Not only does listening to music work as a distraction, but it provides mental health benefits. It awakens emotions and at the same time boosts the increase of brain activity. In that sense, a scientist from Harvard University spoke about what is the best music to concentrate.
Far from what many think, Srini Pillay, the psychiatrist and brain researcher at the prestigious American university, dismissed that it is the typical classical melodies style Mozart or Beethoven.
What is the best music to concentrate on according to Harvard
"Music is not just for entertainment. Having it in the background can help people concentrate better, even if someone has attention problems or hyperactivity disorder, he first told CNBC.
Having music in the background is positive for learning.
In this case, the first thing he did was to clear the ground for those who argue, according to the specialist in a wrong way, that music can be distracting.
And he went further to explain that there is as much music to focus on as there are people: "Music is as diverse as people."
There are a number of ways music can affect the brain's ability to concentrate, and Pillay elaborated on this point: "One mechanism is to decrease stress and cortisol, which allows the brain's attention center to function without interruption."
"In the brain, concentration centers are directly connected to regions that process emotions, so any music that makes a person more emotionally volatile could disrupt their concentration."
Music, emotions and concentration at work, a key trio. Illustrative Photo
On the other hand, then, he added: "When feelings are repressed, negative emotions remain in the brain. And no matter how hard they try, the person will lose the ability to concentrate."
What the study says about music
The effect of preferred background music on task focus in sustained attention is the name of the 2021 study published on the site of the National Institutes of Health of the United States (NIH).
The conclusion is that "background music increases states of concentration on the task compared to silence."
In addition, according to those who carried out in analysis, "when it comes to enhancing intellectual capacity, there is no one gender that works for everyone."
For that reason, Pillay stressed that the music chosen "depends entirely on the individual and what they respond to."
How listening to music affects the brain. Photo: Getty
"As a Harvard musician and neuroscientist, I found that 'family music,' or songs that everyone enjoys and knows best, are more effective at maximizing concentration," the psychiatrist surprised.
Precisely, the authors of the work published in 2020, Luca Kiss and Karina J. Linnell, from Goldsmiths University of London, highlighted in the publication of their conclusions, which found that while reports of mental wandering decreased, those referring to focus on tasks increased when background music was played.
The focus was on two aspects: decrease in mental wandering and that music did not affect external distraction.
Fast or slow music?
The Harvard expert referred to another group of researchers, whose study was called Taste and memory by musical stimuli as a function of exposure.
It was then that he remarked that the type of music that most positively influences learning is "soft-fast" music, in the style of songs such as I'm Yours, by Jason Mraz; or Love on Top, by Beyoncé.
The artist Beyoncé, in the video of the song "Love On Top", of 2011.
At the same time, when it came to putting "strong-fast", "soft-slow" and "strong-slow" music in the background, the tendency tipped the balance to complicate learning.
And as another aspect to mention, instrumental music can also be less disruptive than music with lyrics.
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