Listening to Justin Bieber can make you Smarter!

[Brother_Bliss]

Okay, so that is not really the title of this article but that statement is made herein. I thought this was interesting in light of the discussion we had on this subject in the Interchange Forum a couple months ago....

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FYI: Will Listening to Mozart Really Make Me Smarter?

By Joseph A. Bernstein Posted 01.30.2012 at 10:14 am

Yes, but no more than listening to Justin Bieber. The misconception that there’s something unique about Mozart’s ability to increase brainpower began in 1993, with a paper in Nature. Neurobiologists Gordon Shaw, Frances Rauscher and Katherine Ky of the University of California at Irvine found that students who listened to 10 minutes of a Mozart sonata demonstrated a temporary increase in spatial-temporal reasoning, as measured by an IQ test. The public seized on the romantic idea that listening to Mozart would make them smarter, and Don Campbell, a teacher and music educator from Texas, capitalized on the notion with an international bestseller, The Mozart Effect.

But Glenn Schellenberg, a professor of psychology at the University of Toronto, says that there is no Mozart effect. Any number of experiences besides listening to music might improve cognition. Most people find the music of Mozart pleasant to listen to, and it might increase dopamine levels in the brain, which is generally thought to improve cognition. But “eating chocolate might have the same effect,” Schellenberg says.

In 2010, a team of Austrian researchers analyzed the results from 39 attempts to replicate the Mozart effect. In most, a group of subjects listened to a Mozart sonata before testing their spatial intelligence. Scientists then compared the results against a control group that had not heard music. The researchers’ findings were neatly summed up in their paper’s title: “Mozart Effect Schmozart Effect.”

Which isn’t to say that listening to music can’t give the brain a boost. Catherine Noelle O’Shea and David Wolf of the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston recently found that doctors who listened to Mozart before screening patients for colon polyps found more polyps than those who didn’t. Classical music probably made the doctors feel good, thereby improving cognition. If the doctors had been Bieber fans, it might have been better to play them some of his hits.

Article Source: popsci

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Take a look at this last sentence. I, by nature, tend to listen to some bizarre, ecclectic, and heavier tunes. These I believe improve my cognition, especially at work ;)

[Dages]

requesting ban for talking about Bieber here.

[Spydar]

I second that dages LOL

[sianrose]

~"The sounds of music pass through the outer ear canal, strike the ear drum, and pass as vibrations through fluid to stimulate the auditory nerves, which then carry the message to the thalamus….your brain’s relay station for sensory information.

The thalamus, in turn, sends the musical stimuli to the area of your brain concerned with hearing….The auditory part of your brain then processes the music so that you recognize the song you’ve heard and its message stirs your memories or associations…. this is a conscious process.

But the music also has an unconscious effect. Mediated by your thalamus, the elements of music—pitch, rhythm, and intensity—directly affect your autonomic nervous system, which regulates breathing, heart action, motor function, and digestion…also your hormones."

*Even though the term music therapy is fairly new, the practice of using music to heal can be traced back… to Bible days”And whenever the evil spirit from God was upon Saul, David took the lyre and played it with his hand; so Saul was refreshed, and was well, and the evil spirit departed from him.” (1 Samuel, 16:23).

King George I of England had problems with memory loss and stress management. He read from the Bible the story of King Saul and recognized that Saul had experienced the same type of problems that he was experiencing…. George recognized that Saul overcame his problems by using special music……

With this story in mind King George asked George Frederick Handel to write some special music for him that would help him in the same way that music helped Saul……… Handel wrote his Water Music for this purpose".

"Music affects the amplitude and frequency of brain waves, which can be measured by an electro-encephalogram. Music also affects breathing rate and electrical resistance of the skin. It has been observed to cause the pupils to dilate, increase blood pressure, and increase the heart rate……

Mozart’s music and baroque music, with a 60 beats per minute beat pattern, activate the left and right brain. The simultaneous left and right brain action maximizes learning and retention of information……..

Classical music from the baroque period causes the heart beat and pulse rate to relax to the beat of the music. As the body becomes relaxed and alert, the mind is able to concentrate more easily. Furthermore, baroque music decreases blood pressure and enhances the ability to learn."

points from search “music” ;

…….Watchtower Library CD Rom…Copyright © 2010 Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania…….

The writer says..."The public seized on the romantic idea that listening to Mozart would make them smarter"... from what I can see ...some music fitting a certain pattern ...will provide better conditions for... brain function...relaxing...etc...but if you do not like that type of music...it would fit that you would find your personal preference of music to move you....

If I am doing physical work I like to listen to dance ...techno type music...and some classic music...for relaxing...being inspired...

[Aelon]

requesting ban for talking about Bieber here.

I second the motion.