The Neuroscience of Music.

Simple ways you can use music to create
changes in mindset and behavior.

What songs evoke a strong emotional response or inspire you? Do you have a theme song that captures the essence of 2022? As simple as it sounds, scientists have found that listening to particularly happy or sad music changes the way we perceive the world. According to researchers from the Netherlands, listening to a song like Bill Withers' ‘Lovely Day’ can create a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Music and mood are inherently linked. Scientists continue to uncover how these influences occur at a neural level. Studies prove that the music we listen to engages a wide range of neurobiological systems that affect our psychology. A study by researcher Jacob Jolij and student Maaike Meurs of the Psychology Department of the University of Groningen in the Netherlands shows that music has a dramatic effect on explanatory style and perception.Jolij and Meurs had their test subjects perform a task in which they had to identify happy and sad "smiley icons" while listening to happy or sad music. Music turned out to have a great influence on what the subjects perceived. Interestingly, even when a "neutral face" with no smiley was shown, the subjects often thought they recognized a happy smiley when listening to happy music and a sad one when listening to sad music.

This finding is particularly interesting according to the researchers. Jacob Jolij says, "Seeing things that are not there is the result of top-down processes in the brain. Conscious perception is largely based on these top-down processes: your brain continuously compares the information that comes in through your eyes with what it expects on the basis of what you know about the world. The final result of this comparison process is what we eventually experience as reality. Our research results suggest that the brain builds up expectations not just on the basis of experience but on your mood as well."

You can dial up a mood, mindset, or perception on demand by choosing music that elicits a specific emotional response in you. You can use music as a tool when you work out or in your daily life. We all know the feeling of finding just the right song for that specific moment in time. Through trial-and-error, you can find songs that strike a particularly emotional chord in you and use this music to create a targeted mindset or explanatory style. Ask yourself: "Does this song make me feel like the glass is half empty or full? Does this song make me feel energized or depressed? What state-of-mind do I want to be in right now?" Use specific songs before a big interview, public speaking...to put yourself in the right frame of mind.

Our emotional response to music is very individual. Not all happy songs are universally perceived as being uplifting or are guaranteed to put you in a good mood all the time.

Take constant inventory of how a specific song affects your mood and mindset. Play around with lots of songs, artists, and different genres knowing that all music is a powerful tool you can use to alter your perceptions at a neural level. Identify the target mindset you want to click into and then use music to tap into this conscious state-of-mind by entering 'up' through a "trap door" buried at a subconscious level. This is called bottom-up processing. Neuroscientists have found that music enters our nervous system through the auditory brainstem and also causes the cerebellum to "light up" on a brain scan. Free to be you and me. . . Choose any music that inspires you. We all have songs we're embarrassed to love. Who cares?! Don't be self-conscious about 'guilty pleasures' or 'uncool' song choices on your playlists. If you select music for the sake of seeming 'cool', you are denying yourself the primal benefits of heartfelt, innate bottom-up processing.

The music you fill your mind with should come from an authentic, soulful place that has nothing to do with pretense.

This is common sense. Besides, with headphones, you can listen to whatever you want in your own "private Idaho." No one needs to know what songs resonate with you or why.

Article written by Christopher Bergland.