Emotional Impact of Music 

The Biology of Music

Music may soothe the troubled breast. It might even be the food of love. But how does it cast its spell? Romantics can take comfort from the fact that science does not yet have all the answers. But it has some.
 
When philosophers debate what it is that makes humans unique among animals, they often point to language. Other animals can communicate, of course. But despite the best efforts of biologists working with beasts as diverse as chimpanzees, dolphins and parrots, no other species has yet shown the subtleties of syntax that give human languages their power.  There is, however, another sonic medium that might be thought uniquely human, and that is music. Other species can sing (indeed, many birds do so better than a lot of people). But birdsong, and the song of animals such as whales, has a limited repertoire—and no other animal is known to have developed a musical instrument.

Music is strange stuff. It is clearly different from language. People can, nevertheless, use it to communicate things—especially their emotions. And when allied with speech in a song, it is one of the most powerful means of communication that humans have. But what, biologically speaking, is it?  Music’s effect on the outer layers of the brain—the temporal and even the visual cortex—is only half the story, however. These are the places in which the signal is being dissected and processed. The place where it is having its most profound effect is in the brain’s emotional core—the limbic system.

From The Biology of Music - http://cogweb.ucla.edu/Abstracts/Music_00.html

From Music and the Brain: Processing and Responding - http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/bb/neuro/neuro99/web1/Sancar.html 

Emotional Intelligence

Daniel Goleman wrote "Emotional Intelligence: Why it Can Matter More than IQ."  Goleman describes emotional intelligence as "a different way of being smart. It includes knowing what your feelings are and using your feelings to make good decisions in life. It's being able to manage distressing moods well and control impulses. It's being motivated and remaining hopeful and optimistic when you have setbacks in working toward goals. It's empathy; knowing what the people around you are feeling. And it's social skill--getting along well with other people, managing emotions in relationships, being able to persuade or lead others.

He describes the "physiology of the brain and the relationship between the emotional brain and the brain's executive areas....The prefrontal lobes just behind the forehead are where working memory resides. Working memory is what you are paying attention to at any given point. So everything you are mulling over, making a decision about, or are learning, is at first in working memory. All learning is in working memory. And the emotional centers that control moods like anxiety or anger have very strong connections to the prefrontal areas. So if a child is chronically anxious or angry or upset in some way, he experiences that as intruding thoughts. He can't keep his mind off the thing he is worried about."  See the limbic system.

Emotional Intelligence Skills  (Jensen lists specific research conducted on each of the following skills in his book - Music with the Brain in Mind)

Effects of Music on Emotions

Music and Relaxation (from Jensen)

Websites

The Mozart Effect

A controversial study of University of California Irvine students was conducted to determine if students who listened to Mozart's Sonata K. 448 for ten minutes prior to testing had higher test scores than those of a control group.  

Some results of the "Mozart Effect" 

Music Activities in the Classroom that Impact Emotions 

(From Jensen - Music with the Brain in Mind)

Helping Students Understand Musical Impact 

Music to Use in the Classroom

Classical Music MIDI and Audio Files

Songs for Teaching Audio Files -  http://www.songsforteaching.com/ 

Sounds of Nature

New Age Music Instrumentals

Enhancing the Classroom Emotional Atmosphere with Music - Orchestrating your Classroom Environment

Try some music you've never used before!  

In what ways could you use instrumental music to alter the mood in your classroom?  What types of instrumental music would you use to energize the students?  List specific titles, composers, or CDs.   What particular learning activities might be most effective with a musical component?  Try out some of the free online music tracks listed above, or try a several selections from your own instrumental CD collection.  Describe the purpose and student response.  What instrumental music have you found useful for motivating students to stay on task.  What music helps them mellow out?  What background music have you tried with your students and explain its effectiveness in providing a soothing, unobtrusive environment?  What music have you tried that seems to distract or agitate students?  What music do you find relaxes students?  If you were to prepare students for an exam by playing 10 minutes of music (like the "Mozart Effect" experiment), what piece of music would you choose?

How do you provide musical transitions between tasks and activities?  What music do you like to use to punctuate events and activities in your room?  Name any other effective musical selections you've found useful for creating a joyous, creative, and up-beat classroom.  What songs do you like to sing with your students on a regular basis?  Share music or songs that you have found useful for promoting a caring positive environment?  What songs do you use to foster respect for diversity in your classroom?  What songs do you use with dance, movement, or gross/fine motor activity?  How do you orchestrate your classroom environment?

Major Components of the Limbic System - Emotional Center

Amygdala

A little almond shaped structure, deep inside the antero-inferior region of the temporal lobe, connects with the hippocampus, the septal nuclei, the prefrontal area and the medial dorsal nucleus of the thalamus. These connections make it possible for the amigdala to play its important role on the mediation and control of major affective activities like friendship, love and affection, on the expression of mood and, mainly, on fear, rage and aggression The amygdala, being the center for identification of danger, is fundamental for self preservation. When triggered, it gives rise to fear and anxiety which lead the animal into a stage of alertness, getting ready to flight or fight.

Is particularly involved with memory phenomena, specially with the formation of long-term memory (the one that, sometimes, lasts forever).

Thalamus

Lesion or stimulation of the medial dorsal and anterior nuclei of the thalamus are associated with changes in emotional reactivity. However, the importance of these nuclei on the regulation of emotional behavior, is not due to the thalamus itself, but to the connections of these nuclei with other limbic system structures. The medial dorsal nucleus makes connections with cortical zones of the pre-frontal area and with the hypothalamus.

The hypothalamus is also believed to play a role in emotion. Specifically, its lateral parts seem to be involved with pleasure and rage, while the median part is like to be involved with aversion, displeasure and a tendency to uncontrollable and loud laughing. However, in general terms, the hypothalamus has more to do with the expression (symptomatic manifestations) of emotions than with the genesis of the affective states. When the physical symptoms of emotion appear, the threat they pose returns, via hypothalamus, to the limbic centers and, thence, to the pre-frontal nuclei, increasing anxiety. This negative feed-back mechanism can be so strong as to generate a situation of panic. 

Brain Stem

The brainstem is the region responsible for the "emotional reactions", (indeed, they are just reflex answers) of inferior vertebrates, like reptiles and amphibians. Even in humans, these primitive structures remain active, not only as alerting mechanisms, vital for survival, but in the maintenance of the sleep-awake cycle.

  Emotional Intelligence Websites

The Brain and Emotions 

Mozart Effect Websites - Pro and Con

Copyright 2003 by Carla Piper, Ed. D.