Music is truly one of few activities that employs all of our brain at the same time. As musician and neuroscientist Daniel Levitin puts it: “Musical activity involves nearly every region of the brain that we know about.”
If you know even a little about brain science, you know that this is a big statement.
Complex behaviors such as walking, talking and making plans have general locations in our brain assigned to these actions. For example our “frontal lobes” handle our daily planning, and hearing what’s going on around us. And remembering all of this is the responsibility of our “temporal lobes”. Meanwhile, our “cerebellum” (or brainstem, which is the most ancient part of our noggins) keeps us moving and feeling.
Please note that these concepts come from a field of science that is murky and ever evolving, and the brain is much more mysterious and interconnected than these theories suggest, but it does appear that different parts of our brains light up when we do different things (according to the neuroscientists).
However, when we encounter music, it has been shown that our entire brain lights up; all one hundred billion neurons!
Yes, this is true. Even if you are merely listening to music, your brain is processing half a dozen separate inputs: rhythm, varying pitches, tone quality, volume, direction (where it’s coming from), and usually language as well. And if the music is really rockin, the chances are you going to be moving and grooving a bit, and this in turn activates the many complex motor-coordination areas of your brain. Yes, even just tapping your foot or nodding your head in time.
So as you’re doing homework with Tom Petty on your stereo, you’ve pretty much engaged your entire brain. And, this doesn’t even include actually playing music!
As soon as you put on a ukulele or sidle up to your bongos, you’ve just connected millions of more neurons involving coordination and fine motor skills, commanded by your “posterior frontal lobes”. Not to mention the galaxy of nerves throughout your body which trigger your muscle cells to spring into action, contracting and expanding to move your tendons and joints.
All of this just to get one plink out of your piano!
But perhaps the most magical aspect of all of this is that music is not only a whole-brain activity, but it is also literally changing the shape your brain as well. The relatively recent concept of “neuroplasticity” refers to the brains ability to change the way it is constructed in response to our thoughts and actions. Just as your fingers get calluses after playing the guitar for awhile, the brain also adapts and creates new neural pathways to make room for music. What the scientific phrases like “creation of new neural pathways” and “modification of connections between existing neurons via neurogenesis” really mean is just this: Learning music causes your brain to grow!
It’s not like you are merely “storing new information”. Your efforts are changing the very form and function of your brain, and therefore your mind and your self perception. As is often the case, modern science is “proving” what the wise men and women of long ago were already trying to tell us: What we think and do creates who we are.
Neuroplasticity, the brain’s ability to rebuild, reshape and redefine itself, seems to suggest that we humans were intended to flex this muscle until the day we keel over. Not just when were are “younger and more impressionable”, because according to the latest neuroscience are brains are always “young and impressionable”. It is only our negative beliefs that create a less exciting reality. Apparently the old motto “use it or lose it” is very apt here.
Furthermore, medical studies have shown that continued use of all parts of the brain throughout our life is critical to our mental health, and can aid in the prevention of such maladies as dementia and Alzheimer’s.
The key phrase here is “all parts of the brain”. Not just the part that we use to type really fast and impress the boss, or the part where we store our in depth knowledge of fly fishing. Apparently our brains need holistic use, and not just specialized areas of knowledge, to remain healthy.
And, as both science and our intuition have shown, there is one particularly enjoyable activity that engages our entire brain, our body, and our community…making music!
