Why there's no life without music | Laura Ferreri | TEDxMilano

What are the brain mechanisms underpinning the presence of music throughout our life, and how can it help our cognitive functions? From dopamine implications in musical pleasure, to the power of music in stimulating memory processes, this TEDx talk explores the sense of music in our life from a new, neuroscience-based perspective.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community.

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What would happen,

if you woke up tomorrow morning
in a world without music?

You would’ve lost something beautiful,

something that you like.

But would it be simply a case of
giving up something that you like,

like eating pizza on Saturday evening?

Or would you encounter
a much more profound change?

Music is everywhere,

it’s found in all cultures,

in every corner of the world,

because it’s what allows us
to connect with each other.

It’s a relational glue,

just think of what normally
happens at concerts,

and it’s the soundtrack
to our lives and events.

Music seems like something
we’ve always had inside us.

The strange object that you see behind me

is an archaeological find,
more precisely it’s a bone.

It’s the bone of a cave bear
dating back to about 55,000 years ago.

What does it have to do with music?

Some scholars have focused on this bone,
precisely on these holes;

and have tried to reconstruct it,

formulating a hypothesis that,
today is much more appealing.

In fact, it could be the oldest
musical instrument in history,

subsequently nicknamed
the "Neanderthal Flute".

It often happens, what we stumbled upon

in the first steps of human evolution

can also be found in the first steps
of our personal evolution,

as single individuals,
in the evolution of our lives.

Neuroscience studies show us
that we are natural born musical.

Our brain as newborns,

in the first hours of life,

manage to specifically respond to music,

musical structure, melody and rhythm,

to music’s different
emotional nuances.

Indeed, the presence of music in our lives

seems to deal precisely with our brain

and, in particular, with changes

that occur in the oldest circuits
at the evolutionary level,

the deepest ones,
even anatomically speaking.

A substance plays a key role here

which is crucial for the regulation
of our behaviour, every day.

This substance is dopamine.

Dopamine is a neurotransmitter
that we usually release

right in the oldest,
deepest areas of our brain

in response to stimuli
such as food or sex.

They are stimuli that attract us,
give us pleasure,

that motivate us, reward us

and are also somehow related
to our survival.

However, what we have recently discovered

is that dopamine is also released

in response to music.

So let's see how many of you,
at least once in life,

listening to a song, a piece of music,

have experienced this feeling here.

I’d say at least 90%.

These are chills, goosebumps

they’re our body’s physiological
or psychophysiological responses

that we can link to intense pleasure.

Part of my research

precisely focuses
on this kind of phenomena,

approaching them, however,
in a rather particular way.

In fact, with colleagues
based in Barcelona and Montreal,

we directly activated and deactivated
the mechanisms in the brain

that we thought could account
for these phenomena,

and in particular
the release of dopamine.

A pharmacological study allowed us

to increase and decrease -
temporarily, so don't worry -

the release of dopamine
in people's brains.

We did this while our attendes
were listening to music.

It could be their favourite music

or pop-rock music we had chosen,

music that is normally heard on the radio.

What we discovered

is that when dopamine increased
compared to when it decreased,

their pleasure responses also increased.

Namely, the participants told us
they'd rather hear a certain song

and they also had more
associated physiological responses:

shivers, goosebumps.

Additionally, when the dopamine increased,

what we call motivational answers
did also increase.

In this case, the participants
were willing to pay more

to obtain the song they were listening to.

Namely, they were willing
to give money to have that song,

that music in their life.

So the pleasure and motivation
linked to the release of dopamine

are key to the understaning
of the role of music in our life,

or at least why it’s in our life.

However, the fundamental question remains:

all of this cozy pleasure,

so intense that it affects
our lives positively,

is an end in itself?

Namely, what is the true
role of music in our lives?

To try to answer this,

I suggest to keep exploring
brain activations together,

and I ask you, as much as you can,

to try to imagine being here alone.

Put on your headphones, your earphones,

and start listening
to one of your favourite songs.

What will happen

is that your brain starts to switch on,

creating a veritable
cascade of activations

concerning areas that are activated
and regulate our emotions, our behaviour,

as well as the areas that are involved

in perception, movement,
language, and memory.

Music creates a veritable
neural symphony in our brain.

It activates and modulates it entirely.

In doing so, it’s able to modulate
the anatomy and its functionality.

So now we can take
a fundamental step forward.

Given that most
of these neural substrates,

most of these areas activated by music

are actually areas
that we activate every day

to perform many other activities -
hearing, reading, talking, walking -

then we can start thinking
about using music

to stimulate these other regions

and then these other daily functions.

That's what have done today
many psychology and neuroscience studies.

For example, studies on music's ability
to stimulate areas involved in movement,

and how this can be used
in cases of movement deficit,

such as Parkinson's disease.

Or studies focused

on the close relationship
between music and language:

music is a veritable universal language,

and we can use this relationship

to improve, for example,
dyslexic children’s reading skills.

Much research has been done

and, as often happens
in scientific research,

there is still much to do and support.

Today I would like to talk to you
about a portion of this research.

It’s something that
particularly interests me

but actually profoundly affects us all.

It’s the relationship that exists
between music and our memories.

But first, let that neural symphony
activate in your brain

thanks to the notes that Andrea will play.

[Music and memory]

(Music)

Music has a very strong -

(Applause)

Obviously this presentation
wouldn’t have the same value

without all of this.

I know it's an added value.

Music has a very strong evocative power.

A song has literally the power
to let us travel in time,

because thanks to a song
we can rediscover feelings,

experiences, people,

emotions we associate with that song.

Perhaps this is what happened to you now
with this version of "Bohemian Rhapsody".

Judging by the applause, I’d say so.

Because it’s undoubtedly familiar to you.

Others recognised the song.

Fans, immediately, from the first notes,

and others took a little longer.

Along with the recognition,

some remembered the associated lyrics

and others went beyond this

and were able to associate this song

with memories from their own lives.

We brought music's evocative power
into the laboratory,

aiming to understand
what its base mechanisms were

and, therefore, better understand
what was behind it.

We ran several studies:
on young people, elderly people,

where we asked them to retain information,
with or without music,

while monitoring in the meanwhile
their brain activities.

What we discovered

is that music can really help us
remember information better

and in doing so, while it helps
our memory processes,

it modulates our brains.

Modulating those areas
that we know are important

to store and retrieve information,

as well as areas that are involved
in the expression of our emotions

and, therefore, our pleasure.

Here we encounter
our pleasure responses again.

Here they aren’t an end in themselves:

they become relevant and fundamental.

Because we found out,
the better we are

to activate our pleasure, reward,
and motivation responses

in reaction to music,

the more chills we have,

the more these responses
can activate regions

that play an important role
in forming our memories.

And consequently, the benefits of music
on our memory will be greater.

Obviously, this has
very important implications,

especially if we consider
cases of memory deficits,

especially if we consider our society,

which is experiencing
an increase in ageing,

both normal and pathological.

During my research
I had the greatest opportunity

to see Alzheimer patients

who were completely
extinguished by the illness,

being able to recognise
a song from their past

and emerge from that apathy,
even just for a second.

Music has the power,
through these people’s emotions,

to bring back some personal memories,

that is, memories of their lives

that seemed lost until a moment before,
precisely because of the illness.

And in some cases,

music also manages to facilitate
the learning of new information.

This type of research lets us understand
a little more about how we operate,

how our brain works,

our most complex,
perhaps most fascinating organ.

I believe, these studies
also teach us something.

In this case, they teach us
that our emotional responses,

emotive, pleasure, those we deem

more instinctive, archaic,
shallow, irrational,

we can actually take them

and use them to modulate, improve,
and stimulate cognitive functions

that instead we deem high and complex,
such as learning and memory.

All neuroscience and music studies
move in the same direction,

stressing the importance
of music in our lives.

In our lives means in our society.

Not only in our homes, in our headphones:

but also in education,
when we take our first steps in society;

and in a clinical setting,

when instead we deals
with hardships on our journey.

Music is a powerful instrument,
but this power is non-invasive, cheap

and not only it can,
it must be accessible to all.

So let's fill our lives with music,

giving our brains the chance
to profoundly change, transform itself,

throughout our entire existence.

Let's give our brains
the chance to change,

which is fundamental
for our cognitive functioning.

Let's listen to music, let’s make music,

let's not miss out
on even a second of that pleasure,

of those shivers that it can give us.

Let’s release as much dopamine as we can.

But let's carefully choose
the music we listen to today,

because it could be the very music
that will reactivate us tomorrow.

Thank you.

(Applause)