RWS 1000 AbhiR

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Abhineet Rathore 12E

Does music distract or help?


Fundamentally, music is a combination of sounds, and sound is vibration. It's extraordinary
to think that a simple vibration unseen by the human eye can facilitate a deeply rich
emotional experience. It is said that music is essential to our lives, we listen to it while
waking up, in transit, during work and with out friends. Music is much more than just mere
entertainment. The people that carry out their tasks with background music, will argue that
music helps. However, how is this the case? When you further think about it, how does it
make sense? Why would two things that require concentration, make you more focused or
less on one?
Research suggests that background music, or music that is played while the listener is
primarily focused on another activity, can improve performance on cognitive tasks in older
adults. Cognitive tasks are those undertakings that require a person to mentally process
new information and allow them to recall, retrieve that information from memory and to
use that information at a later time in the same or similar situation. Music can be a source of
pain relief. When you listen to music, the body releases endorphins to reduce the pain.
Relaxing music can slow down your heartbeat. The chills you feel when you hear a
particularly moving piece of music may be the result of dopamine, a neurotransmitter that
triggers sensations of pleasure and well-being. As your brain becomes familiar with a
particular song, your body may release dopamine upon hearing just the first few notes of
the song. Interestingly, music can affect our mood even if we can’t recognize or replicate the
notes and rhythm. Science has documented numerous instances of people who suffered
brain injuries and lost their ability to distinguish melodies but retained the ability to
recognize the emotion conveyed by music. Researchers noted that these patients had
sustained damage to the temporal lobes of the brain, a region involved in comprehending
melody; their frontal lobes, which play a role in emotional regulation, were unaffected.
Music is complex; it involves pitch, timbre, rhythm, dynamics and so much more. Decoding
music is quite a task for the brain. According to an article published in the Journal of Biology.
The mental processes involved in knitting individual sounds together into the overall
perception of a song is quite similar to the process the brain goes through in reading, which
involves first recognizing individual letters and sounds and then ultimately gleaning meaning
from sentences and paragraphs. Working memory is involved in both processes, and
scientists believe there’s a great deal of overlap between working memory for musical
stimuli and for verbal stimuli. Evidence suggests that listening to music may help brain cells
process information more efficiently and may facilitate the brain’s ability to adapt. -
According to a study published in the scientific journal Brain, adults who suffered a stroke
and listened to music daily experienced significantly greater gains in verbal memory and
cognition after two months than stroke survivors who listened to audio books and those
who didn’t listen to either music or books on a daily basis.
There are studies that show, however, that music can impact our mood long-term,
increasing depression or anxiety. Certain songs, certain lyrics, certain genres of music are
more likely to intensify depression or anxiety, sometimes as much or more as outside
stressors and environmental factors. It actually does matter what you are listening to. It is
important to be aware of both the type of music, the lyrics, and how they are impacting you.
Not just short-term or in the moment, but for days or even weeks after listening. Particularly
if you listen to a song or album or playlist over and over again. It is similar to eating fast food
for every meal, it is just not healthy for you. If we listen to music at a high volume for long
periods of time, or if we play loud instruments without protecting our ears, we will likely
experience hearing loss issues and tinnitus. It can even lead to physical pain in extreme
situations. Certain songs or even specific musical patterns can trigger the memory of
negative situations we lived in the past and that we would rather leave behind forever. This
situation occurs at different levels. Music is a great tool to trigger past memories, bad or
good ones. So, it can trigger some traumatic memories, perhaps connected to an accident or
any other scary experience, or milder bad memories, perhaps connected to feelings of
shame or emotional inconvenience, as well as good memories. If you’re working on
something and listening to music, it is not uncommon to experience memory gaps. You
might forget where you are in the project or complete the entire task at hand without
remembering what you did. When this happens, it is difficult to maintain quality control
because there is no recollection of what just happened.
In conclusion music is beneficial in our life and has impacted us in numerous ways. The
brain can even be improved by listening to music, and so can our mental and physical
health. Music can even be used to boost our mood. However, we have to know which type
of music is most beneficial for us, as it is normally based on personal preference. Music is
truly amazing and has helped me a lot through life.

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