Music and the Mind
Grade 7
Presentation
No video provided
Problem
Method
- Research about basic topicd such as: What is music? How does our hearing works?
- Start researching about the main topic - Music affecting our brain and lifestyle
- Create a survey to determine my classmates reponse to how they feel about different types of music
- After that assemble a model about the hearing mechanism
- Once everything is done, design my trifold and present at CYSF!
Research
Music and how it affects our brain and lifestyle:
Basics I: How do we hear?
In order to get a better idea of how music sends a signal to our brain and then leads to changes in ourlife, I decided to start off with how our hearing mechanism works. That way, it'll be eaiser to understand how music signals reach the brain in the first place.
https://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/how-do-we-hear
Our ear is divided into 3 sections with other parts that fall into those 3 sections. Those sections are:
- The Outer Ear
- The Middle Ear
- The Inner Ear
The Outer Ear:
Contains these parts:
- Pinna (the ear part that is seen on the side of our ear)
- Ear Canal (the tube that follows the hole in our pinna (ear))
- Temporal Bone (helps the Pinna stay in place and has the usual function like other bones
The Middle Ear:
Contains these parts:
- Stapes (this is a bone that increases sound vibrations)
- Malleus (this is a bone that increases sound vibrations)
- Incus (this is a bone that increases sound vibrations)
- Eardrum (vibrates incoming sounds waves and sends them to the bones listed above, which help increase the sound vibrations)
The Inner Ear:
Contains these parts:
- Semicircular Canals (these tubes connect to the Cochela and are filled with a liquid fluid that helps keep the balance of pressure when we tilt our head or turn it around, side to side)
- Vestibular Nerve (this nerve gives a sense of balance and signals information about the body posistion so the semicircular canals can balance the pressure in our body for us)
- Auditory Nerve (carries out the electrical signal when a sound is made which reaches the brain)
- Cochela (this part looks like a snail and the "snail-like attenas" are actually the semicircular canals. Plays an important role in sense of hearing and signals/sends the sound waves to the Auditory Nerve)
- Eustachian Tube (a lot like the semicircular canals, they balance air pressure when our head is tilted or turned around)
Sound waves enter the pinna and then go through the ear canal. After going through the ear canal, the sound wave reaches the eardrm, which vibrates the sound sends them into the stapes, malleus, and incus bones. The bones increase the vibration and later on send them to the cochela. The fluid in the cochela creates sound ripples which causes hair cells (sensory cells) ride the sound wave. The cells which are closer to the end of the cochela detect high-pitched noises, while the ones closer to the middle of the cochela detect rather lower-pitched noises. While the hair cells move up and down, microscopic hair-like projections that are on top of the cells hit/bump into an overlaying sturcture which causes them to bend. Bending causes them to open up which then lets chemicals enter in, creating an electrical signal. This electrical signal enters the auditory nerve, which then sends the signal to our brain. The semicircular canals, vestibular nerve, and the eustachian tube play an important role when this process is happening because the stabalize our head movement so this process isn't disturbed.
Why — and How — Music Moves Us
Music and Mood
For over 1000 years humans listened to music to soothe or calm themselves down. Music is played on occasions and have been sang as lullabies to calm babies down. Our moods, memories, and emotions are manipulated by music since it has a great impact on us. Music is so deeply woven into our brain that it can helps us to connect to people who suffered cognitive loss and also non-communicative people diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease sing along to the tune of the music that is being played. Listening or making music increases blood circulation as it flows to other parts of the brain that help make and control or emotions and feelings. The system that controls the process of emotions and controlling memory is called the Limbic system. The Limbic system "lights up" when our ears hear music being played. The emotion or feeling that you feel when you play a piece of music that you particulary like, may result to a neurotransmitter that triggers the sense of comfort and favouritsim, called dopamine. The more you listen your favourite song, your body might release dopamine, just by hearing the first few notes or verses upon hearing the song. This not only happens with music but also with other sounds that we are aware of. Sounds alot of the time tell us to do something or react to it. Music can also affect our point of view or mood about something unexpectly, even if we weren't replicating the notes and rhythm of the music. Science has documented in several cases of when a person who had suffered brain injuries and lost their ability to distinguish melodies but had recovered this by the recognition of the emotion that was conveyed by music. Researchers also noticed that had sustained damage only to the temporal lobes of the brain and frontal lobes were unaffected.
Music and Memory
The mental process of when our brain connects indiviual sound waves from music is the same of how we read. Our brain connects letters that join ito words and those words become a part of a sentence. Numerous of sentences become a paragraph and so on. Our mind when listening to music follows the same procedure. Working memory is involved in both processes, and scientists believe there’s a great deal of overlap between working memory for musical stimuli and for verbal stimuli. Emotions enhance memory function. Many adults can still remember the words from the music they used to listened in high school. The reason to this might be that adolescence is a time when people have a high-regards of motions and like to express them alot and also listening to something over and over again also helps. Evidence shows that listening to music help the brain cells process information more effeciently and helps the brain power to adapt. According to a study published in the scientific journal Brain, adults who suffered a stroke and listened to music daily experienced significantly greater gains in verbal memory and cognition after two months than stroke survivors who listened to audio books and those who didn’t listen to either music or books on a daily basis.
Music and Pain Relief
People listen to music when doing a job, studying, or even when they are sitting beside their loved ones that are about to pass away, The pain-relieving tendencies have music has been ascribed to music’s ability to distract; when our minds are focused on a beloved melody, we don’t notice our aching back quite as much. Music also increases overall feelings of well-being (thank you, dopamine!), which may decrease pain perception. Some scientists suspect that music’s effect on the physical body, though, may be at least partially rooted in the fact that sound waves are ultimately vibrations. Vibroacoustic therapy uses low frequency sound to produce vibrations that are applied directly to the body. At least seven scientific studies have shown improvement in motor function in individuals with cerebral palsy treated with vibroacoustic therapy. It may take scientists years to fully untangle music’s actions in the brain. Thankfully, we can enjoy music’s benefits without fully understanding the science.
Data
*The participants in this survey chose to do it and also filled in the Informed Consent Form 2C. The survey is about their reactions to different kinds of music and how it impacts their mood. Some people chose not to disclose their name in this survey for the acknowledgements section and they had prefered to name themselves "No name". Also the respondant's number is based off of who submitted first, so for example I put respondant 1 for one section and then put respondant 6 after it, means that respondant 6 did it after responadant 1 and is a part of the same section, not any other, like it is going in order. The answers that were written on my end of the survey are the exact same thay are here. I won't be changing their grammar mistakes because that means changing their answer technically, and that's wrong.*
Many people in my survey said that they enjoy listening to calm music, rap, or pop. I'll divide their answers according to the 3 sections below. Since 2 respondants had a choice of rock music, I'll be adding them to a separate section. One person wrote Anything so I'll be putting theirs into the Rock Music Section. Some questions include: How do react to rap music? How do you react to calm music? These questions, as you can see, are already answered when I divided the respondants into groups, so I wouldn't be adding those questions if the respondant's group is divided by that already.
Calm Music — Submission Answers
How do you feel after listening this type of music?
Respondant 1: Happy
Respondant 6: I feel happy and calm
Respondant 8: Calm, comforting
Respondant 9: Calm, Focused
How would you react to Rap Music or any other type of music which is similar to rap?
Respondant 1: Bored
Respondant 6: Its really loud and kinda confusing. I only like some rap songs. Its really good for parties.
Respondant 8: Its fine i would honestly listen to it
Respondant 9: Confused (dont really like it)
Does listening to music help you focus?
Respondant 1: No
Respondant 6: Yes
Respondant 8: Maybe
Respondant 9: Yes
Does listening to music help you sleep or calm down?
Respondant 1: Maybe
Respondant 6: Maybe
Respondant 8: Maybe
Respondant 9: Yes
Rap Music — Submission Answers
How do you feel after listening this type of music?
Respondant 13: rap music is very good music that you can listen the nice beat when you listen
Respondant 14: great, i'll sing along to it
How would you react to Calm Music?
Respondant 13: calm music is pretty much peacful
Respondant 14: i wont sing along to it
Does listening to music help you focus?
Respondant 13: Maybe
Respondant 14: Yes
Does listening to music help you sleep or calm down?
Respondant 13: Maybe
Respondant 14: Yes
Conclusion
Acknowledgement
In this project, I am really grateful for my parents. They encouraged me every time I was stuck on something and helped me when I needed it. They always inspired me to share my information to the world and always had my back. I probably wouldn't have been made it to the science fair without them. I would also give thanks to my CYSF coordinator, Mr.Maruyama, who helped me get on this portal and in the science fair guiding me through and through. I am also thankful of Ms.Chiem (my science, math, and homeroom teacher) who helped to get my survey available to my classmates. She also encouraged me for new ideas in the science fair. Last but not least I absoulutely appreciate my friends who helped me in serious problems and they are always on my side. They were also the ones to encourage the making of my survey and also the first ones to do it. I would also give credit to my classmates who did my survey the following people did it:
Yumna
Emaan Nabi
No name
No name
Aiza
Jana
Muhib Asif
Jawad
Yehya Al Matar
Salma
No Name
No Name
Amr Zakaria
They are some no names because in my survey, my classmates filled it, in so I had to add their names in my credit, but some people didn't want their names included in the acknowledgements. Nevertheless, they still made an a great amount of progress in my survey, so they still deserve a place in my acknowledgement section.