Why is it that I can recall today, with incredible clarity and detail, where I was and what I was doing over 40 years ago when listening to my favourite song on the radio, and yet I cannot remember just now why I walked into the next room?
Author Jodi Picoult has said that music is the language of memory, and recent research would suggest that this is true. Studies show that the way music makes us feel in a specific moment allows us to retain so much information related to that moment. Over the years, my memory has flowed through the powerful and unobstructed conduit of these feelings.
Listening to the music we love causes our brains to release the hormone dopamine, which leaves us with feelings of happiness, excitement, and joy. These feelings create in us a calmer and more soothing environment through the reduction of stress, enabling our brains to better concentrate and focus and allowing for greater memory retention.
Music therapy is garnering outstanding results in those who suffer from anxiety and depression, especially children. Music can be used as a positive distraction, forcing the brain to respond to its encouraging sounds and secrete those much-needed happiness hormones.
To this end, having a child listen to uplifting music during study time, tests, and exams has become an effective tool in increasing their grades. Studies have even revealed that a child’s participation in music lessons and band programs can raise their IQ and academic performance.
There have also been tremendous breakthroughs with regards to Alzheimer patients. Dr. Oliver Sacks, a neurologist, believed, “The past, which is not recoverable in any other way, is embedded, as if in amber, in the music, and people can regain a sense of identity.”1
Music and Memory, a non-profit organization, helps people with age-related dementia by having them rediscover who they are through listening to their favourite songs.
If listening to those best-loved songs increases patient recovery and verbal intelligence, improves cognitive function, and enhances daily workouts while lightening our mood and strengthening our ability to learn and retain information… then it’s definitely time for us to turn up the volume on our favourite music and enjoy all the many benefits.
