Confession of a Paris Rookie: I love métro music.

Dear Paris, 

We’ve only known each other for two weeks, and this is definitely going to sound cheesy. Here’s my confession. I am afraid I am already madly in love with you. Everything about you is perfect: the baguettes, wines, € 0.40 espresso, the countless museums and the dirty crowded métro. 

the train carrying too many people in the métro

Yes, I even love the dirty crowded métro that sometimes feels like a slaughterhouse, especially on Monday mornings. Regardless, the métro is the backbone to your existence, one part connecting to another. Occasionally, I find the true gem of the métro– the musicians. The metro musicians must audition to earn their stage. The RATP, the company that runs the métro, holds biannual auditions looking for talented musicians every year. Just today, I had the pleasure of listening to the happy and carefree accordion player when I, along with the rest of the NBB crew, nonchalantly landed on the wrong train.

So far I have seen the guitarists, violinists, an opera singer, and an accordion player, but regardless of the genre, I lose myself in the sudden rush of happiness when listening to these metro certified musicians.

In addition to the pure bliss, I quickly recall my street musicians days playing with my string quartet, thus making the experience more meaningful and emotional. One recent neuroscience study stated that there is a release of dopamine (the happy brain chemical that is also released during sex and food) in the striatum (the reward network in the brain) during the emotional experience of music (Salimpoor 2011). So this pleasure I get from music is not only attributed to the melodious tunes of the musicians but also the emotions they elicit. Additionally, the level of pleasure, measured by quantifying the dopamine release, is positively correlated to the emotional arousal (Salimpoor 2009). This may also explain why other métro travelers remain immune to this fleeting euphoria that I experience.

Then I started wondering how my musical history affected my brain. I have been playing the viola for ten years, performing at various centers, halls, weddings, parties and of course, the streets. What kind of brain changes could I have self-induced? Luckily, I was able to find a study that explored this exact question. A group of researchers in a collaborative study among McGill University, Mouse Imaging Centre, Boston College, and Harvard medical school recently published the study on how musical training shapes structural brain development of children. Because many studies have previously looked at the effect of music in the adult brain, this study distinguishes itself in not only in its exploration in the developing brain but also in relating these biological changes to behaviors (Hyde 2009).

In this study, 31 children around the age of 6 with no previous musical background participated. In the instrumental group, 15 children went through weekly half hour private keyboard lessons for 15 months, while the control group participated in a weekly general group music class in public school (Hyde 2009). To measure and assess the structural changes in the brain, the 31 children underwent an MRI scan, which is a tool that allows one to visualize the brain. There were two behavioral tests. One was a simple motor sequencing task, which is where the children press a particular number sequence that corresponds to finger 2-5. (2= index finger and 5=pinkie finger.) The second behavioral test was a melodic and rhythmic discrimination test where the children heard pairs of tunes to indicate if they were the same or different. In order to see how the instrumental training affected the children’s brain and behavior, they were tested before and after the 15 month period.

The results? Compared to the control group, the instrumental group showed bigger primary motor area, corpus callosum (the tissue that connects the left and right hemisphere of the brain), and primary auditory area. These structural differences also paralleled the behavior changes. The children in the instrumental group consistently performed better in the motor and the tune discrimination task. Basically, the children in the instrumental group demonstrated greater brain changes that greatly enhanced the way they used their fingers for motor functions and their ears to detect differences.

Although this study only looked at young children, music does not discriminate ages and benefits all! I am now starting to wonder how pervasive and practical music therapy is in the field of neuroscience…. but for now, I need some personal music therapy aka YouTubing French artists. Au revoir!

-Sehe Han the Paris rookie

References

Hyde, KL, Lerch J, Norton A, Forgeard M, Winner E, Evans AC, Schlaug, G. (2009). Musical training shapes structural brain development. The Journal of Neuroscience, 29: 3019-3025.

Salimpoor VN, Benovoy M, Larcher K, Dagher A, Zatorre RJ (2011). Anatomically distinct dopamine release during anticipation and experience of peak emotion to music. Nature neuroscience, 14: 257-262.

Salimpoor VN, Benovoy M, Longo G, Cooperstock JR, Zatorre RJ (2009). The rewarding aspects of music listening are related to degree of emotional arousal. PloS one, 4(10), e7487.