Hello, everyone!
I am sure that some of you have read books such as This is Your Brain on Music, which talk about the effects of music on the mind. I think the effect of music, including different types of music, on brain molecules is really interesting. Here is a brief abstract of a study that a teenager did with mice in which he tested how Mozart, hard rock music, and no music affected learning ability. As music students, it is really important that we understand the positive effects of music, both in mental capacity and learning ability, like this study shows, and in stress management and community building, like in drum circles. Music is a wonderful tool!
http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Music/Mice_and_Music_Experiment_Mo.html
I was so shocked when he said that he cut his first project short because all the hard-rock mice killed each other. It makes me think of the Baby Mozart CDs that parents play for their kids because they think it will help the child's cerebral development. I wonder what kind of effect drum circle music would've had on the mice!
ReplyDeleteThis is such an awesome article! I love learning about the different mental and physical effects music can have on people. I think one of the most interesting parts of the article is that the hard rock music not only didn't help the mice's memory, but appeared to actually hurt it. It's very rare that you hear music can have a negative effect on people/animals. It makes me wonder what other negative reactions music has the potential to cause, and why.
ReplyDeleteWow! That was really cool! I honestly wasn't expecting those results. It makes you wonder what would happen if you played all different kinds of music like Jazz, or classic rock, or modern music. Also, it would be really cool if you could get a whole bunch of mice and have them listen to different classical music composers like Beethoven, Bach or Schubert and see if one composer makes them "smarter" than the other one.
ReplyDeleteIt also makes you wonder about the number of suicides that take place each year, and it makes you wonder if the music we listen to has an effect on that number...
The results of this really shocked me, but it was so cool. The fact that it was done with mice makes me wonder what affect would this have on other animals. Also it would be cool to have the mice listen to different composers. I love how it showed music and it's effects on people, animals. I wish I could know more.
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