Your Brain on Music: How Tunes Can Impact Your Mind

Music can impact your physical and mental health.

Learn how music can impact your physical and mental health, memory, emotions, thoughts, and beliefs. 

When you hear a song you love, it can scratch just the right kind of itch in the back of your brain. Whether it’s the Jurassic Park theme song from John Williams or the latest and greatest from Taylor Swift, the music we listen to has the power to pump up our creativity and jumpstart the cells in our brains.

In this article, Endovascular neurosurgeon Farah Fourcand, MD, explains how music impacts the brain and how it can actually help heal it as well.

“Music is a very primal thing,” says Dr. Fourcand. “By arousing or activating various parts of your brain, music can impact your physical and mental health, memory, emotions, thoughts, and beliefs. It can help improve your mood, reduce stress, and enhance your memory.”

Music impacts nearly every part of your brain, including:

·  Your limbic system, which contains your hypothalamus, amygdala, and hippocampus. When activated, this area of your brain helps regulate your emotional response to music.

·  Your cerebral cortex (or gray matter) houses your motor cortex, which, when activated, triggers your body to dance and move to the rhythm of music.

Cognitive Functions

Music activates parts of your brain that help:

·  Preserve and improve memory

·  Enhance creativity

·  Improve attention, focus, and concentration

·  Decrease reaction time

·  Improve spatial reasoning (the ability to visualize or imagine 2D and 3D objects mentally)

·   Promote brain development in children and adults

“Your hippocampus holds all of your memories, and your limbic system is responsible for emotion, pleasure, and reward,” explains Dr. Fourcand. “When these areas are activated, it gives you a sense of nostalgia.”

For example, if there’s a song that resonated with you as a teenager, and you hear it again 20 or 30 years later, your hippocampus and limbic system create a nostalgic memory. That’s why you experience that same rush of emotions you once had when you heard the song for the first time or during an important moment from your past.

Researchers have also discovered that rapid modulation — or quick changes in key and tone — within a single piece of music can help you stay focused and complete tasks more efficiently. That’s because music activates your frontal lobe and prefrontal cortex, which are responsible for judgment and self-control. So, background noise can be helpful for anyone who’s unmotivated or distracted, especially those living with ADHD.

“People with ADHD sometimes need external stimuli to be able to focus, and music can help them strike a balance by giving them just enough arousal,” further explains Dr. Fourcand.

“The potential downside is that something that’s overstimulating can just as easily negatively trigger them and cause their mind to wander, so people with ADHD will have to play with it and test out different kinds of music to see what works best to help them focus.”

Physical Benefits

Music also has many physical benefits. It can:

·  Decrease cortisol levels

·  Lower heart rate and blood pressure

·  Motivate your body to move

·  Create new neural connections and increase neuroplasticity 

The triggering of your motor cortex and muscle memory is what causes you to subconsciously tap your foot or move to the beat of the music. In fact, music is so effective in motivating your body to move that it can positively impact people who’ve had traumatic brain injuries.

“Sometimes, music and song activate so many parts of your brain that you can see a person with Alzheimer’s disease recite a song and remember the song perfectly,” she continues. “You can see someone with aphasia express themselves. It’s really beautiful.”

Emotional and Psychological Effects

Our emotional responses to music are triggered by the amygdala, which plays a crucial role in emotional regulation and the formation of emotional memories.

We all feel and express our emotions in different ways, so it’s no wonder some of us love to listen to sad songs and still find the same satisfaction as those who prefer listening to more upbeat music. It’s ultimately not about the content of the song itself, but the kind of hedonic motives (or arousal) music evokes in us.

“Everybody has their own collection of experiences and things they’re comfortable feeling and places they’re comfortable going,” illustrates Dr. Fourcand. “Some people thrive in chaos, and some people need a lot of positivity. Whatever you vibe with your mind will make these associations in your amygdala and your limbic system.”

As a result, music can:

·  Trigger emotional responses

·  Reduce stress and anxiety

·  Facilitate emotional processing

·  Help communicate difficult emotions

·  Regulate mood

SOURCE: Board Member Anita Chadwick / CommunityONE Newsletter, September 24, 2025