an array of conditions, including irritable bowel syndrome, anxiety, depression, and even post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). However, scientists are trying to pinpoint what happens in the brain to cause these positive outcomes.
Currently, Benjamin Shapero, an instructor in psychiatry at Harvard Medical School (HMS) and a psychologist at Massachusetts General Hospital’s (MGH) Depression Clinical and Research Program, is working with Gaëlle Desbordes, an instructor in radiology at HMS and a neuroscientist at MGH to explore how to use mindfulness-based meditation to combat depression. Similar studies have come out of MGH, including one from Sara Lazar, who used fMRI to show that subjects’ brains thickened after an eight-week meditation course. However, Shapero and Desbordes’ research explores meditation’s effects on the brains of clinically depressed patients. The team performs fMRI scans before and after an eight-week course in mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT). During the scans, participants complete two tests. One that promotes awareness of their bodies by focusing on their heartbeats. The other asking them to reflect on phrases common in the negative self-talk of depressed patients. Then, the participants have to stop ruminating on the negative phrases.
Researchers measure how quickly subjects can disengage from negative thoughts. The process repeats for a control group that undergoes muscle relaxation training and depression education instead of MBCT. Desbordes wants to test a hypothesis about how MBCT works in depressed patients called interoception. This form of training boosts body awareness in the moment, which, by focusing their attention on the here and now, arms participants to break the cycle of self-rumination. Desbordes hypothesizes that depressive symptoms should be reduced via different mechanisms in the brain. A difference revealed by the scans.
How Music and Mindfulness Can Heal the Brain
Research attests that music therapy and mindfulness meditation can improve medical outcomes and quality of life in various ways. In terms of brain functioning and mental health, both practices have been shown to:
Improve mental health disorders. In controlled clinical trials of patients having colonoscopies, cardiac angiography, or knee surgery, those who listened to music before their procedure had less anxiety and less need for sedatives (Harvard Health). Mindfulness meditation can also help people with social anxiety disorder (SAD). A Stanford University team found that meditation practice brought about changes in brain regions involved in attention (increases in the parietal cortex neural response) and relief from symptoms of social anxiety (Oxford Academic).
Rewire circuits in those with stroke and traumatic brain injury. Because singing ability originates in the right side of the brain, people can work around the injury to the left side of their brain by first singing their thoughts and then gradually dropping the melody. Former U.S. Representative Gabby Giffords used this technique to enable her to testify before a Congressional committee two years after a gunshot wound to her brain destroyed her ability to speak (Harvard Health).
Promote a better quality of life for dementia patients. Because the ability to engage with music remains intact late into the disease process, music therapy helps elicit memories, reduce agitation, assist communication, and improve coordination (Harvard Health). Meditation is also known to improve several conditions that can increase the risk of Alzheimer’s. For instance, meditation reduces stress and anxiety, improves insomnia, reduces cardiovascular disease risk, and downregulates inflammatory genes (National Institutes of Health).
What is Musical Mindfulness?
Music and mindfulness are powerful independently. However, what happens when someone combines the two practices? Through daily habits in listening and playing music, individuals can promote a more expansive and mindful sense of self. According to Matthew Tyler Giobbi, Ph.D., who teaches music and Buddhist psychology, focusing on the intersections of psychology, philosophy, and music, “this exercise does not require individuals to have any musical abilities or any skill on an instrument. The guiding principle is to use music as a way towards mindfulness.” Giobbi suggests:
-
First, choose an instrument. Pawnshops, consignment stores, and online listings offer instruments that are often lightly used and reasonably priced. Choose an instrument that brings joy and offers a personal connection. Remember, an instrument can be anything from a voice to drums, even one created.
-
As sound is created, focus attention on the tone’s character (called the tone’s timbre or color). Is the tone smooth or harsh? Experiment with playing softly and loudly. Be aware of the contrasts with pitch (high, medium, and low notes). Focus on listening for the moment the note begins and ends. Resist the tendency to judge or to imagine what others might think. Be aware of the feeling tone encountered while playing (feel positive, neutral, or negative?). Spend time each day playing tones as part of mindfulness practice.
Want to learn other ways to use music and mindfulness for better brain health and wellness? Read our recommended list of podcasts and apps that can help reduce stress, sleep better, improve focus, and heal the mind and body.
