Music is something that almost everyone is involved in in some way. There is hardly anyone who doesn't listen to music on a daily basis because it is all around us and it we listen to it to reflect our mood, to pump us up or slow down, to express our feelings, etc. What is interesting is I found an article about musical therapy (which I had not realized was actually something out there). Musical therapy is being used with patients that have Alzheimer's, which does not reverse the disease, but it helps to ease the patients. Alzheimer's patients have been found to respond to music when they respond to nothing else, according to Suzanne Hanser, head of musical therapy at Berklee College of Music in Boston. Music not only helps to ease the patients but it is a way we build memories. As many of you can probably relate, I know there are dozens of songs that remind me of a specific memory, as well as some songs that I cannot listen to because of those memories.
Music is a powerful tool that can help us to communicate with others and build relationships. It can help us through difficult times because we can relate to the lyrics and we don't feel as alone because someone else has been in our shoes. Having a common interest in music can build relationships and make bonds stronger between people. One mother, Tamera Norris, wrote about her autistic son's experience with music. At age 16, Tamera's son William started in a musical therapy program and as well as learning how to play instruments, he learned how to interact with others in a non-threatening environment. He learned leadership, socially accepted concepts, how to express himself, and how to communicate with others. While William had always been socially out of the mix, music led him into a world where he felt safe and extended his social circle. The mother is extremely grateful for how music has helped him, and music for anyone can do that as well.
Personally, my brother and I have not been super close from our teenage years and up, but we have found similar interests in music that have helped to bring us closer. It first started with Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young. We were able to come together through our liking of them, not only talking with each other more about songs, but also spending time together going to concerts and sharing memories. CSNY will always remind me of my brother and it was a good way for us to come together when we didn't have much else to grasp on to.
Other than just building a relationship, music has served many purposes in my life. Music helps to express my feelings at a time when I feel like I don't know how. It lets me feel connected to someone else who has shared a similar experience to the one I did and it helps to know that I'm not the only one. Music helps to relieve my stress when I need to let go and be a little crazy. It gets me dancing and that in turn makes me happy. Having a little help from music can inspire me to do something or give me the energy I need to accomplish something.
Music is therapy for those who compose it and also for those who just listen because when you can relate to a song so well it almost feels like that song was written for you. Music is there when you need to grieve, when you need to be happy, on a sunny day, and on a cloudy day. I have never had music disappoint me because there is such variety that you can get whatever you need, and there is always more coming out.
It doesn't seem like music could make such a big influence on our lives but it is something we can turn to in times of need. Music helps soothe us and clear our head as well as inspire us to be creative. Different music can effect individuals differently, but music as a whole can be used as a way to keep us healthy. There have also been studies done about music and its effect on child birth, relaxing the baby and the mother. For more information on music therapy you can look at the extensive information on musictherapy.org which is the American Music Therapy Association's website.
Now wouldn't that just be amazing if they found a way to make the stages of Alzheimer's slow down through the process of memory through music? Since Alzheimer's is partly when neurons break connections with other neurons, such as in the hippocampus which causes memory-loss, if there was a way to strengthen these connections instead of allowing them to break apart it could possibly slow the process down. Now I don't know that much about Alzheimer's, but that would be truly fascinating if you could find a way to build the connections that are starting to break apart before it becomes too late. Maybe in the future we could will start to see progress in this field. And if music therapy can help with memory, it might be an even greater contribution than just soothing the patients. Who knows..
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Interaction
To go along with my previous post, something else caught my attention while in class. Not only focusing your attention on a certain task or subject while help to increase ability to remember it, but also becoming more engaged with the material at hand will strengthen the memory. What I mean by this is writing down additional information that makes for a two-way street. You encode the information, retrieve it, and send it back out, in your own interpretation. Or, asking questions to show that you are taking in the information but you need a little clarification to solidify the information.
My English teachers always used to say to write in the margins of books. It didn't have to be something extremely deep, but it would engage you in the reading so that you could remember and understand easier. Even writing down something it reminds you of is good because you are associating new information with old information. Interacting with what you read or hear will help the message sink in so that you can remember it for later. Sensory memory is very brief and is prior to conscious awareness, but working memory requires repetition and mental awareness in order to become long-term memory. By interacting with the information, you are already repeating the encoding of the message which increases the chances of you remembering it later.
Where my teacher said today that people say cramming before a test is bad. Well, that is both true and false depending on the way you look at it. If you are looking to keep the information in storage to remember it later, cramming is not a good idea because it is only fresh on the mind. So cramming can be good right before a test because that information is easily accessible right away, but will be forgotten easily. Repetition of the information over a longer period of time is the key way to ensure that it is stored in your long-term memory. Using simple techniques such as being involved during class can lead to better memory right from the beginning, instead of hardly taking in what the teacher is saying, and only cramming the night before the test. The first might seem more tedious and time-consuming, but in the long run it will be more beneficial to you and your brain. Anyway for me, cramming will make me more anxious about the upcoming test and will decrease my chances of doing well in that respect, so I'm learning to become more "friendly" to open interaction with my studying.
My English teachers always used to say to write in the margins of books. It didn't have to be something extremely deep, but it would engage you in the reading so that you could remember and understand easier. Even writing down something it reminds you of is good because you are associating new information with old information. Interacting with what you read or hear will help the message sink in so that you can remember it for later. Sensory memory is very brief and is prior to conscious awareness, but working memory requires repetition and mental awareness in order to become long-term memory. By interacting with the information, you are already repeating the encoding of the message which increases the chances of you remembering it later.
Where my teacher said today that people say cramming before a test is bad. Well, that is both true and false depending on the way you look at it. If you are looking to keep the information in storage to remember it later, cramming is not a good idea because it is only fresh on the mind. So cramming can be good right before a test because that information is easily accessible right away, but will be forgotten easily. Repetition of the information over a longer period of time is the key way to ensure that it is stored in your long-term memory. Using simple techniques such as being involved during class can lead to better memory right from the beginning, instead of hardly taking in what the teacher is saying, and only cramming the night before the test. The first might seem more tedious and time-consuming, but in the long run it will be more beneficial to you and your brain. Anyway for me, cramming will make me more anxious about the upcoming test and will decrease my chances of doing well in that respect, so I'm learning to become more "friendly" to open interaction with my studying.
Monday, September 26, 2011
Absorbing new information
One thing that most people find perplexing is the ability of children to absorb so much new information, but as you get older you find it more difficult to take in new situations or new information, or to work it into your permanent memory. People wonder why it's so easy for children to grasp onto a foreign language, while it becomes increasingly harder for adults to speak it fluently. Why are kids so special in that they can absorb this information easier?
As I have read in The Brain that Changes Itself (Normal Doige, M.D.), brain-derived neurotrophic factors, BDNF, play a crucial role in plastic change and reinforcing it so that memories are stored. BDNF if released when we are in a certain activity that requires our neurons to fire together (neurons that fire together wire together...) This makes the connection stronger between the firing neurons and helps them to fire together in the future. "BDNF also promotes the growth of the thin fatty coat around every neuron that speeds up the transmission of electrical signals," (80). They key part of BDNF is that it turns on the nucleus basalis, which is the part of our brain that allows us to focus our attention on a certain thing or experience. Focusing our attention also helps us to remember the information better. During the critical period when we are younger, there is much room for growth because almost every experience is a new experience that information is stored upon. At some point, however, the brain needs to some stability and BDNF helps to close down the critical period when it is done helping to create such connections.
In the critical period we don't know what information is going to be important so we take as much of it as we can in. Once we continue to grow, we learn to decide what is important to let in and what is not, so it becomes harder for us to immediately see something or learn something and remember it because we already have the connections and this critical period for expansion is closed. One thing I can see for sure is that it really is true that one you focus your attention on something, your ability to remember that information increases immensely. I have recently switched my major to cognitive psychology, and while I did enjoy going to school before, I now feel a sense of such excitement to learn about these new concepts that I find I'm more attentive in class and taking in more information as well. I have always found it not in my strong suit to be good at memorizing, but lately in my biology and psychology classes, I have found myself remembering more information that I wouldn't have been able to before. I had been afraid of the expanse systems of learning parts of the body because there is so much to learn and I didn't feel capable to do that. Every day I go into class and I focus all of my attention on that subject matter and I walk away with more information than I came in with.
For me, since I have since found a passion for the brain and its ability to change, it's like I'm a kid again because there is so much new information that I need to take in that is exciting to me, so my attention is focused and I am remembering more. If I went into a class that I had no interest in, it would make learning and remembering so much more difficult because the brain is not activated enough for the neurons to connect to one another and make lasting connections with one another. When you think about it, as we grow up we tend to do many more things on autopilot because we do the same things over and over again. Obviously we're not going to be open to learning new things because we get into a sort of rut. We have to open our mind and shift our attention to important things if we expect them to stick with us. We did have it easier as a child because this naturally occurs, but now it is not impossible, it just takes work. Learning and remembering was crucial as a child, so now we have to create that spark again for ourselves. It's not always easy, but the hard work will pay off.
As I have read in The Brain that Changes Itself (Normal Doige, M.D.), brain-derived neurotrophic factors, BDNF, play a crucial role in plastic change and reinforcing it so that memories are stored. BDNF if released when we are in a certain activity that requires our neurons to fire together (neurons that fire together wire together...) This makes the connection stronger between the firing neurons and helps them to fire together in the future. "BDNF also promotes the growth of the thin fatty coat around every neuron that speeds up the transmission of electrical signals," (80). They key part of BDNF is that it turns on the nucleus basalis, which is the part of our brain that allows us to focus our attention on a certain thing or experience. Focusing our attention also helps us to remember the information better. During the critical period when we are younger, there is much room for growth because almost every experience is a new experience that information is stored upon. At some point, however, the brain needs to some stability and BDNF helps to close down the critical period when it is done helping to create such connections.
In the critical period we don't know what information is going to be important so we take as much of it as we can in. Once we continue to grow, we learn to decide what is important to let in and what is not, so it becomes harder for us to immediately see something or learn something and remember it because we already have the connections and this critical period for expansion is closed. One thing I can see for sure is that it really is true that one you focus your attention on something, your ability to remember that information increases immensely. I have recently switched my major to cognitive psychology, and while I did enjoy going to school before, I now feel a sense of such excitement to learn about these new concepts that I find I'm more attentive in class and taking in more information as well. I have always found it not in my strong suit to be good at memorizing, but lately in my biology and psychology classes, I have found myself remembering more information that I wouldn't have been able to before. I had been afraid of the expanse systems of learning parts of the body because there is so much to learn and I didn't feel capable to do that. Every day I go into class and I focus all of my attention on that subject matter and I walk away with more information than I came in with.
For me, since I have since found a passion for the brain and its ability to change, it's like I'm a kid again because there is so much new information that I need to take in that is exciting to me, so my attention is focused and I am remembering more. If I went into a class that I had no interest in, it would make learning and remembering so much more difficult because the brain is not activated enough for the neurons to connect to one another and make lasting connections with one another. When you think about it, as we grow up we tend to do many more things on autopilot because we do the same things over and over again. Obviously we're not going to be open to learning new things because we get into a sort of rut. We have to open our mind and shift our attention to important things if we expect them to stick with us. We did have it easier as a child because this naturally occurs, but now it is not impossible, it just takes work. Learning and remembering was crucial as a child, so now we have to create that spark again for ourselves. It's not always easy, but the hard work will pay off.
New and Improved
So I know this used to be my blog on my life as a college student... Well it's changing. I'm going to be posting information about our brain and different research articles there are on neuroscience and its affects on me or people in general. It will be a tool to keep me learning, as well as others to learn and to involve in discussion if you wish. I think that the brain is a powerful tool we have that most people don't realize we can manipulate in some ways if we really want to change it. Connections are constantly being made and learning about these connections and pathways can help us understand ourselves better and help to encourage growth in our lives. For me, I constantly am driven to trying to understand myself more because then I feel less insecure with who I am by covering up stuff, but being open with myself so that I can learn to change habits or problems that I have that I would like to change. Even if you don't want to try changing anything, it's remarkable the new advancements they are making right now in this field, so any new knowledge doesn't hurt. Plus, your brain will be changing and making new connections every time you do.
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