The Effects of Music on the Mind and Body

Essay by sionemauCollege, Undergraduate November 2012

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The Effects of Music on the Mind and Body

When I first read about the Mozart Effect I thought it was very intriguing to me how a simple tone of music can affect how the mind and the body function. I'm not just talking about any type of music; I was thinking more of the classical music genre and to be more specific, Mozart's sonata for two pianos. I believe that listening to these types of music, while studying or taking tests will increase the performance of the student in the classroom. Back in my high school English class my teacher would always play either classical music or jazz music during our tests. She says that music would help us increase our performance and keep us focused during the test. In an article by the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, they claim that after listening to Mozart's sonata for ten minutes, normal subjects showed significantly better spatial reasoning skills than after periods of listening to relaxation instructions.

They also claim that the mean spatial IQ scores were eight to nine points higher after listening to the music than the other conditions. I think this is true in most cases because whenever I listen to classical music while I'm studying, I feel tuned in and really focused than usual.

The author of the article, J. S. Jenkins, is a medical doctor who attended Medical College of Virginia School of Medicine in Richmond, Virginia. He was on active duty in the U.S. Army until 1991 and served in the Gulf War as a physician. He wrote many journal articles from the Mozart Effect to the Role of Oxytocin in the body. Judging from his experience and all his work I would say he comes across as a very knowledgeable...