The Power of Music
Early in January I underwent surgery. I'm fine, thanks,
primarily because I had a brilliant surgeon and first-rate nursing care (thank you, New
York Methodist). But I'm convinced that I also came through with so few ill effects
because of the power of music.
Being the kind of guy I am, I entered the hospital with a
backpack stuffed with goodies -- not least among them my fully loaded 40GB PJB100 MP3 jukebox, a
HeadRoom Max headphone amplifier, and a pair of Sennheiser HD 600s with
Cardas headphone cables. Oh yeah, and a power strip, since I have discovered that there
are never enough outlets for audiophiles and computer geeks.
I'm sure a lot of you are rolling your eyes -- so did
almost everyone who entered my room. Maybe it was overkill, but when my wife and
friends weren't there, the music on that jukebox nourished my soul and banished my pain.
It gave me energy without any side effects and it banished the institutional nature of the
hospital, making the space I occupied home.
That's not trivial.
Nor is it simply my imagination.
Listening to music is far from a passive experience. It
involves pretty much everything above the shoulders. According to Robert Zatorre and
researchers at McGill University, "Music recruits neural systems of reward and
emotion similar to those known to respond specifically to biologically relevant stimuli,
such as food and sex, and those artificially activated by drugs of abuse."
In other words, musical ecstasy is as powerful as the
ecstasy derived from sex or drugs -- without the former's mess or the latter's deleterious
side effects.
Zatorre and his colleagues employed PET and MRI scanners to
monitor the neural functions of volunteers' brains as they listened to music. The
researchers discovered that distinct clusters in the cerebral cortex seem to be
responsible for each component of music (rhythm, dissonance, and harmony, for instance).
Even extremely simple songs cause complex combinations of electrical activity in both
hemispheres of the brain. Music also stimulates the physical areas that store memory; the
areas that process logic and speech; the brain stem, which filters sounds; and, as you'd
suspect, the portion of the cerebrum that stimulates emotions.
But music doesn't just cause neural changes, it also
increases blood flow to major portions of the brain, including the pleasure processing
centers -- and, even more interestingly, seems to restrict blood flow to the areas
associated with depression and fear.
So listening to music causes electrical changes within the
brain as well as physical changes within the brain and body. That's pretty amazing for
something that seemingly has no survival advantage.
It illustrates that music is powerful stuff.
So, once again, I'd like to make a small suggestion: Share
the gift of music.
I don't mean putting your speakers in your frat-house
windows and serenading the neighborhood. Make your attentive listening a group endeavor.
Tell a friend -- your lover, a close relative -- why you love a particular piece of music,
and listen to it together. Reciprocate by listening to and discussing someone else's
favorites.
This is a variation of a suggestion a friend made at dinner
the other night. He said the secret to a happy life is to be determined to enjoy every
minute. Not a bad idea, but I countered with a lesson I learned a long time ago: The best
way to enjoy yourself is to make sure the people you love are happy.
Share your love of music with the people you love. You
can't make someone like everything you enjoy, but a little concern, a little conversation,
and a lot of attention can mean the difference between experiencing music as wallpaper and
really "getting" it.
Maybe you won't convert everybody, but the chances are, your
brain could use the workout, anyway.
And even if you're doomed to a life of solitary listening,
music will help you overcome that disappointment as well.
...Wes Phillips
wes@onhifi.com
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