Music and Mind

VI The Power of Music

Music has charms to soothe a savage breast,To soften rocks, or bend a knotted oak.

—William Congreve ♫

www.mind-study.org

Mozart sonata for violin andpiano #24 in F major (4:30)

Where we are . .

I. The Appeal of Music March 23

II. The Sound of Music March 30

III. The Hearing of Music April 6

IV. The Structure of Music April 13

V. The Making of Music April 27

VI. The Power of Music May 4

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Topics for today

• The Mozart Effect• Effects of Music on

– Emotions – Behavior– Physiology– Plants and animals

• Music Therapy

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When I hear music, I fear no danger.I am invulnerable. I see no foe.

I am related to the earliest times, and to the latest.—Thoreau, 1857

The Mozart Effect: Mental acuity (I)

• The original experiments, UC Irvine– Early 1990’s, Frances Rauscher, PhD, et al.– Undergraduate students, spatial reasoning test

• Mozart group listened to Mozart concerto for two pianos• Scored avg 8 to 9 points higher than control group• The effect lasted 10-15 minutes• “We suspect that complex music facilitates certain complex

neuronal patterns involved in high brain activities like math and chess. By contrast, simple and repetitive music could have the opposite effect.”

—Gordon Shaw, theoretical physicist, one of the researchers

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The Mozart Effect: Mental acuity (II)

• Follow-up study at UC Irvine• Test of spatial reasoning: mentally unfolding pieces of paper• 79 students, divided into three groups

1) Mozart concerto for two pianos2) Silence3) Mixed sounds, including music by Philip Glass and a dance piece

• All 3 groups improved from day 1 to day 2, but , . .• Mozart group improved 62%• Silence group 14%• Mixed sounds group 11%

• Possible explanation: Listening to Mozart helps “organize” the firing patterns of neurons in the cortex, especially for right brain processes associated with spatial-temporal reasoning

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The Mozart Effect: Mental acuity (III)

• Later study by Rauscher and Shaw at UC Irvine• Thirty-four preschool children• Piano keyboard training

1) Pitch intervals2) Fine motor coordination3) Fingering techniques4) Music notation5) Sightreading6) Playing from memory

• After 6 months• Up to 36% improvement in spatial and temporal

tasks in comparison to second and third groups• Second group: computer lessons• Third group: other stimulation

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The Mozart Effect: Mental acuity (IV)

• In Washington state, immigration department officials – play Mozart and Baroque music to new arrivals from

Cambodia, Laos, and other Asian countries– It speeds up their learning

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Long-term effects of music on mental acuity

• College Entrance Examination board, 1996 report• Scores of students with experience in musical performance

– 51 points higher (on average) on the verbal part of the SAT– 39 points higher on math section– As compared with national average

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Music and productivity I

• Experiment at U of Washington• Subjects’ task: copyediting a manuscript

– 90 people listened to “light classical” music while working• Accuracy increased by 21.3%

– 2nd group listened to popular commercial radio format• Accuracy increased by 2.4%

– 3rd group: silence• Accuracy decreased by 8.3%

– 4th group: controls – usual office noise• Baseline

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Music and productivity II

• Equitable Life Insurance– Output of transcribers increased 17% after introduction of music

• Mississippi Power and Light– Efficiency in billing department increased 18.6% after introduction of

music

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Music and eating

• Research at Johns Hopkins U– Rock music makes people eat faster and a larger volume of food– Classical music: slower rate of eating less food consumed

• Especially slow music of strings

• Results used by fast-food chains– They pipe in “bright and briskly paced” music– To induce customers to eat their (whopping) meals faster and

make room for other customers

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The Mozart Effect: Other phenomena

• In monasteries in Brittany, monks play music to their animals– Cows who hear Mozart give more milk (Campbell 14)

• City squares, Edmonton, Alberta– Piped music: Mozart string quartets– To calm pedestrian traffic– Significant reduction in drug dealing

• Ohara brewery, northern Japan– Music of Mozart used in brewing sake– Density of yeast increases by a factor of ten

• Tomatis and the frog– Campbell 51Bf

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The Mozart Effect: Growth of plants (I)

• Research of Dan Carlson– Hypothesis: Sound might prompt plants to open up their pores,

enabling them to absorb more nutrients– Got best results with sitar music– Conjecture: sitar music has vibrations similar to bird singing

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The Mozart Effect: Growth of plants (I)

• Research of Dorothy Retallak, Temple Buell College, Denver– Five small greenhouses– Corn, squash, marigolds, zinnias, petunias– All conditions the same in all five, except the sound– Ist greenhouse: Bach

• Dramatic growth• Flowers abundant• Vines turned toward the speakers

– 2nd greenhouse: Indian classical music• Results like those for Bach

– 3rd greenhouse: loud rock• Many fewer flowers• Didn’t grow well

– 4th greenhouse country&western• Almost identical to the 5th greenhouse

– 5th greenhouse: silence14

Physiological effects of music

• Heartbeat & blood pressure• Experiment at LSU

– 24 young adults– “hard-driving” rock music

• Increase in heart rate• Lower quality of workouts

– “easy-listening” or softer music• Lower heart rates• Longer workout sessions

• Experiment at Temple University– Music of Jimi Hendrix, Rolling Stones, Led Zappelin, and others

• Increased respiration, reduced skin resistance, increased heart rate• Compared to control group: random background noise

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Music and Health

• In language:– sound is a synonym for healthy in mind and/or body– N.B.: sound judgement, sound advice,– being in tune with others, being in harmony with others

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Endorphins

• Chemicals released by pituitary gland• Induce natural “high”• Research at Addiction Research Center, Stanford, CA

– Music produces “euphoria” in about half of subjects– Euphoria is disrupted by injection of naloxone (opiate blocker)

• Research in Austin TX (JAMA 1996)– Expectant mothers in labor listened to music– Half of them required no anesthesia– “Music stimulation increases endorphin release and this

decreases the need for medication. It also provides a distraction from pain and relieves anxiety”

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Stress-related hormones

• ACTH, prolactic hormone, HGH• Anesthesiologists report:

– Levels decline significantly in those listening to relaxing music– In some cases, enough decline to obviate need for medication

“I cannot listen to music too often. It makes me want to say kind, stupid things, and pat the heads of people”

—Lenin

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Music Therapy (I)

• There are now over 5000 music therapists in hospitals, rehab units, health-care facilities, clinics, nursing homes, day-care centers, and prisons

• St. Agnes hospital, Baltimore– Patients in critical care– Listen to classical music– “Half an hour of music produced the same effect as ten milligrams of

Valium” —Raymond Bahr, M.D., director of the coronary care unit

• The Benedictine monks in south France (Campbell 103Mf)• Gérard Depardieu (Campbell 116Uf)

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Music Therapy (II)

• Paul Robinson, MD, visiting professor of music and psychiatry, Kingston University, Ontario:– Patients exposed to 15 minutes of soothing music require only

50% of recommended doses of sedatives and anesthetic drugs for painful operations

• Parkinson’s disease (Oliver Sacks) (Campbell 127)• Easing labor pain

– “Our little girl was born to a Mozart string quartet and placed on my chest for me to hold. This was the most wonderful moment of my life”

—a mother quoted in Lieberman, Easing Labor Pain

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Music Therapy (III)

• Music therapy has achieved significant results with• Blood pressure reduction• Asthma• Cancer• Depression• Epilepsy• Migraine• Insomnia• Neuromuscular disorders• Stroke rehabilitation• Auditory hallucinations in schizophrenia

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Fetal Hearing

• Fetal hearing of mother’s voice– Ear is first organ to develop in utero– Active listening from 24 weeks– Case of Thomas Verny, Hamilton Philharmonic (Campbell 23L)

• In experiments, children have been shown to recognize tunes that were played to them while in utero

• Alfred Tomatis, M.D.– Breakdown can result in autism and learning disabilities– Treatment by simulation of sounds as heard in the womb– (interesting case, Campbell 19Mf)– (interesting case, Campbell 20Mf)

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The Lullaby as therapy for infants

• Relaxation (Campbell 23Bf)• Length of hospital stay (Campbell 24U)• Recovery from surgery (Campbell 25MB)• Experiment on consonance and dissonance

– 32 infants, age 4 months– Short selections from European folk songs– Consonant versions and dissonant versions played– Consonant versions:

• Improvement in focus• Less wiggling• Less fussiness

– Dissonant versions• More whining• They turned away from the speaker

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Why Mozart?

• Tomatis has studied Mozart in relation to other music– Beethoven, Beatles, Gerschwin, Armstrong, …

• Finds that Mozart works best– Relation– Spatial perception– Effective communication– Even in Tokyo, Cape Town, Amazonia

• Why? Tomatis speculates . .– Simpler than Beethoven and Bach and others– Beneficial features include

• Rhythm• Medodies• Frequencies

– Campbell 27M,B24

Pablo Casals

• Campbell 63Bf

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An experiment

• Mozart Piano Concerto #21, 2nd movement• ♫• 13:34 – 20:12

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Bach: The Rest of the Story

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T h a t ‘ s i t !