Pre-Activity

Instructions: Teacher introduces the class. A couple of songs will be play for few seconds.
Slayer ~ Angel of Death (Lyrics).mp3

Johnny Cash - Hurt.mp3

Percance- Gira el mundo (Con letra).mp3

Adele - Rolling In The Deep.mp3

-Do you like music?
-What type of music do you like?
-What is your favorite artist?
-How do you feel when you listen a specific type of music?
-Do you believe that music in somehow affects your mood?



Main-Activity
Part 1
Instructions: Carefully read the text below.
Scientists are still trying to figure out what's going on in our brains when we
listen to music and how it produces such potent effects on the psyche. "We're using
music to better understand brain function in general," said Daniel Levitin, a prominent
psychologist who studies the neuroscience of music at McGill University in Montreal.
Three studies published this month explore how the brain responds to music. The
quest to dissect exactly what chemical processes occur when we put our headphones
on is far from over, but scientists have come across some clues. Listening to music
feels good, but can that translate into physiological benefit? Levitin and colleagues
published a meta-analysis of 400 studies in the journal Trends in Cognitive Sciences,
suggesting the answer is yes. In one study reviewed, researchers studied patients who
were about to undergo surgery. Participants were randomly assigned to either listen to
music or take anti-anxiety drugs. Scientists tracked patient's ratings of their own
anxiety, as well as the levels of the stress hormone cortisol. The results: The patients
who listened to music had less anxiety and lower cortisol than people who took drugs.
Levitin cautioned that this is only one study, and more research needs to be done to
confirm the results, but it points toward a powerful medicinal use for music. Another
brain area called the superior temporal gyrus is intimately involved in the experience
of music, and its connection to the nucleus accumbens is important, she said. The
genres of music that a person listens to over a lifetime impact how the superior
temporal gyrus is formed. It seems intuitive that different people, based on their
personalities, preferences and personal histories of listening to particular music, will
have different experiences when exposed to a particular piece of music.
Any given neurochemical can have different function depending on its area of the
brain, he said. For instance, dopamine helps increase attention in the frontal lobes, but
in the limbic system it is associated with pleasure
"Knowing better how the brain is organized, how it functions, what chemical
messengers are working and how they're working -- that will allow us to formulate
treatments for people with brain injury, or to combat diseases or disorders or even
psychiatric problems," Levitin said.
In a study of couples who spent time getting to know each other, looking at each
other's top ten favorite songs actually provided fairly reliable predictions as to the
listener's personality traits. The study used five personality traits for the test: openness
to experience, extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness and emotional stability.
We generally assume that learning a musical instrument can be beneficial for kids, but
it's actually useful in more ways than we might expect. One study showed that children
who had three years or more musical instrument training performed better than those
who didn't learn an instrument in auditory discrimination abilities and fine motor skills.
This happens because listening to music can drown out our brain's cries of fatigue. As
our body realizes we're tired and wants to stop exercising, it sends signals to the brain
to stop for a break. Listening to music competes for our brain's attention, and can help
us to override those signals of fatigue, though this is mostly beneficial for low- and
moderate-intensity exercise. During high-intensity exercise, music isn't as powerful at
pulling our brain's attention away from the pain of the workout.














Part 2 Instructions: Complete the chart with the correct information from the text you just
read.



-A prominent psychologist who studies
the neuroscience of music at McGill
University

Name:______________________
-The participants were randomly assigned
to be studied based on two aspects.
Listening to music

-A brain area that is intimately involved in
the experience of music.

________________
-People will have different experiences
when exposed to a particular piece of
music according to different elements.
1.
2. Personalities
3.
-This part helps increase attention in the
frontal lobes, but in the limbic system it is
associated with pleasure



______________
-Some procedures will allow us to
formulate treatments for people with
brain injury,
1. Know how the brain is organized.
2. How it functions.
3.
An study used five personality traits for
the test, to verify the others opinion.
Openness to experience


Conscientiousness

As our body realizes we're tired, and
wants to stop exercising.
It sends signals to
_________________








Post-Activity

Instructions: Write a list of your favorite top 5 artists/bands/music genres .Explain very briefly
why do you like that kind of music, when do you listen it and how does it make you feel. At the
in the student will share it with the rest of the class.














References
http://lifehacker.com/how-music-affects-the-brain-and-how-it-benefits-you-1469597259
http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/15/health/brain-music-research/