646 - When music meet neuroscience, how music can make you better - Indre Viskontas

Brain Impact

Indre Viskontas explores how music impacts the brain, highlighting its ability to create patterns and meaning from chaos. She explains that music's power lies in its ability to transform silence into meaningful sound through repetition and pattern recognition 1. This process is evident in phenomena like Diana Deutsch's Speech to Song Illusion, where repeated phrases begin to sound musical 1.

Until it has meaning, it's not music. You can turn silence into music by ascribing meaning to it.

--- Indre Viskontas

James Altucher adds that music's ability to find patterns in chaos is a fundamental human trait, allowing us to derive meaning from seemingly random sounds 1.

   

Therapeutic Uses

Music's therapeutic potential is vast, offering cognitive and societal benefits. Indre Viskontas discusses how participatory music-making can enhance learning and language skills, particularly in children from noisy environments 2. She emphasizes that playing instruments, rather than just listening, can aid in brain development and social cohesion 2.

Music can help some of the symptoms and help the brain rewire after injury.

--- Indre Viskontas

James Altucher highlights the case of Gabby Giffords, who used music to regain speech after a brain injury, illustrating music's ability to activate different brain regions and facilitate recovery 3.