How Music Has An Effect On The Human Brain - 1561 Words

Donald A. Hodges and Robin W. Wilkins, two professors of music education at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro have done research and wrote about their findings as it relates to how and why music has an effect on the human brain, in an article entitled How and Why Does Music Move Us?: Answers from Psychology and Neuroscience. In the article they go over the technique used to examine the brain’s interconnectivity as people listen to music. This technique is called Network Science. They write, Researchers have discovered which parts of the brain are active during a variety of musical tasks, such as listening to or performing brief excerpts. They have learned that everyone has the possibility of meaningful musical experiences and†¦show more content†¦Ã¢â‚¬Å"Relevant to the effects of music, I want to describe the Default Mode Network—DMN for short. The DMN is a set of interconnected regions in the brain that becomes less active when you are paying outw ard attention to something but is more engaged when you are focusing inward, such as during introspection or mindwandering. Neuroscientists often call it ‘the resting state.’ We think that people move in and out of the resting state throughout the day. For example, maybe one minute your mind is adrift and you’re reflecting on your life and feeling overwhelmingly grateful or perhaps the opposite, a sense of profound loss. While your mind is wandering, you may suddenly in the next minute have to redirect your attention to an external task. The DMN emerges in infancy and continues to develop throughout the life span. It supports levels of consciousness or awareness, and in the case of self-awareness, the DMN is involved in the reprocessing of autobiographical memories and self-relevant emotions. This experience is something I like to think of as ‘mulling over.’ It is also active while one ruminates on hopes and dreams. The DMN is thought to help us imag ine or understand the feeling states of others. Support for these ideas