A pseudo-science referred to as the "Mozart effect" proposes that listening to classical music increases IQ scores. This pseudo-science fails to recognize that research has shown music does not affect long-term intelligence levels, according to J.S. Jenkins, M.D., in an article published in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine. However, despite the fact that music does not increase intelligence, music does affect the brain.
Neuronal Activity
Listening to music affects the activity of neurons in the temporal lobe. According to Eric H. Chudler, a professor at the University of Washington, patients undergoing brain surgery for epilepsy showed reduced activity in 48 percent of neurons and increased activity in 20 percent of neurons when listening to classical or folk songs during surgeries. Conversely, patients listening to the theme song from "Miami Vice" showed reduced activity in 26 percent of neurons and increased activity in 74 percent of neurons. Also, some of the neurons sent information down axons in time with the rhythm of the music.
Long-Term Memory
Researchers believe playing a musical instrument improves cognition and memory with a long-term effect, according to an article on the Live Science website. Laurel Trainor, the director of the Institute for Music and the Mind at McMaster University, hypothesizes that motor and listening skills needed for playing an instrument help to involve attention and memory, which helps to develop these abilities for other learning tasks. Passive music listening does not show the same positive effects on memory and cognition as actively playing music.
Learning
Music with a 60-beat-per-minute pattern, such as Mozart and baroque music, maximizes learning and knowledge retention by simultaneously activating the left and right hemispheres of the brain, according to the Brain and Mind Electronic Magazine. Activities that incorporate both hemispheres of the brain also increase your processing ability. Not only can music help you learn new things, it can also help you recall what you learned. When the same music used during learning plays during recall, your likelihood of remembering what you learned increases.
