This Week in Music to Work to - August 14th, 2014

Bouncing to the Beatles Breeds Benevolent Babies

I love this study - researchers showed that children as young as 14 months can be influenced to exhibit spontaneous helping behavior if they have previously engaged in synchronous behavior with the object of their assistance!  read the article for the details but the takeaway for me is that it isn't necessarily about music - the researchers reckoned that music probably wasn't necessary - what was necessary was the movement and visual recognition that another human being was moving in the same way as them.  What music was doing here was to deliver the auditory cues on when to move - and that for me is a huge insight into how music affects us.  It's often not that music has some special magic that makes things happen - it's that music is so prevalent and we're so used to acting on its inherent nature (i.e rhythm, beat, melody, mood, bass lines) that its our actions that are the cause but we attribute them to music.

5 Ways to Incorporate Music into the Workplace

Nice overview on music in the workplace - complete with some listening recommendations - The Simcity 4 soundtrack is a favorite for many knowledge workers

Relaxation Techniques for Migraines and Headaches

Headaches are horrible and dealing with them can be a nightmare.  This article looks at relaxation techniques which have been shown to help people suffering from headaches and migraines.  One of the recommendations is to use calming music in the background - which makes sense so long as it isn't "loud" music!  Some music2work2 would be perfect for this.

This Music Will Make You Feel Invincible

This one has been making the rounds this week for obvious reasons.  If just listening to music can make you feel and act more powerful then that's pretty good information to have.  the study isolated the driver to be heavy bass beats in the tracks which has certainly been a major growth area in popular music over the last decade or so.  Nothing terribly new here - athletes and competitors of all kinds have used music to pump themselves up before an event - it's just interesting to see that one specific aspect of the music - the bass - can have such an impact.

#musictoworkto #musicandpain #workmusic #musicatwork

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​Written while listening to: Drive (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

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This Week in Music to Work to - August 7th, 2014

Listening to music can be effective for reducing pain in high-anxiety persons

Interesting study with decent sample size of 145 subjects that experienced controlled pain while focusing on music.   The idea is that music helps reduce pain because it activates sensory pathways that compete with the pain pathways and the data seems to back this up.  What was super interesting was that they got the participants to rank their anxiety about the pain before hand and had hypothesized that those with high anxiety with the pain would be least affected by the music.  Turns out the opposite - apparently the more anxious you are about the pain - the more likely it is that the music will have a positive and soothing effect. 

How music prevents organ rejection

research from Japan on Mice - the only thing you need to know is this:

"They found that opera and classical music both increased the time before the transplanted organs failed, but single frequency monotones and new age music did not."

take that Yanni!

Practice may not make perfect

I like this article - not least because the dataset involved over a thousand twins!  Bottom line - no amount of practicing is going to turn you into a pro unless you have a genetic predisposition.  So - sorry to all the people out there who tell their kids "You can do anything you want if you just try hard enough." yes it's a nice sentiment but the real world doesn't work that way.  It reminds me of student athletes who are promised they could play in the pros one day but whose parents gifted them a smaller frame than their competition.  It doesn't matter how hard you work - if you're 8 inches shorter than the other guy - it's going to be tough!

Prolonged Exposure to Loud Noise Alters Speech Processing

Should be required reading for all teenagers (and anybody for that matter) who live with their earbuds in.  We knew about high volumes damaging the hair cells (although I hadn't realized it was permanent) but this study would indicate that the damage is also replicated ins the auditory cortex - which will affect how you process speech and conversation.  The big takeaway - be careful with your volume - I really do suspect that there's going to be a whole generation that is hard of hearing later on in life!

#musictoworkto #musictherapy #musicandpain

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Written while listening to: Minecraft Playlist

Image Credit: Quinn Dombrowski - Flickr

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