2024-01-15 23:32:44
By Pamela Dörhöfer
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Researchers from the USA are decoding important mechanisms and see potential for the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder and depression.
Probably no other fine art is able to move people as emotionally as music. It can transport us to times gone by and evoke feelings associated with it, first love, intense heartbreak, a wonderful journey, but also terrible events. It can make tears fall spontaneously, create a cheerful mood or give you goosebumps as the background music for a thriller. A special magic emanates from it, which – even if it may sound very matter-of-fact – is linked to a variety of processes in the brain. Not all of them are understood in detail, because the relationships between music, brain and feelings are complex.
Psychologists at the University of California in Los Angeles have discovered a previously unknown connection between emotions, memory processes and music: They found that emotions evoked by music help to form separate and lasting memories in the brain. A finding that, according to lead author Mason Mc Clay, “has great therapeutic potential to help people with post-traumatic stress disorder and depression.” The study was published in the specialist magazine Nature Communications.
The researchers’ results are based on experiments. They had professionals put together music that was specifically designed to arouse joyful, anxious, sad or calming feelings of varying intensity. This music was played to the study participants while they were shown a series of neutral images on the computer screen – such as a watermelon, a wallet or a football. Using the computer mouse and a new tool, the subjects’ emotional reactions to the music could be tracked.
Music creates feelings
Later there were several tests in which the memory of the various images was tested. It turned out that the dynamics of the feelings created by the music transformed the otherwise neutral experiences of looking at the objects into memorable experiences – and that the participants’ memory was better for those objects that they had perceived during a change in emotions. This effect was particularly strong for positive feelings. “Changes in emotions triggered by the music created boundaries between episodes, making it easier for people to remember what they saw and when they saw it,” says psychologist Mc Clay.
The background: Over the course of life, people have to organize information into groups, otherwise the sheer amount of data would be far too much. That’s why our brain doesn’t turn all experiences into memories. According to a statement from the University of California, the researchers describe the linking and integration of memories and the differentiation from other memories as a constant “push and pull that helps to form different memories and understand experiences.”
Music & Brain
The positive effect of music is closely related to the release of neurotransmitters (messengers that are passed on between nerve cells). These include oxytocin, serotonin, endorphins and dopamine, the latter being the main player in the reward center in the brain. A cocktail that can trigger feelings of well-being, happiness and euphoria and that is also released during other pleasant experiences such as a good meal or sex.
Emotional reactions to music are generated in the amygdala, an evolutionarily ancient region of the brain, and music-related memories are stored in the neighboring hippocampus, which is crucial for memory formation. At the same time, the prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for higher cognitive functions, works closely with the hippocampus when it comes to recalling musical memories and assigning them autobiographical meaning. (pam)
Music-based therapies for mental disorders
“It’s like putting objects in boxes for long-term storage,” explains David Clewett, assistant professor of psychology at the University of California and one of the study authors: “When we need to retrieve information, we open the box, that it contains.” The experiments showed “that emotions appear to be an effective box for fulfilling this purpose and making memories more accessible.”
As his colleague Mason Mc Clay says, most music-based therapies for mental disorders “rely on the fact that listening to music can help patients relax or feel joy, which then reduces symptoms associated with negative emotions.” The benefit of listening to music in these cases is therefore “secondary and indirect”: “In our case, however, we are concerned with a possible mechanism by which emotional, dynamic music could be able to directly treat the memory problems that characterize such disorders. “Specifically, Clewett suspects that the effects observed in the study could help people “contain” and integrate memories that have caused, for example, post-traumatic stress disorder.
Ordinary events can trigger flashbacks
“If traumatic memories are not stored properly, their contents come out when the closet door opens, often without warning,” explains the scientist: This is the reason why ordinary events such as fireworks can trigger flashbacks of traumatic experiences, “such as surviving a bombing or shooting.” “We believe we can use positive emotions, perhaps using music, to help people with post-traumatic stress disorder put that original memory in a box and reintegrate it,” says David Clewett. In this way, negative emotions could be prevented from spilling over into everyday life. (Pamela Dörhöfer)
#Music #Psychology #Music #Affects #Memory