WEBVTT - Can music rebuild my brain? 0:00:03.800 --> 0:00:06.680 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuff 0:00:06.680 --> 0:00:14.880 Works dot com. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. 0:00:15.160 --> 0:00:19.160 I'm Robert lamb Um Julie Douglas, And as our wonderful 0:00:19.200 --> 0:00:22.920 theme music fades into the background, there, Uh tell me, Julie, 0:00:22.960 --> 0:00:26.160 what how does that music make you feel? What comes 0:00:26.160 --> 0:00:29.400 to mind? I gotta tell you, Like, there's that that 0:00:29.560 --> 0:00:34.640 sort of something that really kind of makes me feel 0:00:34.680 --> 0:00:37.600 a little booty busting. Yeah, yeah, kind of kind of 0:00:37.600 --> 0:00:39.400 makes me in my head not a little. It has 0:00:39.479 --> 0:00:41.600 kind of like a kind of an i d M. 0:00:41.600 --> 0:00:44.680 Intelligent dance music kind of sound to it. To it. 0:00:44.680 --> 0:00:46.400 It makes me sort of think of like a a 0:00:46.640 --> 0:00:49.680 dark Alison Wonderland type forest, and there's like all sorts 0:00:49.720 --> 0:00:51.760 of weird things going on in the darkness, maybe like 0:00:51.800 --> 0:00:56.200 flashing little points of light and there's something there's something 0:00:56.360 --> 0:00:58.920 really amazing going on in the darkness, and uh, and 0:00:58.920 --> 0:01:01.120 you're just kind of wondering, all my goodness, what's what's 0:01:01.200 --> 0:01:04.560 going on out there? Like all I'm talking about is 0:01:04.640 --> 0:01:09.600 classics shaken and you're and you've fallen down the rabbit hole. 0:01:09.600 --> 0:01:14.240 I like that than another Loose Carroll reference there. Yeah, yeah, well, 0:01:14.600 --> 0:01:16.360 I mean that's the great thing about music because it's 0:01:16.480 --> 0:01:18.760 it's you know, And this is kind of a an 0:01:18.800 --> 0:01:21.560 overstatement of the obvious here, but it has a profound 0:01:21.760 --> 0:01:26.720 and varying effect on on on the listener, right, Yeah, absolutely. 0:01:26.800 --> 0:01:30.800 I mean, do you have any earworms or there any 0:01:30.800 --> 0:01:33.679 instances that you feel like with music that really sort 0:01:33.720 --> 0:01:36.480 of grabs you by the shirt tails or oh? I 0:01:36.520 --> 0:01:39.960 mean I I listen to music pretty constantly at work. Like, 0:01:39.959 --> 0:01:42.360 I don't think I'd get any work done or or 0:01:42.400 --> 0:01:45.440 be able to commute properly if I didn't have f 0:01:45.600 --> 0:01:48.680 music going. And I've also found that, like when it 0:01:48.680 --> 0:01:51.320 comes to it to earworms, I will I will definitely 0:01:51.320 --> 0:01:54.120 get some like annoying earworms here and there, but but 0:01:54.160 --> 0:01:56.000 most of the worms I get are more like just 0:01:56.080 --> 0:01:59.720 the music and not the lyrics. Like even I think 0:01:59.760 --> 0:02:03.040 a an earworm that a lot of people may suffer 0:02:03.120 --> 0:02:08.800 from is that that Lady Gaga song the what is it? 0:02:08.840 --> 0:02:12.400 The I don't know, Yeah, I refuse to let it 0:02:12.440 --> 0:02:15.000 into my brain. Okay, well you you you're you're fortunate 0:02:15.000 --> 0:02:16.400 this far. I mean, I I don't know. I kind 0:02:16.400 --> 0:02:18.160 of like a part of the song, but then the 0:02:18.200 --> 0:02:20.160 rest of it just kind of like just slams in 0:02:20.240 --> 0:02:22.880 your head and won't let go, and then you're just 0:02:22.919 --> 0:02:25.200 trying to shake it out. Yeah. Yeah, so that's the 0:02:25.200 --> 0:02:28.600 problem with earworms. Yeah yeah, Yeah. For me, I've got 0:02:29.000 --> 0:02:32.160 a couple like one that's just a benevolent earworm right 0:02:32.200 --> 0:02:36.120 now is a Tarrangela by Robin Hitchcock. So sometimes I'll 0:02:36.120 --> 0:02:37.760 wake up in the morning I can hear the harmonic 0:02:37.800 --> 0:02:40.560 and it's nice, and then yeah, that's a good ear warm. 0:02:40.600 --> 0:02:43.080 Most of my worms I feel are good. Okay, so 0:02:43.120 --> 0:02:45.160 you're lucky because I've got one that's I've had for 0:02:45.200 --> 0:02:47.280 like a decade and I can't shake. And it usually 0:02:47.320 --> 0:02:49.360 happens like at three o'clock in the morning. I can't 0:02:49.360 --> 0:02:51.560 go to sleep and all of a sudden, I can 0:02:51.560 --> 0:02:54.960 hear the piano going, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't. It's 0:02:54.960 --> 0:02:59.520 a hard not And I know there's something about that 0:02:59.560 --> 0:03:02.040 song and the lyrics. So it's interesting that for you 0:03:02.200 --> 0:03:05.840 it's it's not necessarily lyrics that are haunting you. But 0:03:05.840 --> 0:03:09.079 but that's what music is. For me. It's both. It's 0:03:09.080 --> 0:03:12.880 both the destroyer and the creator. Yeah, it's um. It's 0:03:12.880 --> 0:03:16.480 also a huge energizer, Like I think it's interesting how 0:03:17.680 --> 0:03:21.359 uh you know. The scientists pointed out that like the 0:03:21.600 --> 0:03:24.320 like slower music, you're you're sad music, you're you're you're 0:03:24.440 --> 0:03:26.200 you know, more relaxing music tends to be a lot 0:03:26.240 --> 0:03:28.919 you know, you know, slower and slower beat going on 0:03:29.000 --> 0:03:30.760 and then and then the faster music. You know, it 0:03:30.800 --> 0:03:33.120 has some sort of like really you know, raxtous beat 0:03:33.120 --> 0:03:34.960 to it that that's what gets you pumped up. Like 0:03:35.400 --> 0:03:37.400 if you I don't know if you've ever done this, 0:03:37.480 --> 0:03:41.760 if you've ever put on I have the tiger Oh 0:03:41.840 --> 0:03:45.480 yeah this morning? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, you know sometimes 0:03:45.520 --> 0:03:46.920 that's that's what you need to get out of the 0:03:46.920 --> 0:03:49.120 house or you know, to to really throw yourself at 0:03:49.120 --> 0:03:51.520 a project. Yeah yeah, I do that right before I 0:03:51.600 --> 0:03:57.400 scale the steps eight hundred steps um near my local park. 0:03:57.520 --> 0:04:00.280 Oh excellent, yes, yeah, well cool. Then in the fighting 0:04:00.280 --> 0:04:01.760 spirit right and then I get it, I get it. 0:04:01.800 --> 0:04:04.080 The adrenaline is pumping. Yeah. I also have this theory 0:04:04.080 --> 0:04:06.720 that nobody can listen to Staying Alive without altering the 0:04:06.720 --> 0:04:08.920 way they walk, you know. But that's a good thing. 0:04:09.160 --> 0:04:11.240 That's I I think it's a good it's a great song, 0:04:11.320 --> 0:04:14.080 and I think we should always walk Like we're listening 0:04:14.120 --> 0:04:16.359 to that. I think about how that would change the world. 0:04:16.560 --> 0:04:19.640 Like imagine of like like like soldiers and people in 0:04:19.839 --> 0:04:22.640 our OTC, Like if they had to march to staying alive, Like, 0:04:22.680 --> 0:04:24.680 it would be an entirely different scene. That's right. There 0:04:24.680 --> 0:04:27.679 would be no wars, right, it would just be people 0:04:27.760 --> 0:04:30.200 styling and looking good. See that's an't that's a good 0:04:30.200 --> 0:04:33.400 example of how music can change your brain. Yeah. And 0:04:33.400 --> 0:04:35.520 when we say it change the brain, I mean it's 0:04:35.320 --> 0:04:39.160 it's really it's really amazing what it can do and 0:04:39.279 --> 0:04:41.440 what it what it does do on like to all 0:04:41.480 --> 0:04:44.560 of us like every day. But like first, like what 0:04:44.560 --> 0:04:46.360 what do you think music is like? And what is 0:04:46.400 --> 0:04:49.720 it to you? Bare bones? Yeah, well, I I was 0:04:49.760 --> 0:04:52.560 thinking about it, and I kept coming up with with 0:04:52.640 --> 0:04:55.440 kind of elaborate answers. But I actually have to just 0:04:55.480 --> 0:04:57.200 sort of refer to Websters on this one because the 0:04:57.200 --> 0:05:00.520 Westers is a very it's not very creative. It's you know, 0:05:00.600 --> 0:05:05.320 the Webster's definition. It's pretty succinct, and it just says 0:05:05.400 --> 0:05:08.919 the quote the science or art of ordering tones or 0:05:09.000 --> 0:05:13.839 sounds in succession, in combination, and in temporal relationships to 0:05:13.880 --> 0:05:18.719 produce a composition. Having unity and continuity. So it's like 0:05:18.760 --> 0:05:21.240 it's a series of sounds that makes some sort of 0:05:21.279 --> 0:05:24.200 sense that have like a almost almost a kind of 0:05:24.200 --> 0:05:26.160 like a narrative flow to them, even though there are 0:05:26.160 --> 0:05:29.600 no characters in a song unless you're going with some 0:05:29.640 --> 0:05:32.160 sort of Peter and the Wolf type of motif. You know. Yeah, okay, 0:05:32.160 --> 0:05:37.320 so you have to have rhythm, tone meter, what else? Um, 0:05:37.600 --> 0:05:42.200 Sometimes instruments a melody a melody, right, A little air 0:05:42.240 --> 0:05:48.480 horn drops in here and there just for sure becauzoo zoo. Yeah, yeah, 0:05:48.920 --> 0:05:56.400 I just sneeze. Um. So I think that's the really 0:05:56.400 --> 0:05:59.520 cool thing about music is that it can really be anything. Yeah. 0:05:59.560 --> 0:06:01.600 And it cross culture is too. Yeah. I mean it's 0:06:01.640 --> 0:06:04.240 a deep part of our cognitive architecture too. Is as 0:06:04.279 --> 0:06:06.840 we discussed previously when we're talking about what alien how 0:06:06.880 --> 0:06:10.600 aliens would interpret human culture and what really stands out 0:06:10.640 --> 0:06:12.880 about who we are, like, music is a huge part 0:06:12.880 --> 0:06:15.760 of who we are and uh, you know it changed. 0:06:15.960 --> 0:06:17.760 It has the power to change our mood, to heighten 0:06:17.800 --> 0:06:21.839 our our emotions. Um. Well, and the the thing though 0:06:21.839 --> 0:06:25.440 that should be noted is that, um, we're not entirely 0:06:25.640 --> 0:06:30.320 sure how music affects our brains were just now getting 0:06:30.360 --> 0:06:32.960 some data from what the last ten years, Yeah, five 0:06:33.000 --> 0:06:35.839 to ten. It's it's it's pretty much and continues to 0:06:35.839 --> 0:06:38.440 be an emerging area of study. Yeah, I mean, that's 0:06:38.480 --> 0:06:43.440 pretty explosive area to to look into our explicit field 0:06:43.520 --> 0:06:47.719 right now. And you've got cognitive psychologists and linguists. Stephen Pinker, 0:06:48.240 --> 0:06:52.000 who uh, he's just he's sort of the oh, I 0:06:52.000 --> 0:06:53.800 don't know. I guess you would say that he's the 0:06:54.560 --> 0:06:58.320 party pooper on this. He thinks that music is just 0:06:58.440 --> 0:07:02.240 auditory cheesecake and it's space like an accident of evolution, like, hey, 0:07:02.320 --> 0:07:05.520 guess what it gets talk and sing? Yeah, I mean 0:07:05.560 --> 0:07:08.800 he he at least he's not a complete villain about it. 0:07:08.800 --> 0:07:11.040 And he's kind of like, like, I understand wanting to 0:07:11.040 --> 0:07:13.360 make more out of music than it is, but I 0:07:13.400 --> 0:07:15.840 don't you know, that's that's his his whole argument, right, 0:07:15.880 --> 0:07:17.200 And then you have other people on the other side 0:07:17.200 --> 0:07:19.560 of the coin. They're like, they're saying, we've got to 0:07:19.600 --> 0:07:22.160 make more out of this because of the findings. So 0:07:22.920 --> 0:07:26.240 um so I think it's interesting to to dive into 0:07:26.280 --> 0:07:29.120 that and look at the findings and find out how 0:07:29.120 --> 0:07:34.600 our brains work on music and specifically, like when we're 0:07:34.800 --> 0:07:39.200 listening to music, what's what's happening inside of our brains? 0:07:39.240 --> 0:07:41.080 Like just to put things in perspective, Like a lot 0:07:41.120 --> 0:07:44.280 of times, you know, people wonder is music, um, is 0:07:44.520 --> 0:07:46.200 it this thing under itself or is it just like 0:07:46.240 --> 0:07:50.040 the flip side of language? But you know, there are 0:07:50.040 --> 0:07:52.480 parts of the brain that respond to music that don't 0:07:52.520 --> 0:07:55.280 respond to language. And there are separate parts of the 0:07:55.600 --> 0:07:57.960 of the brain that respond to the melody of language, 0:07:58.400 --> 0:08:00.440 um that are different from the parts of the brain 0:08:00.480 --> 0:08:04.200 that respond to music. So it's it's not just you know, 0:08:04.240 --> 0:08:07.800 it's clearly doing unique things to our mind. Yeah, Like 0:08:07.880 --> 0:08:09.920 if you look at a brain scan that you can 0:08:09.920 --> 0:08:12.680 see that it's letting up like a pinball machine or 0:08:12.720 --> 0:08:15.640 you know, as as someone had said um before in 0:08:15.680 --> 0:08:17.880 some of the literal I was reading that it's it's 0:08:17.880 --> 0:08:19.960 almost looks like a symphony. There are different parts of 0:08:19.960 --> 0:08:24.040 the symphony that are queuing up and working in concert. Yeah, 0:08:24.080 --> 0:08:26.600 and what they're looking at tends to be um um, 0:08:26.760 --> 0:08:29.200 blood flow, oxygen flow in the brain. That those are 0:08:29.200 --> 0:08:32.120 the indicators to show that there's something that there's there's 0:08:32.240 --> 0:08:35.120 definite neural activity going on. And I think we've all 0:08:35.160 --> 0:08:37.400 seen these brains, you know, if you haven't seen it 0:08:37.400 --> 0:08:39.040 in a movie, you've seen it on you know, at 0:08:39.080 --> 0:08:44.960 least channel flipping through your you know, your different documentary channels. Yeah, 0:08:45.080 --> 0:08:47.760 and and uh, it's it's pretty fascinating when you do 0:08:47.880 --> 0:08:50.440 see the brain lighting up like that because you get 0:08:50.440 --> 0:08:54.280 to see where the music is entering the ear, and 0:08:54.400 --> 0:08:57.000 it's going into the front well and temporal lobes and 0:08:57.040 --> 0:09:00.400 then into the language processing areas, and then the visual 0:09:00.440 --> 0:09:04.120 cortex lights up, and that's, um, that's actually really interesting 0:09:04.160 --> 0:09:06.760 because that's your brain kind of trying to get a 0:09:06.840 --> 0:09:09.600 visual beat on the changes in pitch and tone. So 0:09:09.760 --> 0:09:12.720 it's looking at it in a visual way. It's perceiving 0:09:12.760 --> 0:09:15.120 that as movement. Okay, So kind of like when I 0:09:15.160 --> 0:09:18.360 see the dark forest with the lights in it exactly. Yeah, 0:09:18.400 --> 0:09:21.440 you're already sort of imagining yourself in movement, which is 0:09:21.440 --> 0:09:24.880 really interesting when when you're thinking about music and then 0:09:25.080 --> 0:09:28.719 you've got your metal front cortex, and that's where if 0:09:28.760 --> 0:09:30.720 you've heard that song before, you get all weaky or 0:09:30.760 --> 0:09:33.959 you get sad. Okay. So this is like, for an example, 0:09:34.000 --> 0:09:37.600 if I listened to a particularly sad song during a 0:09:37.760 --> 0:09:40.840 like really depressing episode in my life and I and 0:09:40.880 --> 0:09:43.400 I tear up listening to it again or or get 0:09:43.480 --> 0:09:45.240 kind of weird about it if I listened to it again, 0:09:45.280 --> 0:09:47.800 that's what's going on, right, right. Or if you're like 0:09:47.840 --> 0:09:50.160 sitting there listening to Nick Drake and you know it's 0:09:50.200 --> 0:09:54.000 raining outside or something along those lines. Um, but if 0:09:54.000 --> 0:09:57.560 you're listening to something that makes you happy, then your 0:09:57.559 --> 0:10:01.520 brain starts releasing dopamine. Okay, Yeah, so you've got the 0:10:01.559 --> 0:10:06.240 reward center occupied as well. Just pretty cool. And one 0:10:06.240 --> 0:10:08.240 of the things I think is most interesting is that 0:10:08.520 --> 0:10:14.000 sometimes your neural firing synchronizes to the fundamental frequency of 0:10:14.080 --> 0:10:16.720 that sound that you're picking up. Wow, So you would 0:10:16.760 --> 0:10:19.440 be able to to look at it like a live 0:10:19.520 --> 0:10:22.400 scan of the brain, and it would it would essentially 0:10:22.400 --> 0:10:26.480 be like the visualizer on Windows Media Player, right right, Yeah, 0:10:26.760 --> 0:10:31.120 you'd have these uh neural finds that are like or 0:10:31.160 --> 0:10:35.360 something along these lines. Maybe maybe you wouldn't, but in 0:10:35.400 --> 0:10:39.160 a centric millionaire could could like hire a dude to 0:10:39.440 --> 0:10:43.240 like remain hooked up to a brain scanner and you 0:10:43.240 --> 0:10:44.719 could just set the and that could be his his 0:10:44.840 --> 0:10:49.400 visualizer visualizer, that's right. If he was going to take 0:10:49.440 --> 0:10:52.520 it to that other level of entertainment. Yeah. Absolutely, m 0:10:53.240 --> 0:10:54.840 I see what you're going to be doing with your 0:10:54.840 --> 0:10:59.640 first million. Um. But all of this was pointing to 0:11:00.320 --> 0:11:03.720 the fact that, like you said, there's a lot going 0:11:03.760 --> 0:11:06.800 on the brain. There's parts that are lighting up. You've 0:11:06.800 --> 0:11:11.000 got blood flow, you've got oxygen. And what we're beginning 0:11:11.040 --> 0:11:14.000 to see is that music is tripping all sorts of 0:11:14.040 --> 0:11:17.680 switches in our brain and possibly even making a smarter 0:11:17.800 --> 0:11:20.640 if we engage in certain ways with it. And I 0:11:20.679 --> 0:11:23.720 think you see that actually with musicians. Yeah, Yeah, there's 0:11:23.760 --> 0:11:26.960 been some some really cool studies, UM into just you know, 0:11:27.040 --> 0:11:31.920 how how musicians brains appear to work versus non musician brains. 0:11:32.160 --> 0:11:35.240 They've done some uh they have evenen some studies where 0:11:35.240 --> 0:11:37.760 they take they take a non musician, give them like 0:11:37.760 --> 0:11:41.280 a year of like you know, musical lessons, seeing lessons, 0:11:41.320 --> 0:11:43.520 what have you, and and they can see the changes 0:11:43.760 --> 0:11:46.760 in the neural activity, right and this they could be 0:11:46.800 --> 0:11:49.520 a terrible singer, right right. Yeah, but the fact that 0:11:49.520 --> 0:11:53.400 they're exercising this part of the brain means that what 0:11:53.440 --> 0:11:56.800 they've built up some some more muscle there, so to speak. Yeah, 0:11:56.840 --> 0:11:59.760 it's really made me rethink. I mean, I don't know. 0:11:59.840 --> 0:12:02.560 I really don't know how musically inclined you are, um, 0:12:02.600 --> 0:12:06.280 I in terms of instruments, because I took piano lessons, 0:12:06.360 --> 0:12:09.720 I took like a recorder lesson. I was in like 0:12:09.800 --> 0:12:12.560 band for like trumpet and french horn. Played none of 0:12:12.559 --> 0:12:16.040 these things well at all. I was. I was you know, 0:12:16.160 --> 0:12:20.520 pretty uh, pretty pretty inept at times, especially with the piano. 0:12:20.559 --> 0:12:23.120 I feel. But but I've had to rethink it because 0:12:23.120 --> 0:12:25.040 I'm because I'm thinking, like, even though I didn't excel 0:12:25.080 --> 0:12:29.199 at those things, it got my brain thinking in a 0:12:29.280 --> 0:12:32.000 musical way, and maybe that benefited me in the long run, 0:12:32.240 --> 0:12:34.160 right and in other ways that you might have not 0:12:34.240 --> 0:12:40.560 even known. Yeah, um no, well I'd not really musically incline, 0:12:41.200 --> 0:12:46.600 you know. In um college, I took my grandfather's saxophone. 0:12:45.480 --> 0:12:49.440 It's saxophone, it's awesome, and had it restored, and I 0:12:49.480 --> 0:12:53.280 took lessons and I was terrible, and I would try 0:12:53.320 --> 0:12:55.200 to bend the notes, and my music teacher would get 0:12:55.200 --> 0:12:57.600 really angry and just say please, just like learn the 0:12:57.679 --> 0:13:01.440 notes and do it well. And I thought, well, surely 0:13:01.480 --> 0:13:06.440 after six months, I can I can sound um like Coltrane, right, um. 0:13:06.480 --> 0:13:09.000 But that didn't work out so I got discouraged. But yeah, 0:13:09.080 --> 0:13:12.360 like you, I'm rethinking it. I'm thinking, okay, if if I, 0:13:13.000 --> 0:13:15.959 even if I'm terrible at it, um, maybe this can 0:13:16.000 --> 0:13:20.319 help me to have a thicker cortex like other musicians. Uh, 0:13:20.400 --> 0:13:23.920 And which just basically means that you've got a lot 0:13:24.000 --> 0:13:26.640 more activity going on your frontal cortex and the areas 0:13:26.679 --> 0:13:29.439 of your brain that are responsible for language and planning. 0:13:30.600 --> 0:13:33.400 And this is another cool thing about musicians. They're better 0:13:33.440 --> 0:13:36.559 at picking out selective patterns in a room where there's 0:13:36.679 --> 0:13:39.959 that might be a cacophony of sound, So they kind 0:13:39.960 --> 0:13:43.400 of have better selective hearing, if you will. So if 0:13:43.400 --> 0:13:45.400 you needed someone to like spy on somebody in a 0:13:45.440 --> 0:13:49.079 busy room, hire the spy that has a musical background. 0:13:49.160 --> 0:13:51.360 See that's why I was thinking I should continue with 0:13:51.440 --> 0:13:55.000 saxophone lessons, because you never know when you're gonna have 0:13:55.040 --> 0:13:57.000 to switch over a full time to that spying career, 0:13:57.160 --> 0:13:58.720 right right, It's it's just a good thing to have 0:13:58.760 --> 0:14:01.360 in your back pocket. Yeah, nobody wants to hear I'm sorry, 0:14:01.400 --> 0:14:04.200 but I'm going to go with the bassoon player. No, yeah, no, 0:14:04.440 --> 0:14:08.080 it's true. But but the other thing that all of 0:14:08.120 --> 0:14:11.839 this is pointing to is of course music and children, right, 0:14:12.000 --> 0:14:15.440 and the fact that children who study and learn music 0:14:15.559 --> 0:14:18.880 aren't just increasing their motor skills, but they're scoring higher 0:14:18.920 --> 0:14:22.160 on language tests than they show an overall improved processing 0:14:22.160 --> 0:14:24.960 and linguistic centers of the brain. So you have to 0:14:25.000 --> 0:14:27.280 be engaging in the music, of course, can't just be 0:14:27.360 --> 0:14:30.640 a passive listener. But that also makes me think of 0:14:30.640 --> 0:14:34.320 the mosartiffect. Okay, this is where you play Mozart for 0:14:34.400 --> 0:14:38.240 an unborn child. Well, this is what Yeah, this was 0:14:38.440 --> 0:14:41.080 the result of a study. That's that's actually that's the 0:14:41.080 --> 0:14:44.880 interpretation um from the results. But the result is that 0:14:45.360 --> 0:14:49.560 basically college students who went underwent the study that when 0:14:49.600 --> 0:14:55.000 they listen to Mozart that for some temporal spatial testing 0:14:55.080 --> 0:14:59.000 that they actually increased their scores. But it was temporary, 0:14:59.120 --> 0:15:01.480 and they were bored, and they were bored, and they 0:15:01.480 --> 0:15:05.000 were they were constructing things out of paper. Um, so 0:15:05.080 --> 0:15:07.560 that was essentially the test. But people took that and 0:15:07.560 --> 0:15:10.160 they ran with it. And like Governor Zell Miller, if 0:15:10.160 --> 0:15:13.360 Georgia had mandated that every child born would get a 0:15:13.400 --> 0:15:16.760 Mozart c D and so the you know, it wasn't 0:15:16.840 --> 0:15:19.840 quite that. And I think that's the interesting to point 0:15:19.840 --> 0:15:23.840 out that it's not just listening to music, it's engaging 0:15:23.880 --> 0:15:26.800 in it that really helps benefit the brain and builds 0:15:26.800 --> 0:15:31.239 it up quite a bit more musically. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, 0:15:31.360 --> 0:15:34.840 And I think the most extreme case of this is 0:15:34.880 --> 0:15:40.040 probably in some ailments that occur in the brain um 0:15:40.720 --> 0:15:45.840 story victims Parkinson's disease along those lines, right, they're they're 0:15:45.880 --> 0:15:49.200 able to actually use the music to repair damn it, 0:15:49.280 --> 0:15:52.040 to to to rebuild the brain. And in a certain sense, yeah, 0:15:52.080 --> 0:15:54.600 in a way, I mean Parkinson's um You know, of 0:15:54.680 --> 0:15:57.080 course you're your motor system is going to be tripped 0:15:57.160 --> 0:16:01.320 up with that, and so music kind of helps the 0:16:01.360 --> 0:16:05.680 auditory system and the motor system, uh, be in concert 0:16:05.720 --> 0:16:09.040 with each other. So if you've got a partisan patient 0:16:09.320 --> 0:16:11.720 and you put on a rhythm track, that actually helps 0:16:11.760 --> 0:16:14.960 that person to better coordinate their movements. So again, think 0:16:15.000 --> 0:16:18.440 about the neurons, you know, firing to a certain beat 0:16:18.640 --> 0:16:21.360 or like playing staying alive, and everybody ends up kind 0:16:21.400 --> 0:16:24.280 of threatened instead of just walking right right. Yeah, So 0:16:24.440 --> 0:16:27.239 during physical therapy, you know, you just have to imagine 0:16:27.240 --> 0:16:31.480 that you're you're in the movie walking down the street, 0:16:31.720 --> 0:16:38.920 You're staying a lot. This presentation is brought to you 0:16:38.960 --> 0:16:46.040 by Intel Sponsors of Tomorrow. I have to admit, like 0:16:46.040 --> 0:16:48.160 when I whenever I go to like a like a 0:16:48.880 --> 0:16:52.400 concert or like a big like DJ event, and uh 0:16:52.840 --> 0:16:54.960 and in the crowd is really into it. I can't 0:16:54.960 --> 0:16:58.360 help but think of like old Viking movies where there's 0:16:58.400 --> 0:17:00.520 like the guy on the back of the king ship 0:17:00.640 --> 0:17:03.480 of Viking longboat like beating on the drum and everyone's 0:17:03.520 --> 0:17:06.920 moving in tandem with the drummer. Because that's how it feels. 0:17:06.960 --> 0:17:09.240 It's like one guy, you know, be it or you know, 0:17:09.280 --> 0:17:11.879 one band or the DJ or whoever. It's like they're 0:17:11.920 --> 0:17:15.879 controlling everyone and everyone is just synchronized with this beat, 0:17:16.240 --> 0:17:19.520 you know. Yeah. And actually, um, people who who talk 0:17:19.560 --> 0:17:23.760 about the auditory cheesecake, they actually point to that experience 0:17:23.760 --> 0:17:27.480 that you're talking about and say that, uh, music is 0:17:27.520 --> 0:17:30.840 actually a way to bring people together. It does have 0:17:30.960 --> 0:17:35.160 an evolutionary purpose and that if you can get everybody's 0:17:35.200 --> 0:17:40.200 neurons synchronized in a group, then you can form some 0:17:40.240 --> 0:17:44.920 sort of basis of cooperation for community. Well that's instantly. 0:17:44.920 --> 0:17:47.640 And part of this is because I'm reading rereading Name 0:17:47.640 --> 0:17:48.960 of the Roads. I can't help but think of a 0:17:48.960 --> 0:17:52.560 monastic community and the importance of music. Yeah, and I 0:17:52.560 --> 0:17:57.000 imagine any like church groups, uh, etcetera, or even even 0:17:57.000 --> 0:17:58.679 the military, I guess come to think of it, like 0:17:58.680 --> 0:18:01.360 with the sort of thing those little songs they chant 0:18:01.359 --> 0:18:05.520 while they're marching. My mom said, yeah, yeah, that one, 0:18:05.680 --> 0:18:10.200 that that classic ballad. Um. Yeah, it's like a community 0:18:10.200 --> 0:18:12.760 building thing. They're all sort of syncing up and becoming 0:18:13.920 --> 0:18:17.280 one body under the music. Yeah. Yeah, So I mean 0:18:17.480 --> 0:18:19.160 they are, Like I said, there are people who point 0:18:19.160 --> 0:18:21.560 to that and say, there is a purpose, there's a 0:18:21.600 --> 0:18:24.440 reason why all of us have this what they think 0:18:24.480 --> 0:18:29.679 innate ability to understand music, um and to incorporate it 0:18:29.680 --> 0:18:33.680 in our lives. And if you look at the importance 0:18:33.720 --> 0:18:36.440 of music, especially with memory we're talking about a little 0:18:36.440 --> 0:18:40.600 bit earlier, with the medial front cortex, that that's where 0:18:40.920 --> 0:18:45.119 all your memories are stored. They're finding that Alzheimer's patients 0:18:45.240 --> 0:18:49.760 and dementia patients are responding really well to musical therapy 0:18:49.800 --> 0:18:53.359 because when they hear pieces of music, it actually helps 0:18:53.359 --> 0:18:56.639 sense to sort of unlock the box, you know, crack it, 0:18:56.720 --> 0:19:01.480 open access their memories again and actually helping them to 0:19:01.520 --> 0:19:04.480 increase their short term and long term memory, which is 0:19:05.160 --> 0:19:11.399 really cool. Yeah, and then you've got stroke victims who 0:19:11.640 --> 0:19:14.480 they may be able to understand what you're saying, but 0:19:14.600 --> 0:19:17.800 they can't. They the use of language is gone. They 0:19:17.840 --> 0:19:23.880 can't express themselves. And they've been singing in some studies, Uh, 0:19:23.920 --> 0:19:26.959 what they're trying to say phrases and in some cases 0:19:27.000 --> 0:19:30.440 they can sing two hundred three hundred phrases. Um, they 0:19:30.440 --> 0:19:33.800 may on a sort of road to recovery and being 0:19:33.840 --> 0:19:38.800 able to eventually speak again. Yeah, so music is definitely 0:19:38.840 --> 0:19:40.920 Are they singing what they want to say? Are they 0:19:40.920 --> 0:19:44.680 singing things? Yeah? Yeah, yeah. Actually there's a documentary called 0:19:44.720 --> 0:19:49.080 The Music Intuition, and they show a woman who is 0:19:49.119 --> 0:19:52.199 going through therapy and, uh, the woman that's working with 0:19:52.240 --> 0:19:55.240 her says, Okay, now suppose that your two year old 0:19:55.320 --> 0:19:57.399 daughter is about to run down the street, what do 0:19:57.440 --> 0:20:01.399 you say? And she sings wait for me? But she 0:20:01.400 --> 0:20:04.320 couldn't never say wait for me, you know, So she's 0:20:04.480 --> 0:20:07.919 regaining that ability through music. It's interesting because we were 0:20:07.920 --> 0:20:10.159 actually talking the other day about how it might be 0:20:10.240 --> 0:20:12.280 a little difficult if we were to do a musical 0:20:12.320 --> 0:20:16.040 episode of the podcast. But for someone who's having to 0:20:16.080 --> 0:20:19.480 reclaim their speech, like music is the the in road 0:20:19.840 --> 0:20:22.680 to speaking again. That's interesting. Yeah, and so that's that's 0:20:22.680 --> 0:20:24.840 again where the mystery is sort of coming in, because 0:20:25.600 --> 0:20:28.600 you know, again, this is a fairly new field of study. 0:20:28.680 --> 0:20:33.240 Ten years ago, people didn't necessarily know that music could 0:20:33.240 --> 0:20:36.440 access your brain in these ways. And I'm also thinking 0:20:36.480 --> 0:20:43.120 about another therapy session. This was done by neuroscientists David Soto. 0:20:43.720 --> 0:20:46.960 He had sixty stroke victims who sustained damage to her 0:20:47.119 --> 0:20:50.919 parietal cortex, which is related to visual and spatial processing. 0:20:51.359 --> 0:20:54.800 And it was very unusual and that the victims lost 0:20:54.840 --> 0:20:57.760 half of their spatial weren't awareness and some of them 0:20:57.840 --> 0:21:00.440 would eat food on only one side of her mouth, 0:21:00.720 --> 0:21:03.680 or they would shave only one side of their face. Yeah, 0:21:03.760 --> 0:21:08.280 so their perceptions way off. So what happened is when 0:21:08.400 --> 0:21:13.360 Soto played music that made them happy they during their therapy, 0:21:13.440 --> 0:21:18.720 they were actually able to increase their abilities and be 0:21:18.760 --> 0:21:23.200 able to perceive more. And the interesting thing about this 0:21:23.320 --> 0:21:26.040 is that they played a couple of different pieces of music, 0:21:26.200 --> 0:21:29.040 but the ones that were most popular for Frank Sinatra 0:21:29.840 --> 0:21:32.280 and Kenny Rogers. I guess of the two of the 0:21:32.320 --> 0:21:36.760 two who had the better results with the victims. Um, 0:21:36.800 --> 0:21:38.920 I'm thinking Frank probably took more of a firm hand 0:21:38.920 --> 0:21:42.199 with him. Okay, I would think so too. Fly Me 0:21:42.280 --> 0:21:45.439 to the Moon very uplifting. Kenny Rogers, Please tell me 0:21:45.440 --> 0:21:47.320 it was early Kenny Rodgers at least I don't know. 0:21:47.480 --> 0:21:51.840 The fifth edition was the fifth edition that's in the 0:21:51.880 --> 0:21:54.119 Land of Lady Gaga for me. I'm sorry, you know, 0:21:54.160 --> 0:21:56.080 just stepped in to see what condition my condition was in. 0:21:56.240 --> 0:21:59.480 Oh yes, okay, I didn't have that one. Oh boy, yeah, 0:21:59.520 --> 0:22:02.240 that's it's as track. I bet that probably is someone 0:22:02.280 --> 0:22:06.560 that I would hope, so yeah, well we hope. Yeah. Um, 0:22:06.600 --> 0:22:10.520 but they thought about actually renaming it the Kenny Rogers Effect, 0:22:10.800 --> 0:22:14.919