How to Use Music to Boost Motivation, Mood & Improve Learning

**Andrew D. Huberman** (0:00)
Welcome to the Huberman Lab podcast, where we discuss science and science-based tools for everyday life.
I'm Andrew Huberman, and I'm a professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology at Stanford School of Medicine. Today, we are discussing music and your brain. However, this episode could have just as easily been entitled, music is your brain, or your brain is music. And that's because music, believe it or not, is a neurological phenomenon. Most of us think of music as something that happens outside of us, the sounds we hear, the lyrics we hear, their meaning, how they anchor us to pieces of our history, both emotional or social. It turns out that when we listen to music, it activates nearly every piece of our brain. Moreover, when we listen to music, it activates our brain in ways that our brain itself, and indeed our body as well, help to create that music at the level of so-called neural ensembles, that is the firing of neurons. In other words, when we listen to music, our brain and our body become part of the instrument that contributes to our perception of that music. Today, I'm going to make clear how all of that happens. We will also discuss how music can be leveraged towards shifting our brain states and our bodily states. For instance, what sorts of music to listen to in order to make ourselves happy? Yes, studies have been done on that. As well as how long to listen to music in order to shift our mood or our overall bodily state, including how to process feelings of sadness. Many of you are probably familiar with particular songs that anchor us to particular times in our history or people in our history. And there's an age old question really as to whether or not listening to sad music can help us process our feelings of sadness or whether or not they drive us further down the spiral of sadness and despair. And indeed studies have explored this as well. So today I will explain how music indeed how different types of music activate different neural circuits in your brain to create different brain and bodily states, how we can leverage music toward things like emotional processing, shifting our emotions, as well as to enhance learning and memory. And we will also talk about the use of music to enhance brain plasticity, that is your brain's ability to change in response to experience, not just in response to that music, but rather using music as a tool to expand our capacity for neuroplasticity, giving us the ability to learn far more in other contexts and areas of life. I confess that in researching this episode, I found myself continually delighted as to, first of all, how impressive the science of the study of music in the brain is. And secondly, how fundamental music is to all of our lives. And this is true whether or not you're somebody who listens to music often, or you're somebody that really prefers silence. indeed, we will talk about whether or not it's better to listen to music or remain in silence when you perform certain kinds of work. It turns out that there's a very clear answer to that. If you want a little bit of a hint, it is best to listen to music in between bouts of work or during brief rest periods, as opposed to listening to music while you work. And for those of you that listen to music while you work and thoroughly enjoy listening to music while you work, we will also discuss what that means about your brain in particular because it's likely that it got wired up that way at a particular phase of development. And each and all of you can learn today how to best leverage music toward productivity, but perhaps equally important how to leverage music for enrichment and enjoyment of life. I'm pleased to announce that we will be hosting three live events in Australia. All three events will cover science and science related tools for mental health, physical health and performance. There will also be a live question and answer session. The first live event will take place on February 10th in Melbourne at the Plenary Theatre. The second live event will take place on February 17th in Sydney at the Sydney Opera House. And the third event will take place on February 23rd in Brisbane at the Great Hall. To access tickets to any of these events, simply go to hubermanlab.com/tour and use the code Huberman. I hope to see you there. And last but certainly not least, thank you for your interest in science. Before we begin, I'd like to emphasize that this podcast is separate from my teaching and research roles at Stanford. It is however, part of my desire and effort to bring zero cost to consumer information about science and science related tools to the general public. In keeping with that theme, I'd like to thank the sponsors of today's podcast. Our first sponsor is 8 Sleep. 8 Sleep makes smart mattress covers with cooling, heating and sleep tracking capacity. I've spoken many times before on this podcast about the fact that sleep, that is getting enough quality sleep each night, is the foundation of mental health, physical health and performance. One of the key things to getting a great night's sleep is to make sure that your body temperature drops by about one to three degrees at the beginning of the night. indeed, that is how your body falls and stays deeply asleep. As well, in order to wake up in the morning feeling refreshed, your bodily temperature needs to increase by about one to three degrees. 8 Sleep mattress covers make it extremely easy to control the temperature of your sleeping environment, allowing you to fall and stay deeply asleep throughout the night and to wake up feeling refreshed. 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