Your Brain on Music

After school, you sit down to do homework. But first, you slip on headphones and turn on your favorite song. Does this describe you? Many people listen to music as they work. Some say it helps them focus. But what’s really happening in our brains when we press “play”?

You sit down to do homework after school. But you slip on headphones first. Then you turn on your favorite song. Does this sound like you? Many people listen to music as they work. Some say it helps them focus. But what’s really happening in our brains when we press “play”?

Manuel Gonzalez is a psychologist at Seton Hall University in New Jersey who studies how people behave while working. He wondered how music affects our ability to complete activities that involve reading and memory. Do different types of music affect us differently? Does music make some tasks harder than others? Gonzalez and a colleague designed a study to find out. 

Manuel Gonzalez is a psychologist. He works at Seton Hall University in New Jersey. Gonzalez studies how people behave while working. He wondered about music. Does it affect activities that involve reading and memory? Do different types of music affect us differently? Does music make some tasks harder than others? Gonzalez and another scientist created a study to find out. 

Gonzalez asked 150 people to complete activities while listening to instrumental music, or music without singing. Some volunteers listened to music with two instruments. Others listened to more complex music with four instruments (see Mapping Music, below). A control group worked in silence.

“We had people work on two tasks—an easy one and a difficult one,” says Gonzalez. For the easy task, they crossed off words in a list with the letter A. For the harder one, people memorized pairs of words. Then they had to recall which words were paired together.

Gonzalez compared the performance of the groups. For the easier task, the group who listened to simple music performed about the same as the group who worked in silence. But the group who listened to complex music had a higher overall score. Why? The mind can wander during easy or boring activities. Complex music could help a person complete this work by keeping the brain just busy enough, says Gonzalez.

The harder test involving memory had different results. The group working in silence performed better than the two groups who listened to music. “For our challenging task, any music pulled people’s attention away,” says Gonzalez.

Gonzalez asked 150 people to do activities. Most of them worked while listening to music that had instruments but no singing. Of these people, some listened to music with two instruments. Others listened to more complex music that had four instruments (see Mapping Music, below). A control group worked in silence. 

“We had people work on two tasks, an easy one and a difficult one,” says Gonzalez. First, they crossed off words with the letter A in a list. That was the easy task. For the harder task, people viewed pairs of words. Then the people had to remember which words went together.

Gonzalez compared the groups. The group that worked in silence and while listening to simple music did about the same for the easy task. But the group that listened to complex music had a higher overall score. Why? The mind can wander during easy or boring activities. Complex music could keep the brain focused, says Gonzalez. 

The harder test involving memory had different results. The group working in silence did better than the two groups that listened to music. “For our challenging task, any music pulled people’s attention away,” says Gonzalez.

Why did music affect people’s performance? According to Gonzalez, there’s a limit to how much the brain can focus on at once. “I think of the brain as like a bucket,” he says. Harder tasks fill up the bucket more than easy tasks do. Listening to music also adds to the bucket. “With too much going on, the bucket overflows and you lose concentration,” Gonzalez says.

Experiments can help scientists understand patterns in people’s responses to music. But they can’t reveal how music affects an individual—like you. Some music could help you focus on an easy project. “But if you’re working on something that requires a lot of thought, you may be better off without it,” says Gonzalez.

Why did music affect people’s performance? Gonzalez says there’s a limit to how much the brain can focus on at once. “I think of the brain as like a bucket,” he adds. Harder tasks fill up the bucket more than easy tasks do. Listening to music also adds to the bucket. “With too much going on, the bucket overflows and you lose concentration,” Gonzalez says.

Experiments can help scientists understand patterns in how people react to music. But they can’t reveal how music affects an individual, like you. Some music could help you focus on an easy project. “But if you’re working on something that requires a lot of thought, you may be better off without it,” says Gonzalez.