Timbre and tone, rhythm and pitch: music’s effects on different forms of life are as varied as its many components.
Humans
Though the process may be as simple as pressing “play,” the effects of listening to music are complex and varied. Through stimulation and mood, music shapes cognitive and emotional states, such as by preventing boredom during repetitive work.
“When I’m performing routine tasks, such as doing my laundry or making myself breakfast, I’ll listen to fast-paced music,” said senior and Society for Psychology and Sociology president Mahati Ramakrishnan. “It helps me stay interested in the mundane task, and because it doesn’t require a lot of focus, it allows me to complete the task more efficiently.”
While some studies suggest that music improves memory and cognition, others propose that it distracts from language processing. Managed by the same regions of the brain, music and language are similarly complex: the brain connects words to read paragraphs just like how it relates sounds to interpret songs.
The cognitive effects of music listening may vary depending on the listener. For example, studying with background music may be detrimental to students who seek stimulation, and vice versa.
“I usually listen to classical music when I’m studying because it helps me focus more,” Ramakrishnan said. “I work better in an environment where it isn’t pitch-quiet.”
Listening to music can reduce feelings of stress and anxiety by acting on emotion, as well as enhance memory: research has shown that Alzheimer’s disease patients with severe cognitive decline still recognize and respond to their favorite music.
By activating regions of the brain like the limbic system, which processes emotions and manages memory, music boosts moods. Upon hearing a favorite song, the brain releases dopamine, a neurotransmitter that triggers feelings of pleasure.
Music also has ties to heart health. It may help return heart rate and blood pressure to baseline after workouts and improve blood vessel function. By lulling the body into a state of relaxation, soothing music can lower heart rate and blood pressure.
Plants
According to the National Institute of Health, plants produce and perceive sound. Scientists have proposed that sound vibrations act as chemical and physical stimulants.
When plants are exposed to sound vibrations, signaling mechanisms related to redox reactions alter translation, which converts DNA to RNA. Subsequently, a changed RNA forms a different protein. In short, exposure to specific vibrations can increase carbon dioxide fixation, an integral step in photosynthesis, by affecting gene expression.
Unlike animals, plants don’t perceive sound through a hearing instrument. Researchers are still trying to understand exact gene changes and sound signaling networks within the plants. So far, research has shown that genes such as ALD and rbcS are activated when plants are exposed to specific frequencies, correlating to enhanced carbon dioxide fixation. In another 2018 study, treatment with 500-hertz sound causes increased production of growth-related hormones in plants.
Animals
As in humans, music also influences behaviors and emotions in animals. In many cases, animals respond well to sounds resembling their natural communication signals. For example, music with frequencies and tempo similar to a species’ natural environment has sometimes been shown to calm animals down, according to the NIH. However, animal responses to different sounds vary even within the same species.
On the contrary, orangutans prefer silence over music. Gorillas showed mixed responses: classical and forest sounds could be calming, increase stereotypic behavior or have no effect. Dogs responded to classical music by sleeping for longer periods of time; rock music was linked to more barking in one study, but had no effect in another.
Animals communicate to share information. Short, rapid sounds are associated with arousal; long, tonal sounds with calm and dissonant sounds with fear or aggression.
