The Mozart Effect proposes brief spatial-reasoning gains from listening to Mozart.

Classical background music’s learning and memory effects are mixed and person-specific.

A University of Vienna review found no reliable IQ gains from Mozart, noting selective reporting and small early samples.

Many studies rely on homogeneous samples, conflicts of interest, and weak designs, underscoring the need for rigor.

Some studies report post-Mozart spatial gains, but findings are inconsistent.

Overall, Mozart-related spatial boosts and the K.448 “effect” lack robustness, often reflecting arousal and mood.

Musical training correlates with visual working memory and general cognition, including spatial skills.

Early music education more clearly strengthens neural bases for spatial reasoning than passive listening.

Slow-tempo music can impair cognition; faster tempo does not reliably speed processing, so select tempos carefully near demanding tasks.

Classical music, including Mozart, can lower heart rate, relieve tension, and improve psycho-emotional state; use instrumental background during breaks to reset mood.

Live music captures infants’ attention and supports early cognitive development.

Embedding music in math lessons improved performance, with 73% of learners raising scores; prioritize active music–math engagement for stronger gains.

Piano lessons and music training can enhance information processing, reduce anxiety and stress, and support academics.

Thirty minutes of daily music listening for six months improved working memory by 6% in 132 adults aged 62–78.

Therapeutic findings are mixed, including reports of reduced epileptic activity and newborn pain relief with Mozart.

However, analyses find no reliable evidence that Mozart alleviates epilepsy symptoms.

Full-term infants hearing Mozart lullabies during heel sticks had lower pain scores, but effects lasted only three minutes.

Instrumental music and familiar tunes are less disruptive to verbal tasks and can aid focus.

The Mozart Effect proposes brief spatial-reasoning gains from listening to Mozart.

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Content: Finding New Links Between Music Training and Cognitive Ability
Science and Technology
Copy Link https: / / en.rt.com / sw8i
Researchers have discovered that music training affects visual working memory, and a study found that areas of the brain may share a common component that affects both visual and musical working memory.
A research team from several universities around the world has asked whether music can improve cognitive abilities, and new scientific methods have been used to try to find the answer.
The research was led by scientists from the University of Music, Theatre and Media in Hanover, Germany, Goldsmith University in London, UK, Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, the Max Planck Institute for Experimental Aesthetics (MPIEA) in Frankfurt and the University of Cambridge, UK, and the results of their study have just been published in the journal Music Perception.
Working memory is one of the crucial components of all cognitive faculties, the ability to retain information in an individual ’ s memory and make use of it without external aids, such as pen and paper.
According to research, it is still unclear whether working memory has the same function for all regions.
The brain or if it varies from one to the other, that is, whether the areas and abilities the brain uses for music, images, language, and math are the same or different.
In their study, the scientists examined a total of 148 people, through six different tests, comparing the musical and visual work memories of the research participants with their level of musical training.
Previous studies of the relationship between musical training and general cognitive abilities have tended to ignore musical memory, says lead author Peter Harrison: “What we have done is investigate these three factors using a ‘ causal modelling ’ approach, a relatively new scientific method that makes it possible to identify causal relationships under specific circumstances. ”
The results show that if musical training affects visual working memory, it does so through the "inflection" of musical working memory, in other words through its core benefits of musical working memory, musical training can have a positive effect on visual working memory as well.
The results show that if musical training affects visual working memory, it does so through the "inflection" of musical working memory.
Image in the public domain
The study showed that generally strong working memory may make musical training easier.
The team ’ s findings suggest that brain regions share a common component that affects both visual and musical working memory, yet it seems unlikely that there is a direct causal link between music training and general cognitive faculties.
Additional long-term studies comparing individuals with and without musical training in terms of their development of musical and cognitive abilities may further support these findings.
Source: Neuroscience
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Classical background music’s learning and memory effects are mixed and person-specific.

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Content: 4/25/23 · Research

The beneficial effects of music on memory may depend on how it is listened to

The initial results of the study of the 'Mozart effect' on neurodegeneration show that listening to classical music in the background has no benefits for learning
The research has been carried out with people experiencing mild cognitive impairment, and it did find individual differences when listening to 'high-arousal' music

Listening to 'high-arousal' music could have a positive effect on memory for people who are accustomed to using music as an emotional regulator (Image: Clem Onojeghuo, Unsplash)

Given the lack of effective treatments to counteract cognitive impairment, background music has traditionally been proposed as a possible therapeutic alternative for improving memory-related tasks. Its effect has long been the focus of debate, but this relationship has now been found to be possibly determined by new interindividual parameters, which means that it may be more complex than was previously thought. This is shown by research led by Marco Calabria, a researcher in the Cognitive Neurolab group of the Faculty of Health Sciences at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC), who is now considering new experiments.

The initial results of the Mozart effect and memory in patients with cognitive impairment (MEM-COG) study, funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, suggest that listening to background classical music while performing memory tasks neither improves nor impairs learning levels among people with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). However, listening to more 'high-arousal' music was found to have a possible positive effect on people who are accustomed to using music as an emotional regulator in their everyday lives, which suggests there is potential for further hypotheses and research.

The study, which has been published as open access in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, was carried out with patients at the neuropsychology unit of Barcelona's Hospital de Sant Pau, and involved researchers at the hospital, Montreal's Concordia University and Madrid's Gregorio Marañón Health Research Institute.

There is no universal effect

"We found no general impact concerning the effect of music in terms of whether it had positive or negative effects on learning in cases of MCI, but we did find that it would be modulated for each individual. If people regularly use music as an emotional regulator in their daily life, such as to help them remain calm or for company, they will find it easier to obtain further benefits from music when they have to learn something new," explained Calabria, who has a PhD in Psychobiology.

The subjects of the study were people with mild amnestic cognitive impairment, i.e. they have memory problems as a result of an onset of neurodegeneration that is more specific in the parts of the brain dealing with aspects of learning and memory. The experiments consisted of observing 24 photographs of human faces. Participants were instructed to memorize them, and 10 minutes later, they were asked to look at a new series containing the previous 24 images and 24 new ones, in order to attempt to identify the ones that they had already seen.

A classical choice

The first test was performed with the subjects listening to classical music in the information consolidation phase but not in the recovery phase, while in the second exercise it was repeated with the auditory stimulus during both phases. However, no significant differences were observed in terms of results.

Classical music was used in these exercises because "it's a type of music that falls between relaxing and arousing, and has proven to be the most effective for enhancing memory". Furthermore, the fact that it is instrumental reduces the interference (that can come from lyrics) with the content that the participants have to learn in the memory task.

A ray of light

However, Calabria's team wanted to carry out a third experiment using popular music which was considered arousing rather than relaxing, and after a preliminary study, they used an instrumental version of Un rayo de sol (A ray of light), by the group Los Diablos. In that experiment, according to Calabria, the results suggested that "the use of music as a strategy for mood regulation is associated with better performance in memory tasks."

Ongoing research

This finding opens up the possibility of further research to continue exploring the role of interindividual preferences and attitudes towards music among patients with MCI. The group plans to continue the project until late 2024.

During this time, it will investigate whether background music could be more useful in other cognitive domains, such as in attention and concentration in patients with Parkinson's disease. The experiments will also involve the use of a new infrared spectroscopy device in the Neuro Lab, one of the recently opened new laboratories at the UOC, which will show the activation at the cerebral level while cognitive processes are taking place. This will help to determine whether or not there are any alterations in the brain's modulation, in which areas this takes place, and whether it depends on the type of person studied, regardless of the level of response to music.

In overall terms, this will help to find a type of marker which determines the people most likely to benefit from music in cognitive tasks. "The more we know about how background music shapes cognitive processes, the better the use we can make of music as a therapeutic tool in cognitive stimulation," concluded Calabria, an expert in the study of cognitive processes and a member of teaching staff on the UOC's Master's Degree in Neuropsychology.

This research project receives funding from the Ministry of Science and Innovation of the Government of Spain, and contributes to Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) number 3, Good health and well-being.

Reference article:

Calabria, Marco et al. 'Background Music and Memory in Mild Cognitive Impairment: The Role of Interindividual Differences'. 1 Jan. 2023: 815 – 829. DOI: 10.3233/JAD-221051

Press contact

Sònia Armengou Casanovas
sarmengouc@uoc.edu
+34 619 413 823

UOC R&I

The UOC's research and innovation (R&I) is helping overcome pressing challenges faced by global societies in the 21st century by studying interactions between technology and human & social sciences with a specific focus on the network society, e-learning and e-health.

Over 500 researchers and more than 50 research groups work in the UOC's seven faculties, its eLearning Research programme and its two research centres: the Internet Interdisciplinary Institute (IN3) and the eHealth Center (eHC).

The university also develops online learning innovations at its eLearning Innovation Center (eLinC), as well as UOC community entrepreneurship and knowledge transfer via the Hubbik platform.

Open knowledge and the goals of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development serve as strategic pillars for the UOC's teaching, research and innovation. More information: research.uoc.edu.

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A University of Vienna review found no reliable IQ gains from Mozart, noting selective reporting and small early samples.

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Scientists have dispelled the myth that Mozart ’ s music helps with epilepsy
Scientists from the University of Vienna have dispelled the myth that Mozart ’ s major sonata KV448 can alleviate the symptoms of epilepsy.
The results of the study are presented in the journal Scientific Reports.
According to the authors of the work, they could not find evidence of the above theory.
In the past, it was believed that Mozart ’ s music had many positive effects on a person, for example, it increases the intelligence of the fetus if a pregnant woman listened to it.
Recently, a number of studies have shown that KV448 sonata alleviates symptoms in patients with epilepsy.
In their work, scientists analyzed these studies, as well as other scientific literature.
As it turned out, there is no reliable evidence of the beneficial effect of the melody.
According to the authors, erroneous results could have been obtained due to selective reporting and small samples.
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Many studies rely on homogeneous samples, conflicts of interest, and weak designs, underscoring the need for rigor.

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Content: 10 Signs That Study Is Bogus

Eat chocolate, lose weight! In March 2015 the results of a new study by researchers in Germany made waves with the claim that chocolate could be part of a slimming regime. The study, conducted by one Johannes Bohannon, research director of the nonprofit Institute of Diet and Health, showed that adding chocolate to a low-carb diet actually increased weight loss.

The only trouble was that the study was completely bogus. Johannes Bohannon was actually a science journalist named John Bohannon. Bohannon concocted the study to demonstrate how little fact-checking the media engages in when it comes to reporting on science [source: Hiltzik].

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While the "study" made a splash in the tabloid media, few if any reputable outlets covered it. Maybe that's because they recognized the telltale signs of a bogus study. Let's find out what those are.

10: It's Unrepeatable

Everybody conducts studies. When you see babies dropping their sippy cups from their high-chairs over and over again, they're engaging in one of the most consequential experiments of their lives. The object of their investigation? Gravity.

No matter how many times we drop cups, they always fall to the ground. The fact that this experiment can be repeated endlessly and by anyone with the same result is one of the basic principles of any study. No matter how convincing the results of a study might be, if it can't be repeated by peer researchers, that means it can't be validated.

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To point this problem out, the Center for Open Science coordinated 270 researchers in a massive project to reproduce the results from 100 published studies in the field of psychology. In 2015, after years of work, the Center reported that more than half of the studies couldn't be repeated because the evidence gathered for them was not as strong as originally claimed.

One of the studies that they tested, for instance, was designed to determine whether men have a harder time distinguishing sexual cues from friendliness. Following the structure of the original study, the Center for Open Science showed test subjects a series of photos of women exhibiting different facial expressions.

While the original study found that, indeed, men were ninnies at nailing the cues, the follow-up test of the study couldn't replicate those results. It isn't clear whether this was because of cultural differences between the first and second studies (one study was conducted in the UK, the other in the USA) or the time elapsed between studies [source: Firger]. Either way, a finding that can't be reproduced isn't one for the ages.

9: It's Plausible, Not Provable

Very serious people in white lab coats bending pensively over test tubes — that's the image that often comes to mind when we think of a scientific study. But that's just one type of study — a laboratory experiment.

Another kind of study is called "observational." That's when researchers find a group of test subjects, ask them a lot of questions, record the answers and then "data mine" the results to see what they find.

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Once upon a time, observational studies suggested that having a "Type A" personality put you at higher risk for having a heart attack. But follow-up randomized clinical trials could not repeat these results, and it's now known that the original finding was completely false. How did this happen?

Observational studies can, of course, be enormously useful and enlightening. But there's a potential for misleading results. One problem is that you can get statistically significant results by chance about 5 percent of the time. So if you ask enough questions (and sometimes these studies can include thousands of questions), the data might appear to render something important. But on subsequent review, or attempts to repeat the study, the results might not be the same [source: Miller and Young].

8: The Samples Are Unsound

Breaking news: A new study reveals that the manner in which you lost your virginity will have an important impact on how you experience sex forever after.

Surprising results from odd research studies are a regular feature of the news cycle these days. But if you can get your hands on the actual research study, the design of the project might surprise you even more than the results.

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The thing about that 2013 virginity study is that its subjects were extremely homogeneous. In fact, it turns out, they usually are when it comes to studies in psychology and social science.

Since many of these studies are conducted by academics, the typical sample population for such research is — surprise, surprise — college students. That makes them WEIRD — an acronym for Western, Educated and from Industrialized, Rich and Democratic countries. In other words, not exactly representative of global society as a whole.

To make matters worse, in the virginity study, researchers excluded people who had experienced violent first encounters as well as anybody experiencing anything other than heterosexual intercourse [source: Brookshire].

So next time you hear the breaking news of yet another astonishing finding about human behavior and experience, take it with a grain of salt as you wonder just who exactly was being studied.

7: Something's Missing

Say you're conducting a trial on a new drug to help prevent stroke. You've got 20 mice: 10 getting the drug and the remaining 10 in your control group. It's a small study group, really small, but then your budget is small, and, well, everybody's doing it this way these days.

Seven of your test mice are doing really well, but unfortunately three of them die of massive strokes. What do you do? Simple. Just leave them out of the results. Yes, that's right, when you do up your charts and graphs, just don't mention the deceased rodents. Everybody's doing it this way these days.

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That really happened. Actually, it turns out that really happens all the time in animal research. Luckily, in this particular case, the scientist who was asked to review the study didn't let it pass. The three dead mice, he pointed out, were vitally important elements of the study. Indeed, they showed that the new drug might be harmful rather than helpful.

That scientist, Ulrich Dirnagl, and a colleague named Malcolm MacLeod have been raising the alarm about the lax standards found in many animal research studies [source: Couzin-Frankel]. Let's hope their message gets through.

6: Predatory Publishers

There you are, a young doctor getting your career off the ground when you get an email from "The Journal of Clinical Case Reports" asking you to submit some articles. As it happens, you've got some interesting cases to report so you write them up and send them off. To your delight, they're accepted. A nice addition to your résumé.

Then comes the bill — the journal says you owe them $2,900! Shocked, you write back to say that you've never heard of being charged to publish and you have no intention of paying. They publish your articles anyway, offering to reduce your bill to $2,600. After a year of wrangling, the journal finally agrees to "forgive" your so-called debt.

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Welcome to the brave new world of predatory publishing, an unexpected consequence of the open-access movement to make scientific findings more widely available. Jeffrey Beall, a research librarian, has been keeping a record of publications he considers predatory. He thinks there might be as many as 4,000 of them out there — that would be 25 percent of all open-access journals.

Suffice it to say that predatory publishers are more concerned with their profit margin than scientific rigor. If researchers can pay, they can get published, regardless of the quality of their work. As a result, the number of questionable studies published has multiplied. Unless you're an expert in a given field, it might be hard to tell which science is reliable and which is junk [source: Kolata].

Famously, to get ahead in academia, scholars must publish or perish. Small wonder that predatory publishing flourishes in such an atmosphere. Buyer (and reader) beware!

5: It Proves a Point (Follow the Money)

One day you decide to try a new brand of chewing gum, but a short time after popping it in your mouth you break out in hives. In the emergency room the doctor tells you that blood tests reveal an allergy to some ingredient in the new chewing gum. But let's say you're weirdly stubborn, and let's say you really liked that gum, too. Oh, and you decide to visit nine more doctors.

Eight of nine of them agree with the first one. But one lone doctor says no, it's not the gum, it's just a coincidence. In fact, he thinks you might be allergic to chewing, or walking, or walking and chewing at the same time. You like his answer, and you like his fancy office, but you're starting to wonder how he paid for it.

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When trying to figure out whether a study is bogus, some common sense is useful. If 99.9 percent of the experts in a given field say one thing and a handful of others disagree, have a look at where the skeptics' funding is coming from. In other words, follow the money.

Willie Soon is one of the handful of researchers who deny that human activity has anything to do with climate change. The fact that he works at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics lends a degree of prestige to his opinions. However, the Center for Astrophysics has an arms-length relationship with Harvard, and researchers there are not on salary and receive no funds from the university.

In fact, it turns out that the bulk of Soon's funding has been coming from sources such as Exxon Mobil and the American Petroleum Institute, among others in the energy sector. In other words, the people paying for Soon's research are the very people who have the most invested in disproving human responsibility for climate change. While Soon insists the source of his funding has no bearing on his research, the optics aren't in his favor [source: Goldberg].

4: It's Self-Reviewed

Peer review: It's the bedrock of reputable scientific publishing. The idea is that if a study has been carefully examined and approved by another researcher in the same field, then it's valid enough to publish in a respected journal. But that idea only holds if the peer review system itself is trustworthy.

Hynung-In Moon, a medicinal-plant researcher at a university in South Korea, was having good luck with the reviews of the studies he was publishing in "The Journal of Enzyme Inhibition and Medicinal Chemistry." Aside from a few suggestions about how to improve his papers, they were quickly approved. Very quickly. In fact, the peer reviews were sometimes coming back to the editor of the journal within 24 hours of his having sent them out.

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Growing suspicious, the editor asked Moon what was going on. The researcher fessed up — those fast, approving reviews were coming from none other than himself. Following common practice, the journal had asked Moon to suggest some potential reviewers. When he did, he gave them a combination of real and fictitious names with fake contact information, including email addresses that came to Moon's inbox [source: Ferguson et al].

It turns out that some of the systems set up for reviewing have a loopholes like this, and Moon's instance of self-review is not an isolated anomaly. This leaves us with the possibility that some of the peer-reviewed studies we hear about might actually be peer-less.

3: The Batteries Are Low

The field of neuroscience is in an exciting phase with powerful new technology capable of analyzing the brain with ever-increasing exactitude. Using scans, for instance, a number of different studies looked at the relationship between mental health and abnormal brain volume. Many, in fact most of them, found a correlation.

But the overwhelming rate at which these studies kept confirming one another piqued the curiosity of researcher John Ioannidis. After analyzing the data he found that, taken together, all of these studies had an average statistical power of 8. That sounds low, and it is. But what does it mean?

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The statistical power of a study refers to the size of the samples used and how large or small the results were. To massively oversimplify, if you study 10,000 smokers and 10,000 non-smokers and find that 50 percent of the smokers developed lung cancer while only 5 percent of the non-smokers did, then your study has very high power. You had a huge sample population, and the results were huge as well.

But if you study 10 smokers and 10 non-smokers and find that two of the smokers developed lung cancer and one of the non-smokers did too, then you have an extremely underpowered study. The sample size is so tiny that the difference between the two groups is meaningless [source: Yong].

To be fair, most studies accused of having low power aren't as ridiculously low as that fictional example. But in recent years, concerned researchers have been blowing the whistle on the prevalence of under-powered studies. Their message? It's time to power up!

2: It's Too New

Every other day we hear of a new study that's found vitamin X, Y or Z prevents cancer or Alzheimer's or autoimmune disorders, and we rush out to buy vast quantities of the stuff. Before mainlining yet another trendy supplement, it might be wise to sit back and wait a little while to see whether subsequent research bolsters or debunks its value.

The media thrives on the latest and the newest. But when it comes to science, novelty isn't necessarily a good thing. Often it just means that the exciting results of a surprising new study are too new to have been disproven yet. Check back in a couple of years and see how many of those headliner research results have stood the test of time.

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In terms of research, much of what the media reports on are "initial findings." Initial findings are just that, initial. They need to be verified by more studies to see whether the results can be reproduced. Frequently they can't be — but it's rare when media outlets report negative research results [source: Crowe]. That's because they're never as popular as an exciting new discovery.

1: It's a Cool Story

The April 2015 edition of "Nature," one of the most prestigious and reputable scientific journals in the world, startled its readership with the extraordinary results of a new study. Dragons, it said, are not mythical products of the pre-modern imagination, but real creatures who have been subsisting in a dormant phase since the Middle Ages. One of the most worrisome findings was that there was evidence that these ancient beasts are on the verge of waking up.

The publication date is the obvious tip-off that this article was an elaborate April Fool's Day prank. But despite the farcical nature of the piece, it points to an important feature of science journalism — people like good stories. Scientists know this. Even getting a paper published in a science journal can require the creation of a "beautiful story" to explain the findings. And the better the story, the more likely it is that mainstream media will cover it [source: Firger].

But scientific inquiry doesn't always result in good stories. In fact, more often than not, it doesn't. Much important research is highly inconclusive. At best, it might give us a provisional window on a possible truth. As often as not, it tells us little or nothing at all. So when it comes to science, beware of good stories, dragons or no.

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Author's Note: 10 Signs That Study Is Bogus

I'm as cynical as the next person, but the research required for this article shocked me more than once. Like most people, I associate science with rigor, so I was disheartened to learn about some of the shoddy, slapdash and compromised work being done. But I suppose I shouldn't be. Scientists aren't robots operating in hermetically sealed environments. They're as subject to venality and cultural trends as anybody else. And in the end I came away with maybe even greater respect for a mode of inquiry that polices itself to the degree that science does. There's a lot of bad science out there, but the people blowing the whistle are ... scientists!

Related Articles

More Great Links

  • Brookshire, Bethany. "Psychology Is WEIRD." Slate. May 8, 2013. (Sept. 15, 2015) http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2013/05/weird_psychology_social_science_researchers_rely_too_much_on_western_college.html
  • Button, Kate. "Unreliable Neuroscience? Why Power Matters." The Guardian. April 10, 2013. (Sept. 18, 2015) http://www.theguardian.com/science/sifting-the-evidence/2013/apr/10/unreliable-neuroscience-power-matters
  • Couzin-Frankel, Jennifer. "When Mice Mislead." Science Magazine. Vol. 342. Nov. 22, 2013. (Sept. 15, 2015) https://www.gwern.net/docs/dnb/2013-couzinfrankel.pdf
  • Crowe, Kelly. "It's News, But Is It True?" CBC News. Oct. 5, 2012. (Sept. 14, 2015) http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/it-s-news-but-is-it-true-1.1282472
  • The Economist. "How Science Goes Wrong." Oct. 19, 2013. (Sept. 12, 2015) http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21588069-scientific-research-has-changed-world-now-it-needs-change-itself-how-science-goes-wrong
  • Ferguson, Cat et al. "Publishing: The Peer Review Scam." Nature. Vol. 515. Pages 480-482. Nov. 26, 2014. (Sept. 17, 2015) http://www.nature.com/news/publishing-the-peer-review-scam-1.16400
  • Firger, Jessica. "Science's Reproducibility Problem." Newsweek. Aug. 28, 2015. (Sept. 12, 2015) http://www.newsweek.com/reproducibility-science-psychology-studies-366744
  • Fischer, Douglas. "'Dark Money' Funds Climate Change Denial Effort." Scientific American. Dec. 23, 2013. (Sept. 17, 2015) http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/dark-money-funds-climate-change-denial-effort/
  • Goldenberg, Suzanne. "Work of Prominent Climate Change Denier Was Funded by Energy Industry." The Guardian. Feb. 21, 2015. (Sept. 17, 2015) http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/feb/21/climate-change-denier-willie-soon-funded-energy-industry
  • Hamilton, Andrew J. et al. "Here Be Dragons." Nature. Vol. 520. April 2, 2015. (Sept. 14, 2015) http://water-pire.uci.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Hamilton_Dragons.pdf
  • Hiltzik, Michael. "A Bogus Study of Chocolate and Diets – And the Media Swallowed It Whole." Los Angeles Times. May 29, 2015. (Sept. 14, 2015) http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-mh-a-bogus-study-of-chocolate-20150529-column.html
  • Horowitz, Evan. "Studies Show Many Studies are False." The Boston Globe. July 1, 2014. https://www.bostonglobe.com/lifestyle/2014/07/01/studies-show-many-studies-are-false/PP2NO6lKd7HMyTZa1iCHGP/story.html
  • Ioannidis, John P.A. "Why Most Published Research Findings Are False." PLoS Med. Vol. 2, No. 8. Aug. 30, 2005. (Sept. 12, 2015) http://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.0020124
  • Kolata, Gina. "Scientific Articles Accepted (Personal Checks Too)." The New York Times. April 7, 2013. (Sept. 17, 2015) http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/08/health/for-scientists-an-exploding-world-of-pseudo-academia.html
  • Marcus, Adam and Ivan Oransky. "Getting the Bogus Studies Out of Science." The Wall Street Journal. Aug. 19, 2015. (Sept. 14, 2015) http://www.wsj.com/articles/getting-the-bogus-studies-out-of-science-1440024409
  • Miller, Henry I. "The Trouble With 'Scientific' Research Today: A Lot That's Published Is Junk." Forbes. Jan. 8, 2014. (Sept. 12, 2015) http://www.forbes.com/sites/henrymiller/2014/01/08/the-trouble-with-scientific-research-today-a-lot-thats-published-is-junk/
  • Yong, Ed. "Neuroscience Cannae Do It Cap'n, It Doesn't Have the Power." National Geographic Phenomena. April 10, 2013. (Sept. 18, 2015) http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2013/04/10/neuroscience-cannae-do-it-capn-it-doesnt-have-the-power/
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Some studies report post-Mozart spatial gains, but findings are inconsistent.

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Content: 2022 SU General Election Full Supplement

Illustration by Valery Perez

Rats have more rhythm than you think

By Sheroog Kubur, November 30 2022

Musicians have long sung about the power of music — we’re either slaves to it, losing control or just can’t fight the feeling to get up and dance. Keeping rhythm has been thought to be an exclusively human trait until recently, when a study in Tokyo, Japan discovered that rats are able to keep rhythm as well.

“Rats displayed innate — that is, without any training or prior exposure to music — beat synchronization most distinctly within 120–140 BPM (beats per minute),” said University of Tokyo associate professor Hirokazu Takahashi.

Keeping rhythm is something that had long been considered only a human trait because of the complex motor functions that go into the movements. It involves the speed that the brain is able to respond to something. While there are videos of animals dancing along to songs, like popular videos of birds moving along to the rhythm, this is more likely a case of being trained to respond to the beat than having innate beat synchronization.

Beat synchronization refers to how well we are able to keep in time with a musical beat. The study was conducted at the University of Tokyo and connected 10 rats to wireless, miniature accelerometers to measure their head movements. A one-minute clip of Mozart’s Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major was played at four different tempos, ranging from 75 per cent to 400 per cent of the original song. Twenty humans also participated in the study for comparison.

The song was played at various tempos on the assumption that, because rats already operate at a faster pace in terms of heartbeat and other body functions, they may prefer faster tempos.

However, the results of the study found that rats, much like humans, prefer a tempo of 120-140 BPM. This preference was also observed in the human participants. Mozart’s composition fell within this range at roughly 132 BPM.

“Our results suggest that the optimal tempo for beat synchronization depends on the time constant in the brain,” said Takahashi.

The study also included other pop songs like “Born This Way” by Lady Gaga and “Another One Bites the Dust” by Queen. Beat synchronization in non-human mammals was previously thought to be reactive — akin to jumping to a sudden noise — instead of predictive like in humans. The study suggests that beat synchronicity in rats isn’t purely reactive because of the change in movements alongside the changes in tempos.

“To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on innate beat synchronization in animals that was not achieved through training or musical exposure,” said Takahashi.

This isn’t the first time researchers have looked into the dancing capabilities of animals. Previous research into beat synchronization focused primarily on primates. In 2014, a group of researchers at the University of North Carolina found out that bonobos, a species that shares 98.7 per cent of their DNA with humans, were able to match the beat of drumming scientists with their own drumming. A 2013 study found that chimpanzees also display the ability to synchronize their movements with a beat as well. Researchers at the University of California found that the California sea lion is also able to bob its head along to a rhythm. In October of this year, a team discovered that harbour seals are also able to keep track of different rhythms.

The Tokyo research team plans on looking further into the effects of music and harmony on the human brain. Takahashi has expressed interest in music as it leads to a happier life and mechanisms that create cultural centres in the brain such as art and music.

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The Gauntlet

Overall, Mozart-related spatial boosts and the K.448 “effect” lack robustness, often reflecting arousal and mood.

Musical training correlates with visual working memory and general cognition, including spatial skills.

Early music education more clearly strengthens neural bases for spatial reasoning than passive listening.

Title:

Content: UAE: Schools incorporating more and more Indian classical performing arts as a compulsory subject

Nurturing students to become complete performing artistes is an organisation called Malhaar – a KHDA approved Indian performing arts centre

Image for representative purposes only
by

Nandini Sircar

Published: Wed 11 Jan 2023, 6:00 AM

Indian curriculum schools like GEMS Modern Academy, GEMS Legacy School, GEMS Millennium School Sharjah and Amity School Sharjah have already embedded performing arts in their curriculum.

Head teachers of these schools note that these different art forms enable pupils to identify their emotional and physical needs, which in turn helps in personality development.

Nurturing students to become complete performing artistes is an organisation called Malhaar – a KHDA approved Indian performing arts centre.

Jogiraj Sikidar, Founder and Director of Malhaar Centre for Performing Arts, says, “in 2017, we approached Gems Modern Academy, Dubai to provide training on Indian classical music and dance to students, and we became part of after-school activities (ASAs). These after school activities are an extension of hobby classes. We also found that there is a lack of continuity in ASAs, as students keep experimenting with different types of activities every other term.”

Shedding light on the challenges, Sikidar adds, “Indian classical music or dance is a practicing art, and it requires discipline, commitment and Reyaaz (practice). We realised that if, and only if, we can introduce it as a compulsory subject in schools, will students take it seriously and [fully receive] the benefits of learning them. Our idea was simple: catch them young. We thought to start this programme at the primary school level as younger students will have more time to devote to learning these traditional skills.

“To encourage students to pursue the Indian classical arts further, in December 2022, we organised an inter-school competition titled ‘Sur Taal Sangam - Season 1’, focusing only on Indian classical music and dance. We were overwhelmed by the response the debut season of the competition [received]. There were 136 entries across 24 schools from all over the country. Our panel of judges chose 54 finalists and 15 winners from across the art forms and categories.”

The teaching module is called ‘Listen, Learn and Perform’, and it enables a holistic view of the Indian Performing Arts. Teaching modules are customised for the KG and Primary sections. In the KG section, students follow the foundation course of the Indian classical dance and Hindustani classical vocal music.

In primary school (grade 1-5), students can select one of the classical art forms such as Hindustani classical vocal, Kathak, Bharatanatyam, Violin or Tabla. Faculty members provide expert advice regarding which art form would be best for each child, based on their aptitude and inclination.”

Each school is given a dedicated Guru, with dance and music heads of faculty personally supervising the training plan and progress.

Nargish Khambatta, Principal GEMS Modern Academy and Vice President, Education GEMS Education, explained, “There are two reasons as to why we decided to have the Indian performing arts in primary schools as a compulsory subject. First [is] the sheer discipline that it sets among the students. For them, the understanding of the rhythm and the way they respond to rules [is so important]; the whole “Guru culture” is fast disappearing.

So we felt that it's important for children to touch base with their roots, and for them to pursue something [with] all sincerity and over a [consistent] period of time to achieve success. The accomplishment that that gives is fantastic. This has also helped [with] instilling the right values in children.”

“The feedback has been overwhelming. There was an independence day programme [where] we had the entire gamut, and parents were standing and listening in awe. That’s when we decided to move from a sign-up programme to a more actual in-school part of the curriculum kind of a programme. I am happy about it,” she added.

Research demonstrates that when music is heard from ages 0-6, there is a developmental window of learning how to “unscramble” or “organise” the sound.

Music lessons in childhood impacts the brain positively. Researchers at the University of Munster in Germany found that “the younger the musicians were when they started musical training, the bigger this area of the brain appears to be.” Music lessons appear to strengthen the links between brain neurons and build new neural bridges needed for good spatial reasoning.

Asha Alexander, Principal and CEO Gems Legacy School, Dubai, says, “It has been a dream of mine for a long time that our students learn Indian classical forms. So, when we introduced Malhaar, we found that there was a great positive reaction in parents. They were delighted with the outcomes.”

Archana Sagar, Principal, Amity Private School, Sharjah says, “More than anything else, it’s so varied and vibrant. There is such a large variety on offer that it can cater to the needs and wants of everyone. It’s very important to hit the right chord with children without imposing things on them. So, through this learning, children’s potential is first explored, and then according to their potential, children are trained.”

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Slow-tempo music can impair cognition; faster tempo does not reliably speed processing, so select tempos carefully near demanding tasks.

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Content: SAFETYLIT WEEKLY UPDATE

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Journal Article

Citation

Lin HM, Kuo SH, Mai TP. Front. Psychol. 2023; 14: e998460.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2023, Frontiers Research Foundation)

DOI

10.3389/fpsyg.2023.998460

PMID

36910785

PMCID

PMC9998681

Abstract

The effects of musical tempo on cognitive processing speed were investigated, and the mediating effect of arousal was empirically tested. In an experiment, participants were divided into fast tempo, slow tempo, and no-music groups and completed three cognitive processing speed tests measuring motor speed, visuospatial processing speed, and linguistic processing speed. The results indicated a significant effect of musical tempo on processing speed and task performance in all three tasks. The slow-tempo group exhibited slower processing speed and worse performance than the no-music group in all three tasks. The fast tempo group displayed no significant difference in processing speed or performance compared with the no-music group. In the linguistic processing task, those who listened to slow-tempo music had better accuracy than those in the other conditions. Arousal did not mediate the relationship between musical tempo and cognitive processing speed.

Language: en

Keywords

arousal; accuracy; cognitive processing speed; musical tempo; task performance

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Classical music, including Mozart, can lower heart rate, relieve tension, and improve psycho-emotional state; use instrumental background during breaks to reset mood.

Title:

Content: Russian Federation
Moscow
+ 23 °
HEALTH19 August 2023 10: 51
Technomusic increases the effectiveness of training and even helps to win competitions
Scientists have found that music during sports affects performance, improves response to aerobic exercise and excites the nervous system
Language can improve athletic performance
Photo by Shutterstock
Why do you think the Olympic competitions are held in silence (not counting the support of the fans)?
And all because music can really improve athletic performance.
The effect of music on the effectiveness of sports training has been studied for a long time, in the last 15 years there has been a cascade of research that has proven that music contributes to a range of psychological and psychophysical benefits that can contribute to improved athletic performance.
No wonder athletes prefer to train under their favorite tracks.
Under the music, the loads are perceived less intense, and the weights seem less heavy.
Music distracts people from pain and fatigue, improves mood, increases endurance.
Listening to music, people run farther, cycle longer, and swim faster than normal, often without realizing it.
This was written about ten years ago.
Kostas Karageorgis, one of the world ’ s leading experts on the psychology of music for exercise, wrote that music can be seen as “a type of legal performance-enhancing drug. ”
This is confirmed by another study by Norwegian scientists.
Especially for this study, students of the University of Music wrote a track (in the style of electronic or techno music), which was played at a normal pace, and then at a fast pace.
The experiment was conducted on young soldiers: 23 men and 17 women trained either in complete silence or to a completely new electronic music for them.
This study confirmed the assumptions of scientists: those who listened to music (no matter at a fast pace or normal), were more “charged ”, ready for competition, showed better results on the rowing simulator.
That is, listening to music before the competition can really improve the results.
The style of "techno" was also studied by researchers from the Australian National Institute in Canberra.
In their opinion, “techno ” improved memory, significantly increased the speed of thinking, helped to build associations faster and easier to endure heavy physical exertion.
And this music stimulates the release of dopamine in the brain, as if you have just eaten sweet and fatty foods.
Scientists believe that this helps reduce anxiety.
No, we are not asking you to change your musical preferences!
After all, every genre has its pluses.
CLASSIC REMOVES VOLTAGE, IMPROVES HEART
German surgeon, part-time organist, Professor of Ruhr University Hans Joachim Trappé proved that classics, in particular the music of Bach and Mozart, can reduce the heart rate and improve the psycho-emotional background.
He believes that in addition to conventional therapy, music can significantly accelerate the rehabilitation of people after surgery.
And the classic relieves tension after hard mental work.
It even lowers blood pressure.
It was tested at the University of California.
Also, scientists have proved that the classics affect the cerebral cortex and stimulate the thought process, imagination.
Classical music before bedtime is especially useful, according to researchers from Semmelweis University in Budapest proved.
It will make the deep phase of sleep longer, even able to get rid of insomnia!
Sleep will become deeper if in the music track the sound of rain, sea or just white noise is applied to the composition.
HEAVY ROCK HELPS TO REDUCE STRESS
An inhuman experiment was conducted at the Australian University of Queensland: first, people were annoyed by asking them stupid or uncomfortable questions, and then half of the annoyed people were closed in complete silence, and the second half was given punk rock or metal for 10 minutes.
And they found that those who listened to aggressive metal, the level of hostility and stress was almost half as low as those who sat in complete silence and digested thoughts.
Those who listened to music were scanned for an MRI.
And here's what's interesting: in women, rock activates the parts of the brain responsible for controlling emotions, and in men it creates the illusion of an outburst of aggression.
Psychologists have concluded that listening to this genre is the most environmentally friendly way to quickly relieve stress.
POP MUSIC ACTIVISES MEMORY
In pop music, there is always a clear rhythm, it kind of introduces the brain into a state of “unconscious memorization ”.
Why do you think, even after 20 years, you remember the pop songs of the groups “Na-na ”,“ Brilliant ” and so on?
And children ’ s songs and at all firmly settled in the head (and now amicably: “Together fun to walk across the expanses! ”)
But here is another amazing effect: if you listen to a light pop for an hour, you activate the effect of “random memorization ”, that is, you can quickly learn new information – from foreign words to poems or even formulas in physics.
It is believed that a break in work to listen to light music helps not to lose concentration for a long time.
And about the benefits of relaxation music for relaxation and tranquility and all written volumes.
So listen to the music and you will be happy, calm and work success!

Live music captures infants’ attention and supports early cognitive development.

Title:

Content: TORONTO, July 18 — A number of scientific studies have demonstrated the benefits of live music for our mental and physical health. But can babies benefit too? A Canadian study set out to investigate.

Researchers at the University of Toronto Scarborough (UTSC) conducted an experiment with 120 infants aged between 6 and 14 months. They divided them into two groups: the first attended an opera in a concert hall that doubles as a research center at McMaster University, while the second watched a recording of the same performance. The scientists observed the babies’ reactions using heart monitors and tablets installed on the backs of concert hall seats.

These devices enabled them to observe that the infants seemed much more interested in the live performance than in its recording. As the opera unfolded before their eyes over a period of 12 minutes, their attention was retained for 72 per cent of the time, compared with 54 per cent for the video recording. What’s more, the babies stayed focused longer when watching the live opera than when watching the recorded version.

This indicates that they were significantly more engaged when watching live music, according to Laura Cirelli, Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at UTSC and co-author of the study, published in the journal Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts. “Even little babies who may or may not have experienced music in a community context before are already engaging more when it’s delivered this way,” Cirelli says. “That’s one question we have as music cognition researchers: What is it about the live experience that’s worth it? Why would people go if there’s not something fundamental about that live music experience that’s above and beyond listening to music by yourself?” the researcher said in a statement.

A beneficial collective experience

If live music seems to fascinate babies, this doesn’t mean that opera and other concert recordings don’t interest them. They just stimulate them in a different way. Attending a musical performance is a collective experience during which the audience becomes a “rhythmic mass,” in the words of the writer and essayist Elias Canetti. As such, all those present all are moving in phase with the beat of the music and become one.

These moments of togetherness that can be experienced at any age. In fact, the UTSC scientists noted that the babies had similar reactions to certain operatic passages: they can be very calm and silent, before all becoming animated when they hear a change of key or a note that attracts their attention. “Their heart rates were speeding up and slowing down in a similar fashion to other babies watching the show,” explains Laura Cirelli.

This study shows just how effective music can be as a cognitive stimulant for young children. Previous research, published in 2019 in the journal PNAS, showed that listening to musical melodies can improve brain maturation in premature babies. All the more reason for parents to encourage their children to listen to music from an early age. — ETX Studio

Embedding music in math lessons improved performance, with 73% of learners raising scores; prioritize active music–math engagement for stronger gains.

Title:

Content: Saturday, July 1, 2023
The main theme of our lives is music.
Is it the solution to be stronger in mathematics?
The music...
Is it the solution to be stronger in mathematics?
“Encouraging math and music teachers to plan to present their lessons together can help reduce students ’ anxiety about math. ”
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Studies have shown that listening to music helps children improve their math scores, especially when music is an integral part of their lessons.
What if music makes math more fun?
This was suggested by researchers from the University of Antalya (Turkey) in a study, in which researchers analyzed academic databases, a research on the link between music and math scores, published between 1975 and 2022, and tracked participants from children ’ s homes to the university.
Three types of musical interventions were included in the meta-analysis: standard musical interventions (typical music lessons, where children sing, listen to and compose music), musical interventions (lessons where children learn to play an instrument, either individually or in a group) and integrated interventions in mathematics and music, where music is integrated into math lessons.
Before and after participating in these interventions, students took math tests, and their results were compared to those of young people who did not participate in the course.
According to work published in the journal Educational Studies, the use of music, either in separate lessons or as part of math classes, has been associated with greater improvement in math over time.
Moreover, classes that combine math and music have the most impact.
About 73% of students who received integrated interventions performed significantly better than those who did not receive the same interventions.
69% of students who learned to play an instrument and 58% of students who took regular music lessons improved more than students who did not participate in any musical intervention.
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The authors added that music makes arithmetic easier when learning compared to other types of math, and has a greater impact on younger students and those learning basic math concepts.
Common points between mathematics and music
According to Ayça Akın, author of the study, “Mathematics and music have many commonalities, such as the use of symbols and symmetry.
Both subjects also require abstract thinking and quantitative thinking.
Computation especially allows people to learn it through music, because basic concepts, such as fractions and proportions, are also essential materials for music. ”
“Encouraging math and music teachers to plan to deliver their lessons together can help reduce students ’ anxiety about math, while improving outcomes. ”
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LATEST

Piano lessons and music training can enhance information processing, reduce anxiety and stress, and support academics.

Title:

Content: Scientists from the University of Bath have discovered the effect of playing the piano on cognitive abilities.
It turned out that classes on this musical instrument contribute to improving the processing of information by the brain and raise mood.
The findings of the work are reported in the journal Scientific Reports, reports Day.Az with reference to Gazeta.ru.
During the study, the researchers followed 31 adult participants for 11 weeks, who were divided into two groups: the first was engaged in music, and the second only listened to it.
The subjects in the first group were taught to play the piano for only one hour a week, and previously they had no musical experience.
Volunteers from the second group at this time listened to music or used it for homework.
The authors noticed that a few weeks after the start of the experiment, people ’ s ability to process multisensory information (visual and audio) improved significantly.
In practice, this is useful for almost any type of activity, from driving a car to finding someone in a crowd or watching TV.
Thanks to music education, audiovisual processing of information has become more accurate in performing other tasks.
Those who received piano lessons performed better in appropriate trials, in which they were asked to determine whether sound and visual "events" occurred simultaneously.
In addition, such participants had reduced manifestations of depression, anxiety and stress.
Experts believe that music classes can be useful for people with mental disorders, so in the future they plan to conduct more research on this topic.

Thirty minutes of daily music listening for six months improved working memory by 6% in 132 adults aged 62–78.

Title:

Content: Thursday 27-04-2023
Study: Playing and hearing music slows down brain aging
A new study has found that playing and listening to music helps slow the deterioration of cognitive function in older adults, as music increased gray matter in the brain and raised its flexibility, but did not stop atrophy due to aging.
The study, conducted at the University of Geneva, lasted six months, playing music five days a week for 30 minutes.
The results were published by Medical News Today.
The study showed a 6% improvement in the working memory of participants in cognitive tests.
The researchers attributed this to an increase in the cerebellum, the region associated with working memory.
A total of 132 participants aged 62 to 78 participated in the experiment.
None of them had a similar rate of musical training in their lives.
They were all in good physical and mental health and did not rely on hearing aids.
They underwent MRI brain scans and measured the level of memory before and after the experiment.
The study found that multimedia activities, including listening to music, provide the necessary exercises for multiple brain regions to increase flexibility that reorganize the connections and pathways of neurons in the brain.
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Therapeutic findings are mixed, including reports of reduced epileptic activity and newborn pain relief with Mozart.

Title:

Content: Mozart music reduces epileptic seizure activity
Scientists have found that thanks to the music of Mozart in people with epilepsy, the epileptic activity of the brain decreases.
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However, analyses find no reliable evidence that Mozart alleviates epilepsy symptoms.

Full-term infants hearing Mozart lullabies during heel sticks had lower pain scores, but effects lasted only three minutes.

Title:

Content: Study: Playing Mozart lullabies may ease pain in newborn blood tests
A randomized double-blind clinical trial involving 100 infants showed that playing Mozart lullabies may help reduce pain in newborns undergoing foot and blood tests, according to a medical research paper published in the journal Pediatrics, a professional academic journal of Springer Nature.
Lead author and corresponding author Saminathan Anbalagan of the Lincoln Center for Medical Mental Health in the United States, in collaboration with colleagues, measured the pain levels of newborns who received a heel blood test in New York City between April 2019 and February 2020 as part of routine screening for conditions such as jaundice and phenylketonuria.
Babies in the study were born at an average of 2 days, 39 weeks of gestation, 53% were male and 61% Hispanic.
As part of standard care, all babies were given 0.5 ml of sugar water 2 minutes before the heel blood was taken.
A researcher wearing noise-cancelling headphones assessed the pain levels of infants before, during and after heel blood collection. The pain levels were assessed based on the infant ’ s facial expressions, crying, breathing patterns, body movements and alertness.
Fifty-four of the 100 babies listened to Mozart lullabies for 20 minutes before and during the blood collection, followed by five minutes after the blood collection, while the other babies did not listen to any music.
The authors also considered the potential effects of other sensory inputs on pain levels, so the blood was always taken in a quiet, dimly lit, and temperature-appropriate room, and no pacifiers or physical soothing was given to the baby.
In this study, the authors observed that the two groups of infants had similar pain levels before blood collection, with a median pain score of 0 (up to 7).
But during and after blood sampling, the median pain in babies who listened to Mozart lullabies was significantly lower than in babies who did not listen to music.
After listening to the lullaby, the pain score was 4 points, the pain score was 0 points after one minute of blood sampling, and the pain score was 0 points after two minutes of blood sampling, while the pain score of infants who did not listen to music was 7 points, and the pain score was 5.5 points after one minute of blood sampling, and 2 points after two minutes.
They did not observe a significant difference in pain scores between the two groups of infants three minutes after the end of the blood collection.
The authors conclude that the findings suggest that playing recorded music may be an effective way to relieve pain in newborns undergoing minor surgery.
They believe that future studies could investigate whether recordings of parents' voices can also reduce pain in newborns during minor surgery, and explore the effect of physical soothing by caregivers other than music on pain levels.
I'm reading.

Instrumental music and familiar tunes are less disruptive to verbal tasks and can aid focus.

Title:

Content: news

Here's the No. 1 Type of Music for Focus and Concentration, Says Harvard Brain Expert—and It's Not Classical

Music isn't just for entertainment. Having it on in the background can help you focus better, even if you struggle with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

But with music and people being so diverse, how do you decide which is best for you? Researchers have found that when it comes to boosting brainpower, there is no one-fits-all genre.

It entirely depends on the individual and what they respond to. I have many favorites — hip-hop, rap, pop, country, folk, classical, opera. So it's not about genre for me.

As a musician and Harvard neuroscientist, I've found that "familiar music," or songs that you enjoy and know best, are the most effective for maximizing concentration.

Fine-tuning my playlist for optimal focus

A 2018 study found that familiar music activates many of the brain regions responsible for movement, so the focus is "full-bodied."

This means that I can sing along and feel a learned rhythm in my body. Because I've heard the song before, I have the pleasure of anticipating what's next.

When I need to focus, familiar music helps me both relieve stress and connect with the emotions I need in order to be fully present.

For example:

One thing I pay attention to is whether I'm "over" the music. Several studies have shown that your listening pleasure follows a U-shaped curve. First it increases, but after a while, once your brain gets used to it, the returns are diminishing.

Another group of researchers found that the type of music that most positively influences learning is "soft-fast," songs like Jason Mraz's "I'm Yours" or "Love on Top" by Beyoncé.

"Loud-fast," "soft-slow" and "loud-slow" music tended to hinder learning. Instrumental music can also be less disruptive than music with lyrics.

How familiar music affects your brain

There are many ways that music can impact the brain's ability to focus. One mechanism involves decreasing stress and cortisol, which allows the brain's attention center to operate without interruption.

In the brain, the focus centers are directly connected to the regions that process emotion, so any music that makes you more emotionally volatile could disrupt your concentration.

On the flip side, when you suppress your feelings, negative emotions just linger in your brain. And try as you might, you'll lose the capacity to focus. So, if music helps you to connect with your emotions, it can help you think more clearly, too.

Srini Pillay, M.D., is a Harvard psychiatrist and brain researcher, chief medical officer and co-founder of Reulay, CEO of NeuroBusiness Group, and the author of "Tinker Dabble Doodle Try: Unlock the Power of the Unfocused Mind." Follow him on Twitter @srinipillay and on Instagram @drsrinipillay.

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