The sensation is curious: it starts with a song we haven’t heard in a long time – maybe twenty years or more – and we are surprised to find that we remember it well. very good. So well that we can not only follow the melody, but also sing the lyrics.
This phenomenon is not due to the fact that as Tango says exactly ᲓReturns“Twenty years is nothing.” In fact, many other up-to-date information is not stored in memory. The question is more difficult. And science, though so far Could not find a convincing explanationHas something to say about it.
First of all, it must be said that listening to music activates different areas of the brain. Although it was once thought that the left hemisphere controlled intellectual activity, and the right hemisphere artistically, in recent decades. Studies They confirmed it The whole brain is involved In music processing.
The research Somehow determined Cerebro breaks the songs: Lyrics are analyzed by the language processing system, while other subsystems describe temporal (rhythm and bit) and tonal aspects (sound, timbre, structures, etc.).
A Hypothesis Proposed by Daniela Simler, a researcher at the Max Planck Institute in Leipzig (Germany) notes that the key lies in the area of the brain where Letters “Saved” Certain tracks: Anterior upper temporal reversal. This is what allows these letters to stay there for a long time.
But this is not the only reason. Another key given is a fairly logical question: repetition. In general, the songs he remembers, even many years after his last listening, Has been heard many times.
In this way, the mind learns the song just as it combines knowledge such as By bikeBy car or by swimming. While much time later passes without their need, they will be there when people go to look for them.
In turn, a Learning Scientists from China and the United States have shown that two proteins play an important role in this matter: they are the key to creating new synapses. Neural connections Which serve as the “basis” of memory.
These proteins are called NR2A, more abundantly in adults and the elderly, and NR2B, in greater numbers in young people. In an experiment conducted with mice, the researchers forced the youngsters to generate more NR2A. That is what they did Their brains resembled heads.
As a result, those young mice found it difficult to establish new neural connections. Accordingly, they were harmed It is difficult to create new memories: The elders were still stronger.
This explains why certain songs appear Burn on fire In memory, especially in adolescence and youth, a phenomenon that in adulthood generally does not manifest itself with the same intensity.
There is another crucial factor that makes song lyrics much more solidly stored in memory than other types of information: Rhythm and structure of music.
These are two elements that help you determine in advance what will happen when you listen to or remember a song. Rhyme offers hints about the sound of the following phrase, while the structure or musical pattern allows you to guess its length or the approximate number of grains.
In fact, a lot of the work that exists today Classics of Literature They were born as songs that revered certain meters and rhythms to be remembered and passed down from generation to generation in cultures that did not know how to write.
There are examples of this Iliad And It is an odysseyBelongs to Homer, the Bible Psalms, and Spanish romantic poems. In this sense, there is also Studies Who have proven that when they are part of a song, they remember words better than when they are not.
Another variable that can also play an important role in recording song and melody memory is the emotional factor: Feelings and related feelings With the memory of certain songs.
When a person listens to music that is pleasing to him, Your brain releases dopamineA neurotransmitter known as the “pleasure hormone” because it activates the reward system and enhances behavior.
But in addition to the pleasure of listening to music, the songs are often directly related Certain episodes of life. Often emotional moments from childhood, adolescence or youth.
Შi Learning Thirteen human brain activity analyzed in the United States was analyzed by magnetic resonance imaging when they listened to thirty song fragments that were very popular between the ages of 7 and 19.
On average, each participant identified 17 songs, and 13 of them were moderately or significantly associated with autobiographical memories. The songs that appeared most clearly matched More intense emotions And also with increased activity in the upper part of the medial prefrontal cortex.
These results suggest that the medial prefrontal cortex connects to music and memory when we experience emotionally distinctive episodic memories caused by Familiar songs from our personal past“, Confirm the conclusion of the investigation.
Such a deep association between music and personal memories, according to experts, may also be one of the reasons why it is much easier to “recover” the lyrics of a song than other memories. Letters are associated with positive memories They will not need so many repetitions To capture memory.
On the other hand, the same connection between music and autobiography can also explain why music provokes Positive responses in people with Alzheimer’s diseaseEven in advanced cases. And also because Many of those patients -Thanks to music- they improve social and cognitive skills and reduce arousal symptoms.
Source: El Diario
