Aspects related to the interconnection between music and the human brain. Scientific discoveries and contemporary challenges

Abstract

A new scientific discipline, neuromusicology, connects the scientific research of music and that of the nervous system, in particular of the brain. It studies the effects of music on the brain; the present paper relates to this particular field. Initially, the right hemisphere was associated with the process of music reception and it was considered that the activation of the left hemisphere was the responsibility of language. Neuroimaging, however, demonstrates that the elements of musical language activate various brain areas in both hemispheres, simultaneously generating the perception of music and emotions. Research in the field of psychoacoustics has revealed that listening to music triggers the production of neurotransmitters in the body that relieve pain, reduce stress and anxiety. Another effect determined by listening and studying music is the structural changes that occur at brain level due to brain neuroplasticity. Pathological changes at brain level have consequences in perception and influence all human activities. Disease alters the artistic creativity of people suffering from various pathologies, biographies of many artists proving that neurological diseases influenced their artistic activity. Decoding the functioning of the brain in the presence of music and its effects on brain activity make it possible to use music therapy as a complementary method to medical treatment. The harmful effects of the current Covid-19 pandemic on the brain are obvious and are already reported in completed or ongoing research studies. The adoption of music as a therapeutic tool in the current global epidemiological crisis highlights its undeniable qualities in multiple pathologies and updates its mental and somatic benefits, complementary to medicine. All this provides an important drive in the reassessment and reconfiguration of the need to amplify the interference strategies between the field of music and that of medicine, implicitly that of neurology.