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these days we hear music all the time it
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wakes us up motivates our workouts keeps
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us company on our commutes doesn't
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matter what kind of music it is music
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itself has the ability to affect our
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moods and our bodies in all sorts of
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ways we not our heads we sway dance
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music and give us chills even make us
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cry music activates every area of the
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brain that we have so far mapped in fact
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there's no area of the brain that we
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know about that music doesn't touch in
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some way but what's behind all that
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what exactly does music do to us to find
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out I went to a whole series of tests
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designed to measure my responses to
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music met some kids whose brains may
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actually be changing thanks for those
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hours of learning practice and
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performing spoke with a therapist who
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used music to help former Congresswoman
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Gabrielle Giffords learn to speak again
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and got a glimpse inside the brain of a
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two-time Grammy winning artist while he
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played all to find out how music affects
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us so what's going on when we listen to
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music we visited the USC brain and
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creativity Institute where I had my head
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examined
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literally to try to figure it out I'm
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gonna go into this fMRI machine a tiny
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tube will surround me we'll get a
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baseline reading of my brain and then
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I'm gonna listen to some music and we're
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gonna see how my brain responds just
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close your eyes relaxed and try and get
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into the music as best you can okay and
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here's what we saw these are scans of my
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brain the areas in red are where my
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activity is above average in blue below
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average and as you can see there's red
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activity all over my brain not just in
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one specific area 25 years ago the idea
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was that languages on the left side of
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the brain and music is in the right side
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of the brain but now that we've got
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better quality tools higher resolution
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neuroimaging and better experimental
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methods we've discovered that's not at
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all right how does that play out in
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different regions of the brain when
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music enters and then gets shuttled off
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to different parts of the brain it stops
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at specialized processing units in
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auditory cortex they track loudness and
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pitch
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Tambor and things like that there's
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visual cortex activation when you're
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reading music as a musician or watching
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music motor cortex when you're tapping
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your feet snapping your fingers clapping
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your hands the cerebellum which mediates
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the emotional responses the memory
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system in the hippocampus hearing a
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familiar passage finding it somewhere in
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your memory banks music is going on in
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both halves of the brain the left and
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the right the front in the back the
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inside and the outside so what about a
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musicians brain it's a play a piece of
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music engages so many things motor
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systems timing systems memory systems
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hearing system there's all sorts of kind
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of brain activity happening it's a very
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robust thing to play music
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I'm Alex Jacob Robertson I'm Nathan Glen
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Robertson we ask these 11 year-old
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musicians to tell us what's going
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through their minds when they play some
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of the most important things are having
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good postures getting the note right
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legato staccato for the violin you need
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to hold your hand at the right place
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then you need to have be in tune and
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then you also have to have not only the
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right intonation but the right sound and
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then you also need to have great vibrato
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there's a lot of things to think about
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back at USC researchers have been
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studying kids who play music over the
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past five years to see how it affects
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their development the multitasking areas
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of their brains understandably lit up
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but they've seen other results too music
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training over the course of five years
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has had benefits and cognitive skills
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and decision-making also had some
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benefits and for social behavior and
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we've also seen changes in the
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associated brain structures did you hear
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that changes in brain structures they
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found that the brains of children who
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have studied music have stronger
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connections between the right and left
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hemispheres and that can make them
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better more creative problem-solvers and
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then there's a motion
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you hear a piece like this
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it's easy to understand why emotions
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play such a big part in music this song
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by Camille says song is known as the
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music for the dying Swan in ballet and
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while it might move ballerinas to dance
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it inspires different reactions and
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others
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some people get goosebumps chills that
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weird tingly sensation that you get when
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a great piece of music just hits you in
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the right way it's called for song and
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not everyone gets it but it turns out I
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do now we're gonna have you listened to
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some pieces of music when you experience
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a chill if you do I want you to just
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press the spacebar so we have an
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indication of when the sort of peak
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moments of enjoyment are happening okay
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Matt sax
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a PhD candidate a USC wired me up to
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measure my physiological response so
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when I'm feeling that kind of emotional
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connection that has a physical
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manifestation we'll see what my body is
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actually doing exactly
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all right how was that that was that a
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lot of them we got a wall now full
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disclosure back in the day I believe the
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cello which might have something to do
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with why that particular song affected
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me nice hair
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but it turns out the brain doesn't work
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here too we process the difference
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between this pathway that connects the
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auditory regions is on the side of the
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brain here to the emotional region and
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we show that the tract actually that
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connects those two regions is stronger
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more there's more fibers in that region
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the people who get shows which means
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some people's brains might have better
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communication between what they hear and
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how they feel the music itself also
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plays a role in Forshaw sax uses
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different songs in his lectures to see
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if students get it I'll say raise your
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hand when you get a chew and I'll play a
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piece of music a classical piece and
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maybe half the people will get it but
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then he plays miss
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the Rolling Stones give me shelter have
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you ever seen the movie 20 feet from
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stardom backup singers yeah there's a
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part where they isolate the vocals from
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Gimme Shelter and I played that at 94 7
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people experience chills sort of
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independent of where I go I have to tell
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you bring that up made me think about it
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and I got that little kind of thing at
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the back of the back of my neck but why
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would that happen the high-pitched notes
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that she hit almost sounds like a scream
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and it's very important and sestra Lee
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for us to be able to pay attention to a
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scream figure out what's going on and
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either run or fight whatever we need to
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do so how come that manifest is pleasure
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well it's because our prefrontal cortex
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the more rational thinking part of the
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brain kicks in so you realize very
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quickly after you have this really quick
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startle reflex that there's nothing
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actually threatening about the piece of
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music that you're sitting in a safe
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space with your headphones on and it's
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in that reappraisal that we tend to
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think of the pleasurable response is
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emerging and whether you find listening
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to music so pleasurable you get chills
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or you absolutely despise a song it can
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produce absolutely fascinating effects
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in the brain
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according to Levitan musically enjoy
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triggers the brain's internal opioid
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system yes
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opioid system and just like the opioids
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that come in pill form these chemicals
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make you feel good and help you paint
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and music you don't like well that
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releases cortisol the notorious
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stressful but that's not even the half
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of what music can do in the brain you
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turn on the when former Congresswoman
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Gabrielle Giffords was shot in 2011 the
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left side of her brain was severely
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damaged leaving her struggling to speak
00:08:02
a condition called aphasia but to get an
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idea of just how powerful musics effect
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on the brain can be watch this video
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[Music]
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that word that she had been struggling
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to say light came easily and song why
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would she be able to sing a word when
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she's unable to say it won't we know
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about the brain is that the left
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hemisphere controls language and there
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are many other parts of the brain that
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have music access music therapist
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Meaghan Morrow's job is to help patients
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use those other pathways to regain
00:08:45
language sometimes I compare it to being
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in traffic and you can't move any
00:08:50
further but you might need to exit and
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take a feeder road to get you to your
00:08:55
destination so music is basically like
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that feeder road to the new destination
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like a detour so we know that music can
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help us relearn things like speech by
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accessing alternative pathways in the
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brain and learning to play music can
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help strengthen brain connections but
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what about making music
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so me music is like it's the language of
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humanity no matter where I go in the
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world no matter if I'm played something
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it doesn't matter if someone can't speak
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the language and they're into it they're
00:09:26
intimately this is xavier de from Pallas
00:09:29
better-known is fantastic Negrito we
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brought him the UCSF to meet Charles Lim
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a neuroscientist who studies musical
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creativity the Dufner is up next to
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understand how fantastic Negrito his
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brain works when he's making music dr.
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Lim had him play one of his songs while
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going through the fMRI so how did his
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brain respond the areas that process
00:09:54
sensory and motor skills along with
00:09:56
sounds lit up you can see them here in
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red and yellow makes sense right but
00:10:01
here's the really interesting part Lim
00:10:02
asked him to improvise to see what
00:10:04
happens when he's creating something
00:10:05
totally original
00:10:19
now watch what happens to his brain the
00:10:22
areas that were active before the ones
00:10:23
that deal with motor skills and sounds
00:10:25
are even more active but see how there's
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way more blue in the front of his brain
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that's the prefrontal cortex and its
00:10:31
associated with effortful planning and
00:10:32
conscious self-monitoring and it's blue
00:10:35
because it's less active we see that the
00:10:37
prefrontal cortex appears to be really
00:10:39
shutting down in these moments of high
00:10:41
creativity kind of like letting go of
00:10:43
these conscious self-censoring or
00:10:44
self-monitoring areas that normally are
00:10:47
there to help control that output and
00:10:49
Lim says it's about more than just
00:10:51
letting go you view it from perspective
00:10:55
of survival if human beings only could
00:10:57
do memorize rote responses we'd be long
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gone it's not just the thing that
00:11:01
happens in clubs and in jazz jazz bars
00:11:04
it's actually maybe the most fundamental
00:11:06
form of what it means to be human to
00:11:07
come up with a new idea so music is so
00:11:16
much more than notes on a page it can
00:11:18
change the way we think and speak and
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feel but is there a limit to what
00:11:22
science can tell us about music just
00:11:24
when I discover the answer to one thing
00:11:26
five new questions pop up that are more
00:11:29
interesting than the first and I've
00:11:31
gained an appreciation for how complex
00:11:34
the music making and music listening
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system is it's not demystified for me at
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all it's it's more mysterious than ever
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love the little of the people
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you
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[Applause]
