As concert season fills the calendars, with porches galore humming with music, it’s a fitting time to celebrate the happy truth that hearing clearly and listening to music both contribute to a healthy, sharp mind.
Enjoying music to your ears is a healthy choice for your brain. Turns out, being Happy to Hear is smart living.
While Ears Collect the notes, rhythms and harmonies around us, our Brains Connect them into something we recognize, remember and feel. In that process, music activates brain networks involved in memory, emotion, and pleasure, which makes listening to a favorite song a melodically healthy choice.
Here’s what’s happening at once:
- The hippocampus helps support memory and recall.
- The amygdala contributes to emotional response.
- Pleasure pathways are activated, including the release of dopamine, linked to motivation.
Just as exercising the body keeps muscles strong, engaging with music helps keep the brain stimulated and there’s real science behind that therapeutic idea, whether you’re listening or playing.
Listening
- Music helps create new neural connections and supports neuroplasticity, the brain’s ability to adapt throughout life. 1
- Music activates so many brain regions at once that people with Alzheimer’s can still recall and sing a familiar song. 1
- Music-based approaches offer some of the strongest evidence of brain benefit for Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and stroke and researchers screen for hearing loss, since it can shape the benefit. 2
Playing
- Playing an instrument brings even greater cognitive advantages than singing, particularly for processing speed. 3
- Even short-term musical training started in your 60s, 70s, or 80s has been shown to improve reasoning and mental flexibility. 3
- Lifelong musical practice has also been linked to a lower risk of dementia and mild cognitive impairment. 3
A routine hearing checkup and a little more music each day are two sound steps that can help keep your mind healthier, so you will capture more notes of what matters most.
Don’t delay necessary testing! Especially with our growing population of active seniors, it’s important to understand how hearing loss relates to cognitive decline. With timely evaluation, we will identify if you or your loved ones have auditory issues so you can keep cherishing life’s precious sounds. May we see you soon?
1 https://health.clevelandclinic.org/how-does-music-affect-the-brain
2 https://www.neurology.org/doi/10.1212/WNL.0000000000206797
3 https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0207957