Caring Minds^2:
Teenage mental health Support
Episode 3: Emotions & Brain
Everyone experiences moments of being engulfed in negative emotions, whether sadness, confusion, or melancholy. But each individual also possesses methods for healing these negative emotions, whether sleeping, writing, or... listening to music! There's a type of music specifically designed to heal negative emotional states called music therapy.
The following article will explain its working principles from a scientific perspective.
I. Where do negative emotions come from?
- The generation of negative emotions in the brain
1. Amygdala
This is the central hub for processing emotions and memories. When sensing threat or danger, the amygdala activates, triggering emotional responses like anger, fear, or tension.
2. Prefrontal Cortex
This region can control and regulate emotional responses, as well as evaluate and make decisions.
3. Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex
This area is involved in emotional regulation and self-control.
4. Striatum
This area is involved in reward and habit formation, but negative emotions may arise when rewards are deprived.
5. Posterior Insula
This region analyzes stimuli from bodily sensations such as pain, stress, and temperature, while also eliciting emotional responses
The interactions and regulation between these regions may influence a person's emotional state and responses.
II. The Hazards of Negative Emotions
01.
Negative emotions can affect people's cognition. For example, individuals trapped in extreme fear often struggle to react to the situation rationally, leading to irrational decisions.
02.
Compared to positive or neutral emotions, the brain requires more resources to process negative emotions, resulting in slower reaction times.
03.
Prolonged exposure to negative emotions may lead to physiological problems. For instance, long-term anger may increase the likelihood of developing cardiovascular diseases.
III. How can music therapy help deal with negative emotions?
There is a great deal of research that proves that music therapy can be very healing for negative emotions. Getting in touch with music by listening, playing, participating, and creating it under the guidance of a professional can help people soothe their emotions and release stress.
In an experiment, patients were divided by the experimenter into two groups after undergoing an identical surgery: one group used usual care and the other group added music therapy. The experimenters rated the patients' level of negative emotions based on a questionnaire that they filled out. After ten days, the experimenters found that the group with music therapy had significantly lower levels of negative emotions than the usual care group, proving that music therapy can alleviate patients' negative emotions.[1]
Emotional Contagion: From the inherent characteristics of music, it encapsulates the emotions of the composer during creation, and listening to music is a powerful way to empathize with the author. Research has shown that "happy" music triggers the zygomaticus major muscle, causing a smile, while "sad" music activates the corrugator supercilia muscle, leading to furrowed brows.[2]
Musical rhythm, harmony, timbre, and volume play prominent roles in stimulating human emotions. Some researchers suggest that anticipating the correct next chord in music triggers dopamine activity in the dorsal striatum. Furthermore, music with stable rhythms can regulate the body's physiological rhythms (such as heart rate), thereby alleviating stress.[2]
During musical activities, the amygdala and the midbrain's ventral reward system in the brain are regulated, inducing positive emotions.[3]