Why classical music facilitates brain growth

When we do the scientific breakdown, we have learned that listening to music represents a complex cognitive function inside the human mind, which then induces many neuronal and physiological changes. However, beyond that not much is known specifically about the molecular state of the mind under the effects of listening to music, as well as the molecular effects of music as a whole.

Now, A Finnish study group has come together to explore and discover how classical music affects the expression of gene profiles of both musically experienced and inexperienced participants. All of the participants in the study listened to Mozart’s violin concern Nr 3, G-major, K.216 that lasts approx. 20 minutes.

Listening to music enhanced the activity of genes involved in dopamine secretion and transport, synaptic function, learning and memory. One of the most up-regulated genes, synuclein-alpha (SNCA) is a known risk gene for Parkinson’s disease that is located in the strongest linkage region of musical aptitude. SNCA is also known to contribute to song learning in songbirds.

“The up-regulation of several genes that are known to be responsible for song learning and singing in songbirds suggest a shared evolutionary background of sound perception between vocalizing birds and humans”, says Dr. Irma Järvelä, the leader of the study. - ScienceDaily

This past week in science, researchers discovered the evidence of HGT, which stands for Horizontal Gene Transfer. It described that many of our genes are actually NOT our own in origin, but came from our environment in some way shape and form. Could this mean there is an evolutionary bridge between Songbirds and Humans? Perhaps it was the songbirds song that caused the brain-growth in humans to adapt to ideas of music and song. It’s even possible that music was created by early-man listening to the first songbirds and emulating them! To top this story off, it must be noted that this discovery also came with a bit of a twist.“

"The effect was only detectable in musically experienced participants, suggesting the importance of familiarity and experience in mediating music-induced effects”, researchers remark.
How fascinating! At the very core, the effect of mental stimulation only happened with musically experienced participants.

This leads me to believe that when you first listen to new music, you might not experience much of a mental effect at all, because you are still building the mental pathways for you to understand what you’re hearing. The more you listen to it, the clearer and more fuller your listening experience is.

Listening to music is about the bridge between the left brain and the right brain. How deeply you resonate with the music relies on how well you listen to it.



Article source: Science Daily

Source: The Spirit Science