{"id":23784,"date":"2018-04-16T11:21:56","date_gmt":"2018-04-16T15:21:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/?p=23784"},"modified":"2022-03-16T12:03:43","modified_gmt":"2022-03-16T16:03:43","slug":"lullabies-and-rock-shows-how-music-makes-us-social","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/lullabies-and-rock-shows-how-music-makes-us-social\/","title":{"rendered":"Lullabies and Rock Shows: How Music Makes Us Social"},"content":{"rendered":"

Music, from a very young age, has an enormous impact on human emotions, development, and social interactions. The more scientists learn about the way people process music, the better they can understand perception, multisensory integration, and social coordination throughout someone\u2019s life. <\/span><\/p>\n

Two separate studies<\/span><\/a>, which were recently presented at the 25th meeting of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society, portray the many behavioral impacts of music. <\/span><\/p>\n

The first study dissects how musical engagement influences infants’ social-emotional development, the second links the presence of performers and audience during a live concert to improved connection and greater enjoyment of music. <\/span><\/p>\n

The Lullaby Study<\/b><\/h2>\n

A team of researchers conducted a series of tests to investigate how both mothers and babies respond to lullabies and playsongs. <\/span><\/p>\n

The team explored how mothers adjust the way they sing to their babies depending on if they wish to be soothing or playful. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn this experiment, 30 mother-infant pairs came into the lab,\u201d said <\/span>Laura Cirelli<\/span><\/a>, a researcher in the Department of Psychology at the University of Toronto and author of the study. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBabies would sit in a highchair and mothers would sit facing them,\u201d she continued. \u201cWe asked mothers to repeatedly sing \u2018Twinkle Twinkle\u2019 and to alternate between singing it in a soothing way and in a playful way. We videotaped the interactions and also measured skin conductance in both the mother and baby using stickers on the infants\u2019 feet and mothers\u2019 finger tips. This essentially measures stress levels.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

When humans are excited or stressed, sweat glands become more active so skin conductance increases. When people are able to relax, the levels decrease, explained Cirelli. <\/span><\/p>\n

Through the tests, the researchers discovered that when mothers sang in a playful way, their infants became more attentive and even started smiling and giggling. When mothers sang playsongs, mom and baby levels remained stable, but when mothers began to sing in a soothing way both mom and baby stress levels dropped, said Cirelli.  <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis shows us that these two song styles that mothers often use with infants have distinct and functionally relevant effects on mother and baby,\u201d said Cirelli. \u201cLullabies are soothing for both mother and infant, and maternal song may be an important way to regulate mother-infant emotional responses.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

This study reinforces the concept that music has a positive impact on social development and engagement. <\/span><\/p>\n

In a past study, in which Cirelli had 14-month-olds bouncing synchronously with unfamiliar adults, she proved that when people move together in synchrony, they are more likely to feel socially connected and cooperate with one another. <\/span><\/p>\n

“Music is a tool that we can use to bring people together, and this starts in infancy,” Cirelli said in a statement. <\/span><\/p>\n

Live Music Study <\/b><\/h2>\n

A team of researchers recently conducted a study at McMaster University\u2019s <\/span>LIVElab<\/span><\/a> to help demonstrate, in-part, why people will still pay hundreds of dollars to go to a live show, even though the same music is easily streamable online. <\/span><\/p>\n

To do so, the team evaluated how the presence of a live performer and audience affects the brain-rhythm synchronization of concert-goers. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe study shows that our electrical brain activity synchronizes with music at a concert, and this phenomenon causes audience brains to be in sync with each other,\u201d said <\/span>Molly Henry<\/span><\/a>, postdoctoral associate in the Department of Psychology at Western University in London, Ontario and co-author of the study. <\/span><\/p>\n

At the LIVELab, the researchers had a band play for 80 people. Twenty of those people had their brain activity recorded with electroencephalography (EEG), a method used to record electrical activity of the brain. <\/span><\/p>\n

The researchers then compared the EEG measurements to those recorded in two separate environments. The first instance had 20 people experiencing the concert on a movie screen with the same audio from the live performance. In the second environment, the team separated 20 participants into groups of two, and had the groups sit apart while they watched the performance on the movie screen. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe manipulated the presence of the performers while keeping audience context fixed,” the authors explained in a statement. <\/span><\/p>\n

The findings proved that the brain waves of the audience members were more synchronized with each other when the individuals watched the performance live in the same room as the performers. Additionally, members of the audience whose brain rhythms were more synchronized with the other audience members tended to feel more connected to the performers and enjoyed the concert more. <\/span><\/p>\n

These novel findings provide insight into the more social side of music listening, Henry explained in a statement.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe stronger an individual was engaged in the \u2018social neural network\u2019, the more they enjoyed the concert,\u201d said Henry. <\/span>
\n<\/span>\u201cInterestingly, the brain activity that does the synchronization is rather slow, and falls into the range of rates that corresponds to the \u2018beat\u2019 in music, and the rates at which we would move our body if we were to dance to music,\u201d she continued. <\/span><\/p>\n

In the study, Henry worked alongside <\/span>Jessica Grahn<\/span><\/a>, associate professor in the Brain and Mind Institute and the Department of Psychology at Western University. <\/span><\/p>\n

“Rhythm in particular is mysterious: We are sensitive to the ‘beat’ – that steady, underlying pulse that we tap our foot or bob our head to – from early in life,\u201d Grahn said in a statement. \u201cBut, even after decades of trying, ‘beat-tracking’ algorithms can’t approach anything like the automaticity and flexibility that humans show to feel the beat across different speeds, genres, and instruments.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Henry believes that the information gathered in this study, luckily, creates more new questions than it actually answers. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not clear at this stage what the implications will be,\u201d she said. \u201cThat depends on what future research tells us about the source of these synchronization effects.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

But researchers are excited about extending their studies regarding the continued impact of music on humans. <\/span><\/p>\n

“We are seeing relationships between rhythm and language abilities, attention, development, hearing acuity, and even social interactions,\u201d Grahn said in a statement. \u201cEvery sensation we have or action we make on the world unfolds over time, and we are now beginning to understand why humans are sensitive to certain types of patterns in time, but not others.” <\/span><\/p>\n

The ability to understand these patterns could inform potential music-driven therapies for patients who suffer from neurodegenerative diseases, she continued. <\/span><\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/b><\/h2>\n

The emotional and physical healing powers of music are immense. Since the beginning of human history, people have used songs as a means for storytelling, mending, social interactions, and more. These recent studies prove that scientists are able to quantify the behavioral impacts of music to use it as a tool.  <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Music, from a very young age, has an enormous impact on human emotions, development, and social interactions. The more scientists learn about the way people process music, the better they can understand perception, multisensory integration, and social coordination throughout someone\u2019s life. Two separate studies, which were recently presented at the 25th meeting of the Cognitive […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":45570,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[619,649,624,230,229,243],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23784","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mind","category-music","category-relationships","category-news","category-lead-stories","category-health"],"aioseo_notices":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Lullabies-and-Rock-Shows-How-Music-Makes-Us-Social.jpg",830,533,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Lullabies-and-Rock-Shows-How-Music-Makes-Us-Social-224x144.jpg",224,144,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Lullabies-and-Rock-Shows-How-Music-Makes-Us-Social-300x193.jpg",300,193,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Lullabies-and-Rock-Shows-How-Music-Makes-Us-Social.jpg",830,533,false],"large":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Lullabies-and-Rock-Shows-How-Music-Makes-Us-Social.jpg",830,533,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Lullabies-and-Rock-Shows-How-Music-Makes-Us-Social.jpg",830,533,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Lullabies-and-Rock-Shows-How-Music-Makes-Us-Social.jpg",830,533,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Jackson Schroeder","author_link":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/author\/jackson-schroeder\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Music, from a very young age, has an enormous impact on human emotions, development, and social interactions. The more scientists learn about the way people process music, the better they can understand perception, multisensory integration, and social coordination throughout someone\u2019s life. Two separate studies, which were recently presented at the 25th meeting of the Cognitive…","featured_media_src_url":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Lullabies-and-Rock-Shows-How-Music-Makes-Us-Social.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23784","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23784"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23784\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}