Anybody who can carry a tune will benefit from music, according to a neuroscientist at Oregon Health and Science University.
He even claims that the benefits of music are hard-wired into our brains!
That said, Grammy Award nominees might be particularly intelligent.
Larry Sherman, a professor in the Division of Neuroscience at the prestigious university, explains that “practicing an instrument might be the most difficult and challenging activity a human brain can do. You are integrating sensory and fine motor skills as well as gross motor skills. You are holding your instrument, moving your fingers. You are doing all these things, and it is rewiring your brain to the point where you can actually become a Grammy nominated musician.”
The act of practicing music, according to Sherman, can help generate neurons as well as strengthen the connections between synapses, and rebuild the myelin sheaths that allow electrical signals to be transmitted from cell to cell.
He mentions that “This is an amazing thing that our brain is doing. It is rewiring itself and remaking itself every single time we practice music.”
He asserts that group music making may have even greater advantages.
According to research using magnetic resonance imaging, music releases a wave of feel good neurotransmitters such as dopamine and endorphins.
These neurotransmitters have the ability to both reduce pain and also promote a sense of group identity and these wonderful effects only increase if the group is bigger.
Sherman poignantly shared that “I always tell people, if only we could get Congress to sing together.”
According to Sherman, there is evidence to suggest that playing music together as a group has likely brought civilizations closer together for millennia.
“The fact that we have found flutes in Neanderthal caves means something,” he stresses.
Sherman’s work focuses on neurodegeneration, particularly in circumstances such as multiple sclerosis where myelin is damaged.
Through a number of public presentations featuring his personal interest in music, he has also worked to help promote neuroscience as a whole.
Sherman has spoken frequently on the neuroscience of music, love, racism and even chocolate through venues like Science on Tap ever since his first joint performance with musical artists Valerie Day and Darrell Grant back in 2008.
Finally, he has given more than 300 presentations on his preferred topic in seven different countries, including New Zealand, Germany, and the United States.
