Music – a universal language. Something that can fight across many modern barriers. But how does your brain actually process music? And how can that be useful in medicine?

This article is fairly technical – while there is much explanation, as I process these studies, I suggest looking up the basic brain structures and what they do. 

This article will mainly be focused on the processing of listening to music, rather than how your brain processes playing music. Stay tuned for a future article on that!

Brain areas that are affected when listening to music:
According to this meta-analysis, music actually activates areas in the motor system of the brain, even when no movement is involved. Through fMRI imaging of various participants, the scientists came across activations in various regions of the brain. In the temporal lobe of your brain(the area responsible for audio), the transverse temporal gyrus and the bilateral superior temporal gyrus(STG) were activated. The transverse temporal gyrus is the first place in your brain to receive sound and takes in the frequency of the noise, or pitch. The sound then travels through to the bilateral STG, which processes the sound. Then the insula, which is physically located between the temporal and the frontal lobes, bridges the sensory experience of hearing the music with the emotions and physical state of your body. After passing through the insula, specific areas of the frontal lobe, the bilateral precentral gyrus, and the bilateral medial frontal gyrus were also activated. The former is typically associated with the excution on the decision of movement, and the latter is associated with the decision of making that movement. Finally, the last area of the brain that lit up was the Pyramis, which is located in your cerebellum(brainstem), and is involved in coordinating physical balance and precision of eye movements. The last part of this study showed that areas of the brain typically associated with motor skills were activated as well. The left and right lateral premotor cortex (LPMC), the right Primary motor Cortex(M1), and the left cerebellum were also involved. An interesting thing to point out is that, specifically, the left LMPC is associated with the learned motor skills it takes to play an instrument. The Right M1 controls intended movement on the left side of your body, working together with the Left Cerebellum to actually activate that intended movement.  

In this Meta- Analysis here, scientists took fMRI images from studies done on the correlations of music and how it evokes emotions. Through the study of these images, we can see that a large range of structures was activated. Firstly, the sound waves from the music are sent and translated in the Auditory Cortex. The anterior hippocampus then links the information heard with long-term memories or physical surroundings. The amygdala, which I refer to as the alarm center in your brain, associates emotions with the specific sound heard. A few areas that are mainly associated with the reward, pleasure, and motivation network of your brain were also activated(Ventral Striatum, Dorsal Striatum, Orbifrontal Cortex, Anterior Cingulate Cortex). Finally, the last part noticed to be activated was the Secondary Somatosensory Cortex(S2), which integrates the physical feelings with the emotions and memories, essentially combining the information gathered from the Anterior hippocampus and the amygdala. All of these areas that were thought to be activated clearly explain the effect of music and how it technically makes you feel those emotions. 

Now we can clearly see that even listening to music clearly activates many areas of your brain, but how might that be useful for medicine? In this meta-analysis, many of the areas that we discussed were also shown to have been activated, but specifically, classical music activated the limbic network. The limbic network, with four main structures(the amygdala, hippocampus, thalamus, and hypothalamus), is essentially the brain’s emotional headquarters. Everything relating to emotions is processed and executed in this area. Another thing to note from this analysis is that there are some correlations between more areas of the brain being activated in those who have received years of music training while they listened to music. Taking in all of this information, neuroscientists believe that music listening could be helpful for those with neurological disorders to attempt regulation of the disordered brain networks caused by diseases such as Dementia, Parkinson’s, or the effects of a Stroke, to help with the physical and functional changes caused by those diseases. 

That was a lot of technicality, so I hope you learned something new today. Next time you hear your favorite tune, just think about how many areas of your brain are working hard to help you enjoy it!