I sometimes bookmark articles to read/post "later" if I don't have time when I find it ~ this is one of those articles ~ I just read it and find it both fascinating and thought-provoking ~ personally, since I most often listen to "oldies", music can and often does greatly affect my mood with the memories that come flooding back ~ in terms of concentration, I tend to stay more focused in quiet ~ Sooz 

Sunday, Oct 23, 2011 3:00 PM 19:22:35 CST
How music changes our brains
Science is becoming increasingly interested in the relationship between sound and the brain. An expert explains.

By Thomas Rogers

Music has never been more accessible. Just a decade ago, we were lugging around clunky portable CD players that weighed as much as a hardcover book and would skip whenever we made any sudden movement. Now our entire record collection (and thanks to new companies like Spotify, almost any other song on the planet) can fit into our phones. We can listen to music nonstop — on our commute, at work, at the gym and everywhere else we might want to. But what is this explosion of sound doing to our brains?

Oh, mac's going to love this. 

i plan on reading it tonight.  any good?

The more participation there is with music early on — through singing and movement — the more it simultaneously activates multiple levels of the brain.

I can attest to music affecting more than one sense.  I like to listen to music at night, in the dark, in bed. It captures my attention and holds it, and breaks the chain of thoughts I live with all day otherwise. I can only do this when I go to bed first, as my wife's taste in late-night music runs mainly to none.

Public radio plays classical music late at night. One night last week it was a flute quartet, which is an unusual ensemble. the piece was fast and light and complicated, and, lying in the dark, I saw the music! Visually! Against the darkness it was bright glowing silver strings dancing with each other, distant from me, four of them dancing, intertwining, interweaving, separating, coming together again. It was so vivid.  It was beautiful.  I hope it happens again.

One night this week it was jazz, and I saw it as a wet, spinning, growing vessel, as though someone were making a dish on a potter's wheel, except no wheel and no potter. Spinning so fast, changing colors as the brass and winds and piano and percussion parts played against each other. Spinning right there in front of me, beautiful and exciting, I saw it. Both times I was not entirely awake, but totally aware, and marveling at  the experience. Is that hypnosis? I want more of it.

And no, I don't use recreational drugs.

i really dug two things here. one was the auditory confusion that is sometimes misdiagnosed as ADHD (not Sascha's problem. he hears perfectly).

the second was THIS:

"One professor at the university of Northern Colorado has done extensive research into what they call rhythmicity and rehabilitation, showing that, for people who've had injuries, the use of rhythmic patterns, whether from a metronome or music sustains the ability to prolong exercise in rehabilitative therapy. It's a technique called entrainment. The body creates the rhythm, and then the therapist uses the rhythm in a rehabilitative context."

i find this utterly fascinating.

It lends credibility to the claims made by those who support meditation. Many meditation techniques include self-generated rhythmic audio patterns - chanting - in order to synchronize the mind and body.

It is utterly facinating. I know that a few things my daughters learned in school in musical form has stuck with them all these years. Remember Schoolhouse Rock? I can still sing the damn things.   'I'm just a bill, yes I'm only a bill and I'm sittin' here on Capitol Hill"  "Conjunction junction, what's your function?"  lmao

Anyway, I just read a study concerning Alzheimer's patients and communication via rhythm. It seemed to reach many patients deemed "unreachable."  This article was from several years ago and I wondered why it wasn't more widely known. First I'd heard about it.

Before the spoken language, I imagine rhythm/tunes were a common denominator among early man. It's a primitive memory, probably stamped on our genetic code somewhere. (most)Everyone sings to infants. It's a form of non-verbal communication and a source of comfort.

jim, I wish I could "see" music like that! I "think" in musical form.