Why Music Affects Your Mood State

@julienmarchal

Does music hold an emotional imprint in our memory, creating a cascade of chemicals to flow through? Or when the flood of emotion pours through us do we turn to music to be understood and feel felt to reaffirm the behavioural state? For myself, I would say both. Or is there more to how the sound waves transmute into an electrochemical reaction beyond perceived experience?

Your auditory system is the first to develop and the last to perish, as well as the first sense you wake up to and the last to fall asleep. This about that for a moment. Your brain is constructing meaning, memory, emotion and behaviour through every auditory stimulus. From a neuroscience perspective, the stimulus of a sound wave enters the ear where the vibrational frequency is converted into an electrical signal, transmitted to the brain cortex through the auditory nerve. The neurons in the auditory cortex begin to fire patterns mirroring the rhythm, pitch and melody of the sound. The brain entrains and synchronizes with these brain waves, either increasing or decreasing based on the frequency of the sound. The neurotransmitters released, correlating to the brain wave activity. The emotional limbic system may be activated if a memory is associated, inducing regulation or disregulation of the nervous system. What’s interesting is the brain is designed to predict and anticipate what it already knows in order to stay safe based on patterning, therefore music is a conduit to an emotional/physical state change. For myself, listening to specific artists, draws me into the ingrained thinking-feeling-behavioural loop: within an instant, my physiological expression time-warped to that of unworthiness-shame and guilt-depression/apathy, all from a lyric/melody that has nothing to do with me and is not my current experience, but upon thought alone. Disregulated by pressing play and choosing to continue to listen.

The other day my son and I were on our way to a hockey tryout and he asked to listen to the new Drake album that just dropped last week. Shockingly, he rapped aloud, blending the known lyrics with moments of pause, hyping himself up to perform his best on the ice. His eyes were beaming, expressing imaginative 11 year old joy. I on the other hand was contracted, hating every moment of it… as a mother I could only focus on the content, the language and completely turned off by his “signature sound”. Smith was in an integrated brain state, soothed by the feel good chemicals of dopamine (he anticipated the lyrics), serotonin (happy and excited) and endorphins (released while rapping). I was in a segregated brain state, activating my limbic system, flooding myself with cortisol (perception of chaotic sound), inducing inflammatory physiological results impacting the sympathetic nervous system. The moment he got out of the car I reactively hit the power button.

This brings us to wonder, if the music you are listening to can disregulate your nervous system, can you regulate yourself through music?

Many studies have quantified the effects of classical music, played in ‘major’ keys versus ‘minor’, particularly compositions with predictable harmonious structures and steady tempos that promote brain wave synchronizations within alpha and theta wave; inducing states of deep focus, stress reduction and emotional regulation. Classical music played in a major key shifts the nervous system to feeling safety, exposing the cell to a thriving biochemical environment. It is not the music that is generating regulation, but the body’s response to the vibrational frequency that is shifting the physiology.

This is because classical music with no lyrics, especially when listening to a piece that you have not heard before (to not invoke past experience into the moment), is associated with stability within the human auditory system, due to harmonic predictability, dynamic range, slower tempo and repetitive melody. Our brain integrates and interprets safety within the present (not recycling the past and predicting the future) which induces relaxation and recovery.

It can be stated then, based upon proven correlated studies, that music could therefore be used as a sleep-aid, a pain-killer, an anti-inflammatory, an anti-depressant, an anti-anxiety, a stress modulator, an aphrodisiac, a stimulant to focus, a motivator, etc. Music is a form of medicine if the consciously chosen music integrates the brain centres, inducing the nervous system to feel safe and stable, influencing biological chemistry to support healing and cellular repair.

I got curious… How can I intentionally listen to music and actively select an acoustic environment to promote regulation?

Here are the few simple choices I made for myself and for my family to regulate my energy and the energy in my home:

Early morning meditation: listening to classical piano instead of silence

Driving in car: no radio (sensory static/backround noise of commercials) and choosing up-tempo lyrical music that boosts my mood, triggering feel-good/inspiring memories

While working out: listening to atmospheric melodic house like Ben Bohmer or Rufus Del Sol in which I don’t know the rhythm or the words, with a uplifting tempo

Boys music: asking the boys to wear their earphones :/

Homework time: quietly playing classical Mozart and Bach as their work is highly predictable and impressionistic

Before Bed: listening to soothing nature sounds while I read my book

Remember, if you want to create some form of change, you need to make a different choice. Actively choose your music and acoustic environment, to boost your biochemistry. Let me know how it goes for you.