Efectele fiziologice ale muzicii

Efectele fiziologice ale muzicii

Modifica metabolismul si functiile fiziologice

"Musicologist Julius Portnoy "Music not only can change metabolism, affect muscular energy, raise or lower blood pressure, influence digestion, internal secretions and respiration,' but 'it may be able to do all these things more successfully than any other stimulants that produce those changes in our bodies.' (Tame, David, The Secret Power of Music, p. 136-138).

Omul este primordial stimulat emotional prin auz (cca. 90%).

'It's really a powerful drug. Music can POISON you, lift your spirits, or MAKE YOU SICK without knowing why.' (Family Weekly Magazine, January 30, 1983, p. 12, article by David Chagall)

Professor Krumhansl did find that the directions of change were the same for all three emotions: e.g., heart rate decreased, blood pressure increased, rate of breathing increased and skin temperature decreased. These findings seem negative, that is, to show that different emotions cannot be separated by bodily, physiological responses. However, this was not the whole story.      The data also were analyzed to determine the magnitude of changes, not merely the direction of changes. This revealed distinct patterns. "Happy" involved largest changes in respiration; "sad" involved greatest changes in heart rate, blood pressure and skin temperature; "fear" was associated with maximal changes in the rate of blood flow. In other words, the findings favor two facts: first, different genuine emotions can be physiologically defined according to autonomic, bodily functions and second, the emotional reactions produced by music are the "real thing". Thus, music doesn't simply convey intended emotions that we can recognize, but rather induces genuine emotions in the listener. ( Krumhansl, C. "An exploratory study of musical emotions and psychophysiology". Canadian J. of Exper. Psychol., 51, 336-352. (1997).

Music actually causes a multitude of physical reactions in our bodies, such as changes in hormonal levels. Mike Quattro, a well known producer of rock shows tells us: 'Rock motivates you internally, gives you a sensual feeling. A girl can be turned on by the music. It releases her inhibitions. The beat of the drum has always been a factor. A girl realizes her own sexuality through the music.'⁵

The qualities of experience and mental energies displayed overt sexual qualities. M. Clynes, J. Walker, ' Neurobiologic Functions of Rhythm, Time, and Pulse in Music.' Published in Music, Mind and Brain The Neuropsychology of Music, Plenum Press, pp. 171-215.

Mckel and several co-workers at the Free University of Berlin undertook just such a study. They examined the effects of three types of music on several physiological measures. They employed a waltz by Johann Strauss because it had a regular rhythm. To contrast with this, a composition by the more contemporary composer W. H. Henze was used; the authors note that its rhythm was markedly irregular. The third piece was by Ravi Shankar, selected for it meditative nature without strong rhythmic characteristics. Levels of cortisol and also noradrenaline were reduced by one type of music, the Shankar piece. (Mckel, M., Rcker, L., Strk, T., Vollert, J., Danne, O., Eichstdt, H., Mller, R. and Hochrein, H. - 1994 - "Immediate physiological responses of healthy volunteers to different types of music: cardiovascular, hormonal and mental changes". Eur. J. Appl. Physiol., 68, 451-459.)

Efect asupra creierului si judecatii

'Some background music has been known to induce musicogenic epilepsy, triggering a chemical brain reaction that elicits thoughts of suicide or murder. . .doctors had documented seventy-six similar cases.' (Lanza, Joseph Elevator Music, p.194)

California music therapist, investigating the effects of rock music on teenagers, administered to 240 school children aged 10-18 an emotional stability test during which rock . was being played. The results were then examined by a psychologist who was unaware of the experiment. He concluded that the test had been given in a mental institution.(Hart, Lowell Satan's Music Exposed, p.101)

In another interesting study the motor pulses produced by the brain to different musical stimuli were measured. The range of music included rock, blues, classical and ethnic samples. It was found that especially when rock music and jazz were played the motor pulses produced were the same as those produced normally by the brain during sexual arousal. The Columbus Dispatch Magazine, July 26, 1970, pp 24-27.     

Russian investigators have provided the first evidence that Music Alters Children's Brainwaves. Writing in the journal Human Physiology (1996, volume 22, pages 76-81), T. N. Malyarenko and his co-authors played classical music one hour per day over six months to four year old children in a preschool setting. A control group had no exposure to music but simply the normal classroom sounds. The classical music group had an increase in a part of the alpha rhythm frequency band and, greater similarities ('coherence') between different regions of the cerebral cortex, most pronounced in the frontal lobes. Greater coherence is thought by some workers to indicate better 'cooperation' among brain regions but others view it as typical of increased relaxation. A particularly noteworthy aspect of this report is that the EEG changes occurred in a passive listening situation, in which the children were not required to pay attention to the music. Whether the effects are specific to a particular type of music remains to be studied. Also needed are controls for mere exposure to novel sounds.

'This research supports the theories that suggest that the use of the drum by indigenous cultures in ritual and ceremony has specific neurophysiological effects and is associated with temporary changes in brain wave activity, which may facilitate imagery and entry into an altered state of consciousness.' Maxfield, Melinda, Ph.d. The journey of the drum. Vol. 16, ReVision, 04-01-1994, pp 157:

Muzica intareste sanatatea

"Studies suggest music help increase production of endorphins (natural pain relievers) and S-IgA (Salivary immunoglobulin A). S-IgA speeds healing, reduces the danger of infections, and controls the heart rate." ('Music's Surprising Power to Heal,' 8/92 Reader's Digest).

"Clinical researchers at the U.C.L.A. School of Nursing in Los Angeles, and at Georgia Baptist Medical Center in Atlanta, found that premature babies gained weight faster and were able to use oxygen more efficiently when they listened to soothing music.

At Baltimore's St. Agnes Hospital, classical music was provided in the critical-care units. 'Half an hour of music produced the same effect as ten milligrams of Valium,' says Dr. Raymond Bahr, head of the coronary-care unit.

In 1998, the journal Psychology of Music, published a 'Discussion Note' section in which the issue of music's mental benefits was set forth by Professor Katie Overy of the University of Sheffield U.K. Maria Spychiger of the University of Fribourg, Switzerland asked whether Music can improve the mind? She continues with a clear 'yes'. Spychiger is the author of a study which showed that children who took a curriculum which increased music instruction at the expense of language and mathematics became better at language and reading but no worse at mathematics than students who had spent more time on these subjects without the additional music instruction. ⁵ Janet Mills, who is a Royal Inspector of Schools in the U.K. lauds Spychiger's music-emphasis curriculum. "Music can, under particular circumstances, improve the mind. What I am sometimes less certain about is what leads to this improvement'. (Overy, K. (1998). Discussion Note: Can music really 'improve' the mind? Psychology of Music, 26:97-99.)

Music can improve spatial-temporal reasoning in healthy children and adults. This investigation concerned its possible effects in Alzheimer's Disease (AD). A set of 78 year old identical twins was studied; one of whom has AD. Spatial-temporal tests, such as matching a 'mentally-unfolded' piece of paper to one of several shapes, were administered before and immediately after ten minutes of listening to Mozart's sonata for two pianos in D (K.448), 1930s popular tunes or silence. The AD twin showed higher scores or the Mozart condition but not for silence or popular music. The normal twin was not affected. The authors suggest that music can be used to help understand AD. (Johnson, J. K., Cotman, C.W., Tasaki, C.S. & Shaw, G.L. (1998). Enhancement of spatial-temporal reasoning after a Mozart listening condition in Alzheimer's disease: a case study. Neurological Research, 20:666-672.)

Music can relieve stress. The authors asked how music might influence the immune system. Male and female college students were exposed to one of four conditions for 30 minutes: tone and clicks; Muzak ('Environmental Music'); comparable radio broadcast; silence. Immunoglobulin A (IgA), whose levels increase during increased activity of the immune system, was measured before and after the treatments. IgA was significantly increased by the Muzak condition, only. The authors believe that music can strengthen immune activity and promote health. (Charnetski, C.F. & Brennan, F.X. Jr. (1998). Effect of music and auditory stimuli on secretory immunoglobulin A (IgA). Perceptual Motor Skills, 87:1163-1170. )

Music therapy is often used in the treatment of dementia, to maintain or improve active involvement in life, social, emotional and cognitive skills and to decrease behavioral problems. This study analyzed the results of twenty-one published reports to determine if there is reliable indication that this treatment is effective. The studies surveyed included 336 subjects who suffered from symptoms of dementia. Overall, music therapy was found to be having a highly significant effect. The degree of effectiveness varied considerably across studies, as did the nature of treatments, so it will be important to determine the most effective techniques. (Koger, S. M., Chapin, K. and Brotons, M. (1999). Is music therapy an effective intervention for dementia? A meta-analytic review of literature. J. Music Therapy: 36, 2-15.)

Teste stiintifice:

A.      pe plante

An intensive series of studies carried out by Dorothy Retallack of Denver, Colorado, demonstrated the effects of different kinds of music on a variety of household plants. The experiments were controlled under strict scientific conditions, and the plants were kept within large closed cabinets on wheels in which light, temperature and air were automatically regulated. Three hours a day of acid rock, played through a loudspeaker at the side of the cabinet, was found to stunt and damage squash plants, philodendrons and corn in under four weeks. Mrs Retallack played the music of the two different Denver radio stations to two groups of petunias. The radio stations were KIMN (a rock station) and KLIR (a semiclassical station). "The Denver Post" reported:

`The petunias listening to KIMN refused to bloom. Those on KLIR developed six beautiful blooms. By the end of the second week, the KIMN petunias were LEANING AWAY from the radio and showing very erratic growth. The petunia blooms hearing KLIR were all leaning TOWARD THE SOUND. Within a month all plants exposed to rock music DIED.

In another experiment, conducted over three weeks, Dorothy Retallack played the music of Led Zeppelin and Vanilla Fudge to one group of beans, squash (marrow), corn, morning glory and coleus; she also played contemporary avant-garde atonal music to a second group; and, as a control, played nothing to a third group. Within ten days, the plants exposed to Led Zeppelin and Vanilla Fudge were all LEANING AWAY FROM THE SPEAKER. After three weeks they were stunted and DYING. The beans exposed to the 'new music' leaned 15 degrees from the speaker and were found to have middle-sized roots. The plants left in silence had the longest roots and grew the highest. Further, it was discovered that plants to which placid, devotional music was played not only grew two inches taller than plants left in silence, but also leaned TOWARDS THE SPEAKER. (Tame, David The Secret Power of Music, p. 142 - 144)

B. pe animale (caini, soareci)

Comportament - Cainii

Dogs are more relaxed and well-behaved when listening to classical music, rather than pop or heavy metal, according to a new behavioural study. The researchers say the results could help dog pounds work out the best play list for calming their canines.      The dogs made most noise when listening to Metallica. But classical music calmed them down, making them rest more and stand up less. Ironically, Bach (as well as the other classics) had them barking least of all. NewScientist. 23 October 02, dupa Animal Welfare (vol 11, p 385)

In "The Virginia Pilot", LORRAINE EATON
SUFFOLK, Va. - Your mom was right. Rock 'n' roll really does rot your brain.

That's according to David Merrell, a 16-year-old Nansemond River High School student whose science experiment supports what parents have been saying for years: Hard rock taints the brain - well, at least the brains of mice.

Using 72 male laboratory mice, a stopwatch, a 5- by 3-foot maze and the music of Mozart and Anthrax, David worked with an Old Dominion University statistician to establish that hard rock impedes learning.

In the process, the rising junior captured top honors in regional and state science fairs and earned accolades from the Navy and the CIA.

'Don't let your kids listen to hard rock music,' he said. 'I think it has a major negative effect.'

To prove his point, David assembled three separate groups of 24 mice: a control group, a hard rock group, and a classical group. To ensure scientific validity, each white mouse weighed between 15 and 20 grams, was 4 to 6 weeks old and was bred to ensure no genetic abnormalities existed.

The mice spent the first week getting used to their controlled environment in David's parent's basement. They received measured feedings and 12 hours of light each day. Each mouse navigated the maze to establishh the base time of about 10 minutes.

Then David started piping in music 10 hours a day. The control group navigated without music. He put each mouse through the maze three times a week for three weeks.

The results: The control group shaved five minutes from its original time.

The mice that navigated the maze with Mozart knocked 8 1/2 minutes off their time. But the group listening to hard rock bumped through the maze, dazed and confused, taking an average of 30 minutes, tripling the amount of time it previously took to complete the maze. Most noticeably, the hard rock mice didn't sniff the air to find the trails of others that came before them.

'It was like the music dulled their senses,' David said. 'It shows point-blank that hard rock has a negative effect all around. I can't think of a positive effect that hard rock has' on learning.

In fact, David thinks that the negative effects go well beyond learning.

During the four-month experiment David housed each mouse in separate aquariums. That's because last year, for a similar project, he kept each group together. The results were horrific.

'I had to cut my project short because all the hard rock mice killed each other,' David said.

David's awards include first place in the behavioral science division at the Virginia State Science and Engineering Fair and the Tidewater Science Fair. He also won Northern Virginia Community College's Veterinary Technology Award and accolades from the Newport News Art Commission, the Science and Humanitarian Symposium at James Madison University, the Navy, and the CIA.

C.    pe nou nascuti, pe copii, pe adolescenti

Muzica violenta nu elibereaza de violenta. 'Listening to angry, violent music does not appear to provide the kind of cathartic release that the general public and some professional and pop psychologists believe', said Craig Anderson at Iowa State University.      The study contradicts a popular suggestion that music loaded with violent imagery, such as some rap and heavy metal, are cathartic in venting aggression. Researchers at Iowa and the Texas Department of Human Services in Austin tested over 500 students in five experiments. They exposed students to songs by rap artists including the Beastie Boys, Cypress Hill and Run DMC. NewScientist.com news service, 23:00 04 May 03, dupa      Journal of Personality and Social Psychology: (vol 84, p 960)

A study showed how music might affect social problem solving. Ninety-six seventh grade students were studied to determine how positive or negative emotion, induced by music (happy or sad) or by thinking happy thoughts, could affect solutions to solving a social problem situation. The greatest number of solutions was produced by the self-induced positive mood while positive music produced the most embellishments about the test social situation.      (Bryan, T., Sullivan-Burstein, K. & Mathur, S. (1998). The influence of affect on social-information processing. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 31:418-426.)

Twenty normal term neonates were monitored for the number of high arousal behavioral states and state changes during a control and an experimental period during which soothing, lyrical music was played. There was a significant decrease in arousal states during music. The results suggest that soothing music may be a feasible intervention to help newborns demonstrate fewer high arousal states and less state lability. Kaminski, J., Hall, W. (1996). The effect of soothing music on neonatal behavioral states in the hospital newborn nursery. Neonatal Network, 15:45-54.

A recent report by Kevin J. Took and David S. Weiss in the journal Adolescence (1994, 29, 613-621) is quite relevant. The authors studied the relationships between listening to heavy metal and rap music and adolescent 'psychosocial turmoil'. Subjects were 12-18 years of age (average 14.6 years), equally divided between the sexes, who were patients under some treatment for various behavioral and psychological problems at a military medical center's adolescent medicine unit or similar facility. Their parents were attached to the military. Questionnaires revealed differences between teenagers who preferred heavy metal and rap compared to others who did not. They had poorer school grades, more behavioral problems in school, and more sexual activity, drug and alcohol use and arrests. The relationship was stronger for males than females. One obvious conclusion is that the music caused, to some extent, the behavioral problems. However, further detailed analysis of each student's background revealed that the most troubled group exhibited serious behavioral problems in elementary school, generally before they started listening to heavy metal and rock.

Music is gaining the reputation of having more power than is generally appreciated. Its ability to induce epileptic seizures is one testament to this power. Music's emerging use as a potential treatment to reduce such seizures, an ability hitherto apparently unknown, adds considerably to this reputation. The strange duality of music as contributory both to brain illness and potentially to brain wellness defies current understanding. But such apparent inconsistencies generally yield to systematic scientific inquiry. After all, not too long ago, epilepsy was completely mysterious, being attributable to demons lodged in the soul. And coming full circle to the delicate balance between excitation and inhibition in the brain, understanding dawned fairly recently about the time that Rock and Roll was becoming established.      (4) Zifkin, B.G. & Zatorre, R.J. (1998). Musicogenic epilepsy. In: Reflex Epilepsies and Reflex Seizures: Advances in Neurology, V.75, (pp. 273-281).G. Z Zifkin, F, Andermann, A. Beaumanoir, & A.J. Rowan (Eds.) Lippincott-Raven Publishers: Philadelphia. PA.

MUSIC LINKED TO REDUCED CRIMINALITY. Martin Gardiner of Brown University recently reported, at a national arts education meeting in Oklahoma City, the results of analyzing a large scale data base. The data base included information gathered over a period of many years for more than a thousand residents of Rhode Island. Tracking people from birth through the age of thirty, Gardiner checked the relationship between arrest records of teen-agers and their degree of involvement in music.

Gardiner found that the greater the involvement in music, the lower the arrest record. Teens who had music education were less likely to get into trouble than students who didn't. However, those who also were involved in playing a musical instrument had even fewer brushes with the law. Those who had the most experience, including good sight-reading ability, had a negligible arrest record. This research, still in progress, was funded by the International Foundation for Music Research (IFMR).

MUSIC REWARDS SUCKING IN SICK INFANTS Babies who are premature or born with illness or a congenital disorder are at great risk. Lack of adequate suckling and nutrition is one of the severe problems. Now Dr. Jayne Standley, Professor of Music Therapy at Florida State University, has devised an approach that has promise to alleviate the situation. Two such infants in neonatal intensive care were given special pacifiers that contained a sensor that was connected to a music delivery system. This method, "Pacifier-Activated-Lullabies" (PAL) enables a sick infant to turn on music when it sucks. Dr. Standley found that the infants soon learned to suck to obtain lullabies. This rewarding effect of music provides both desired sound to the infants and gives them much needed practice for suckling.

T. Taniguchi of Kyoto University studied the accuracy of memory for words, according to the type of music present (2). He played either happy or sad music while subjects in different groups studied words that referred to personality traits either in a positive or negative manner. When tested later for word memory, performance was strongly affected by the type of music present. Positive words were better remembered in heard during happy music, while recall was better for negative words that were heard during sad music. Thus, congruency between music-induced mood and the affective meaning of language enhances memory compared to incongruency. So what we remember can depend on background music.      (2) Taniguchi, T. (1991) {Mood congruent effects by music on word recognition ] {Japanese lang.], 1991, Shinrigaku Kenkyu, 62, 88-95.

Peter G. Hepper, reporting in the Irish Journal of Pscyhology (1991, 12, pp 95-107), studied neonates 2-4 days of age who had been exposed to the theme tune of a popular TV program while their mothers were pregnant. When the same tune was presented after birth, the neonates exhibited changes in heartrate and movements. More remarkably, fetuses of 29-37 weeks gestational age also showed specific behavioral responses to tunes played earlier in pregnancy. In both experiments, behavioral responses were specific to the tune to which they had been exposed. These results would seem to indicate that the learning and remembering of a melody can occur not only before birth but actually before or at the beginning of the third trimester.

Roberta Konrad of UCLA has found both types of benefits in the same classroom setting. Seventh and eighth grade students in Los Angeles were involved in a social studies curriculum involving music and other arts. Compared to control classes having standard curricula, she found higher achievement grades in history, and also significant increases in positive social behaviors, including helping and sharing, increases in empathy for others, and beneficial attitudes including reduced prejudice and racism. Teachers also found that students were less aggressive. Thus music integrated into 7^th and 8^th grade social studies is now linked to both better subject performance and better social behaviors and attitudes. [source: Konrad, R.R. (2000), Empathy, Arts and Social Studies, Dissertation Abs.: Human. & Soc. Sci., 60, pg 2352]

D.    pe proteine

Drs. Earl W. Flosdorf and Leslie A. Chambers found in a series of experiments that shrill sounds projected into a liquid media coagulated proteins. A recent teenage fad was that of taking soft eggs to rock concerts and placing them at the foot of the stage. Midway through the concert the eggs could be eaten hard-boiled as a result of the music. Amazingly few rock fans wondered what that same music might do to their bodies. (Larson, Bob The Day Music Died, p.116)

Concluzii:

DROG

'Music is used everywhere to condition the human mind. It can be just as powerful as a drug and much more dangerous, because nobody takes musical manipulation very seriously.' (Family Weekly, January 30, 1983, p. 15)

Professor Alan Bloom, professor of social thought at the University of Chicago, who has also taught at Yale, the University of Paris, the University of Toronto, Cornell and many other schools, writes in his best-selling book, The Closing of the American Mind:

'Nothing is more singular about this generation than its ADDICTION to music. . . It is their passion; nothing else excites them as it does; they cannot take seriously anything alien to music. . . I suspect that the rock addiction, particularly in the absence of strong counter attractions, has an effect similar to that of drugs.' (Bloom, Alan The Closing of the American Mind, pp 6881)

'To maintain that technology [music] is neutral. . . is. . . stupidity plain and simple.' (Postman, Neil Amusing Ourselves to Death, p. 157)

Dr. Schoen, writes in The Psychology of Music:      'Music is the most powerful stimulus known among the perceptive senses. The medical, psychiatric and other evidence for the non-neutrality of music is so overwhelming that it frankly amazes me that anyone should seriously say otherwise.'

Platon: 'Through foolishness the people DECEIVED THEMSELVES into thinking that there was no right or wrong in music, and that it was to be judged "good" or "bad" by the pleasure it gave.' (Plato, Laws as quoted by Tame, David The Secret Power of Music, p. 189) 

Aristotle wrote:      "In addition to the common pleasure, music have also some influence over the character and the soul. Poeple are affected by it are proved in many ways Rhythm and melody supply imitations of anger and gentleness, and of courage and temperance, and of all qualities contrary to these and of other qualities of character. Enough has been said to show that music has a power of forming character what melodies and rhythms should be allowed to use, and what instruments should be employed in teaching them. Even the instrument makes a difference Certain methods of teaching and learning music do really have a degrading effect.'⁶

"Emotions of any kind are produced by melody and rhythmmusic has the power to form character." Aristotle, Politics, 1339a, b.