"What Beethoven knew about?" Neuro students check the effectiveness of musical therapy

Plato proposed to use music to treat anxiety, Aristotle considered it an instrument to get rid of experiences. Since ancient times, the specific "soundtrack" accompanied Shamanic rituals and pagan cleansing practices. Modern scientists have repeatedly tried to summarize and substantiate knowledge accumulated over centuries. For example, Don Kent studied the “ influence of music on the human body and mind ” in 2006 at Harvard. And now neuro -scientists connected to the study of this issue.

“The fact that the sounds of music are associated with the system of remuneration of the brain, there is something that Beethoven must have known about,” the neurobiologist Psyche Louis once joked .

She began her performance at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Development of Science with the remark that the music of the German composer sounds in concert halls to this day for a reason. It is listening to the classics, according to many people, that calms, relaxes and helps the body restore strength. At this meeting, scientists discussed how to more accurately investigate the effect of music on the brain, using modern methods of neurodiagnostics and taking into account the cultural context of people's life.

Psyche Louis, associate professor of the North-Eastern University of Boston (USA), in her work tried to find out why not all people react to music the same way. In some, listening to their favorite melodies causes strong physiological reactions, for example, goosebumps or even frost on the skin.

About five years ago, Psyche Louis and her colleagues studied various reactions that arise when listening to music, while measuring skin conductivity. Practice has shown that in the event of a strong emotional reaction to the melody of the subjects, the electrical activity of the epidermis sharply increased. And besides, the heart rate increased. That is, when a person says that he is trembling from music, this is not necessarily a figure of speech. Such a reaction is quite possible.

Subscribe to read the whole

Make a subscription Redefine.media to read Republic

Subscribe [you can pay for a Russian or foreign card. The subscription is extended automatically. You can unsubscribe at any time.]

Where are the money subscribers going

Most Republic materials are available by paid subscription. We believe that this is a good way to finance media. After all, as you know, if you have not paid for reading it, then someone else paid for you to read it. In our case, everything is honest: from your money, salaries and fees are paid to journalists, and they write about important and interesting topics for you.

The key feature of our subscription: your money is distributed between Republic magazines depending on how you read it. If you read the materials of one magazine, then your money will go only to him, while others will not go. That is, you finance only what you are interested in.

Republic uses the Redefine.media subscription. For design, we will redirect you to the Redefine.media website, where you will need to register and pay for the subscription. Authorization on the Redefine.Media website will allow you to read Republic materials from the same device.

A year subscription is more profitable than a month. And if you want to unsubscribe, this can always be done in your personal account.