Music is often referred to as the only true "universal language"; a statement backed by both historical accounts and modern social observations. In a practical sense, music notation is an internationally understood symbolic code, which can communicate the same message to any reader on the planet without linguistic interpretation. On a broader level, music seems to possess an indiscriminate ability to evoke emotion, bridge cultural divides, and unite people of diversely different social, political and religious affiliations through a common sense of wonder and appreciation. Interestingly, though, the impact that music has on our lives might well extend beyond the realm of intellect and emotion; with many believing that music has the potential to affect our very physiology. Classical music, in particular, has gained increased recognition over the past couple of decades with studies now linking it to a number of health benefits including stress reduction, increased memory function and even treatment for chronic sleep disorders.
What Exactly Is "Music"?
In order to discover how music can potentially affect elements of our physiology, it's important to have a proper understanding of how our body receives and synthesizes different sounds. On an elemental level, sound is simply the structured vibration of particles through a medium such as air. Humans can discern and interpret these vibrations thanks to the complex physiological mechanisms that exist between our outer ear and brain. Our ability to absorb and make sense of different sounds is a highly involved process, yet despite our personal preferences and idiosyncrasies, the way in which most people's brains react to music is incredibly similar.
Daniel Abrams, a researcher at Stanford University School of Medicine, conducted a study in which participants who had no formal musical training were exposed to four pieces of music while undergoing a Functional Magnetic Resonance Imagining (fMRI) brain scan. He found that each piece of music activated almost identical regions in the participant's brains and concluded that structured music is more meaningful to the human brain than randomized sounds and background noises.
So how does this natural phenomenon influence elements of our well-being?
The Mozart Effect: Classical Learning
“The Mozart Effect“ is a theory first popularized by Dr. Alfred A. Tomatis in 1991, which links classical music to brain stimulus and improved neurological function. In 2004, The New Scientist backed up Dr Tomatis' work when it discovered evidence on a molecular basis that listening to Mozart can stimulate memory and learning. University research conducted in France found that students who listened to a one-hour lecture with classical music playing in the background scored substantially higher in their quiz than a similar group of students who attended the same lecture with no background music. The researchers speculated that classical music was able to place all of the students in a state of heightened emotion, thus making them more receptive to the data provided within the lecture.
Similarly, the University of Southern California also examined research on the relationship between classical music and enhanced learning productivity and found that having classical music playing in the background while studying allowed students to absorb information more efficiently.
