Music and the Vagus Nerve: How Music Affects the Nervous System and Mental Health
We all know that music can produce powerful emotions, but did you know that brain health can also be impacted by music? Music is a powerful force in our lives, lending itself to whatever mood we’re in, and that connection goes much deeper than we often think about. Music actually has healing powers, and when you choose the right music for your mind and apply it correctly, it can have a huge positive impact on your mental health. It can calm and soothe the nervous system as well as slow brain aging - here’s how.
What is the Vagus Nerve?
To understand how music can physically impact your body and brain health, you first need to understand a bit of physiology. The vagus nerve is the body’s longest cranial nerve, running from the brain to the lower internal organs. It’s responsible for regulating the parasympathetic nervous system.
The parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) is one of two parts of the autonomic nervous system (ANS). The PNS is responsible for restoring basic functions and soothing the body. In comparison, the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) is responsible for the fight or flight response. The PNS is a key player in our body’s response to trauma - when the SNS receives a threat that requires action - either fight or flight - the body reacts accordingly. The SNS prepares the body for intense physical demand, getting many of your organ systems ready to act.
Sounds stressful, right? It is! When you perceive things as a threat, your SNS reaction will leave your body and mind feeling tired, exhausted, and stressed afterward. To calm down, the PNS jumps into action, resetting your body into rest and digest mode. How does it do it? In part, through the vagus nerve.
How Does Music Affect the Vagus Nerve?
The vagus nerve is in close proximity to the ear, through which we hear sound and music. When we listen to music, the vibrations of the sound resonate in the eardrums before traveling through the vagus nerve. Since the vagus nerve is associated with important physical functions like heart rate, taste, swallowing, and digestion, it’s closely related to the “rest and digest” PNS. When the vagus nerve is activated, it stimulates the PNS and sends a signal that it’s time to relax.
When you apply the right music for your mind, you’re really choosing music that resonates in the vagus nerve to trigger a parasympathetic response that soothes the body into a calmer state. This is how the vibrations of sound can soothe your physical body, which in turn soothes the mind.
The Nervous System and Brain Health Connection
We often think of trauma as a physical altercation, like a car crash. However, trauma is truly just the body’s response to an event. That means that when we trigger the SNS - our fight or flight response - we are experiencing an event that the body needs to respond to. In other words, we’re experiencing trauma.
We experience trauma of all sizes, sometimes even on a daily basis. When your body reacts to the trauma, stress can persist for much longer than the perceived danger is present. If the body cannot properly restore that rest and digest state, you’ll find yourself in a constant state of stress, which can feel extremely exhausting.
Stress has a negative impact on the mind and the body. Not only does it make you feel tired and sluggish, but it can also be taxing on your mental health and even cause accelerated brain aging. A 2018 study reviewed the memory and cognitive ability of middle-aged adults, those in their 40’s and 50’s. They found that adults who had higher levels of cortisol, a stress hormone, performed worse than those who had average cortisol. Higher cortisol levels were also linked to smaller brain volumes. Put simply, stress may cause brain aging issues, such as brain shrinkage and impaired memory, which we can detect even before signs of dementia appear.
Clearly, the stress that we experience through our nervous system impacts both our physical health and our brain health. Managing stress means caring for both your body and mind.
Brain Health and The Right Music For Your Mind
So how do we protect ourselves from stress? Stress and trauma are inevitable parts of our lives - there’s no avoiding them. However, you can control your actions after experiencing them and utilize your physiology to help soothe the body.
One such way to relax the body and protect brain health is through music therapy. We’ve studied music’s physiological effects for over 100 years. Multiple studies have shown that listening to sedative music, or music with a slow tempo, leads to a decrease in blood pressure, heart rate, and respiration rate. This is likely due to the link between the ears, vagus nerve, and parasympathetic nervous system.
While listening to music is great, you can also stimulate the vagus nerve by making your own music. Think of those “om” meditations you do in yoga class - have you ever wondered why they’re used in the practice? The larynx, or voice box, is connected to the vagus nerve. When you sing, hum, or say “om,” you activate the nerve. If you’re in a pinch and need to calm yourself down, try humming - you’ll likely notice that your heart rate slows and you feel more relaxed. Humming also forces you to control your breathing, which is linked to the vagus nerve. In combination with controlled breathes, activating your vagus nerve will have you closer to zen in no time.
Of course, calming the body and relieving stress isn’t the only thing that music can do. It’s also great for stimulating the brain. When you choose the right music for your mind, you can actually put the brain through a workout, which can help improve short- and long-term memory recall. It can also increase blood flow, increase concentration, and help you retain information.
By harnessing music as the tool that it is, you’ll not only work on your mental health, but also your brain health - all while fighting brain aging.
Resources:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3011183/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK207191/
