PORTLAND, Ore. — Ever played a few keys on the piano or picked up a guitar and strummed a few chords? Just knowing how to play a few notes can influence your brain's chemistry.
Now imagine what all that practice and performances are doing for those who play for a living, like the members of the Oregon Symphony or band members of a Grammy winning group.
"All of that practice leads to significant structural changes in their brains," said Dr. Larry Sherman, a professor of neuroscience at Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU). He's also in the process of releasing a book about how music changes our brains, titled "Every brain needs music."
Our brains are an amazing organ in our body. There are literally billions of neurons that make up the brain. Each neuron, or nerve cell, has a covering on it called myelin, which helps electric impulses transmit quickly throughout the brain. Think of the myelin like a freeway inside our brains, Sherman said.
"If you have myelin on your nerve cell, it's like driving on the Autobahn in Germany at midnight where there's no speed limit. If you lose your myelin, it's like driving on I-5 at the 84 interchange at rush hour, where you're lucky to be going 2 miles an hour," he said.
Sherman said simply playing an instrument is one way we can improve our brain's function.
"If you think about what music is doing, we're using fine motor skills, gross motor skills," he said. "We're reading, we're hearing, all this cognitive stuff. It's a lot, so our brains are really challenged when we're performing music."
He said if you're looking for a new challenge and already play an instrument, learn to play another one.
"Learning a new instrument is an amazing challenge to our brains and there's this whole idea that the more we gain in terms of brain structure and function, the more we have to lose later on when we're starting to get older," Sherman said.
He also said that the benefits of playing in a group can have more of an impact than playing solo. He said singing in a group like a choir can have a positive effect too.
"If you have chronic pain and you're singing in a group, you're actually forgetting about your pain because of that neurochemical interaction," Sherman said.
And if you've never played an instrument in your life, Sherman said it's never too late. "I know 70 year-old people that have picked up instruments and they claim it has changed their life," he said.
The best way to stay motivated, Sherman said, is to play music that you're interested in.