RAB source entry 3 – Andrew C

My research question is how music affects people’s health. This topic interests me because music will always be a part of my life. I love music and I think it does many things for me. It can help me get work done, it helps with anxiety and boosts my mood. I already know that music can affect mood as well as anxiety. Music can build a strong influence on your life whether it affects your mood, spending habits or style of choice. Music can even help with learning. Some points I plan to explore and find out more about are how exactly does music affect mood. If music has an affect on memory. as well as if music actually does have an effect on anxiety.

Part 1 MLA citation: 

Sherman, Larry. “How Your Brain Benefits from Music: Big Brains Podcast with Larry Sherman | University of Chicago News.” News.uchicago.edu, 29 June 2023, news.uchicago.edu/how-your-brain-benefits-music.

Part 2 summary: 

The podcast starts with Paul Rand quoting Wadsworth Longfellow he says 

“Music is the universal language of mankind.” then guest Larry Sherman agrees with this by saying “One of the reasons music probably exists is to bring people together.” Enforcing the idea of musics strong connection to people. They also go into the idea of how beneficial music could be for cognitive function. Although learning an instrument is very challenging for the human brain it drives a process called neurogenesis, the process of creating new neurons in the brain. Studies took place in which mri’s were taken on people listening to music and a certain part of the brain lit up as compared to other sounds that the brain didn’t react to. This means our brains are wired for music. Music is also capable of bringing cathartic experiences to people. Music can bring up emotions from an experience without actually experiencing it in a short period of time. Making a strong connection to emotion and memory. Music can have great benefits for mental health as well. Sherman was at a memory care center and a women with non verbal impairment and dementia was greatly affected by the treatment of music. Once a record was played for her she started to sing, even after the song was over she was still talking about the song and continued to talk about her life. 

Part 3 rhetorical analysis:

The genre of this article is a podcast. The author has an informative writing style with a knowledgeable tone. He uses the rhetorical appeal of ethos and pathos because he uses factual information and their own experience to show the benefits of music. The author’s primary audience is for people who want to benefit from music whether it’s for physical or mental health. The message he wants people to take away is music can help many people and it has been since music was created. The author is Paul Rand he is reliable because he has uploaded many podcast with lots of guest speakers like neuroscientist Larry Sherman. UChicago is a reliable source because they only publish peer reviewed articles. 

Part 4 notable quotes:

“Humanity’s relationship with music goes all the way back to our earliest days. Our brains have evolved alongside this magical feature of reality, and it turns out that music may be doing more to and for our brains than we ever realized.”(Paul Rand)

“they put people in an MRI machine to scan their brains, and they played all these different sounds for them, and then they broke the sounds down into categories including music. And what was remarkable was there’s a part of the brain, the first place in the brain where sound information comes into is the auditory cortex. And in the auditory cortex, there were these cells that were lighting up in response to music that weren’t lighting up in response to other sounds.”(Larry Sherman)

“And there was a woman in particular in the center who was completely nonverbal, had very severe dementia at the time. And they put on a record for her, and she started singing. And then what was remarkable was after she sang, she actually spoke for a few minutes talking about the song and talking about her life or something”(Larry Sherman)

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