Hey Church!

However, neuroscientists have shown that when multiple individuals listen to the same piece of music, there is synchronous activity in their brains. This phenomenon is greatly magnified when those individuals are in the same room together or are participants in making the music. We do all of the above when we sing to our Creator together on Sunday mornings and it literally changes the structures and pathways of our brains. 

Below is a small sample of a host of fascinating discoveries about how our brains respond to music.  

• Whereas most activities are assigned to particular segments of the brain for processing, nearly every area of the brain is stimulated when we participate in making music. 
• Music has an extraordinary power to stimulate both memory and anticipation of what will come next. Alzheimer’s patients who cannot remember their loved ones’ names have demonstrated the ability to sing a hymn they learned from childhood word for word. Other similar experiments have shown people with advanced dementia sit down at the piano and play a complex piece of music they learned decades prior. 
• The anticipation process involves the prefrontal cortex making predictions (i.e. “I heard this sound, so I expect to hear that sound) and resolutions that evoke either a sense of satisfaction (“Yep, that’s what I expected to hear”) or surprise (“Wow! I did NOT see that coming!”). When the surprise is pleasing, the brain releases dopamine, which plays a key role in regulating mood, pleasure, motivation, and various other bodily functions such as movement and learning. 
• Listening to music has internal effects on your blood pressure, heart rate, hormones, and immune system. 
• It may also affect us in certain external ways: goosebumps, tears, movement, etc. 
• The brain’s auditory cortex–the primary processor of auditory stimuli–sends the information it processes directly to the motor control center of the brain. This means that when we hear a melody or rhythm, the body instinctively responds in movement, which is why you may find yourself subconsciously tapping your foot to the music (or swaying, clapping, dancing, etc.). It may also be why we startle at sudden, loud noises–it’s our body’s way of delivering signals and blood to all the right areas we may need to use in an instant to retreat from danger. 
• We tend to think of music as a subjective art that appeals to emotions, in contrast to what we might deem more scientific or cerebral exercises like reading or listening to a sermon. However, when we listen to music, the most advanced cognitive systems in our brains work together with the most advanced emotional reward systems of the brain to process what we hear and stimulate all kinds of physiological responses. Again, these effects are amplified when the listener is also a participant in the music’s production. 
• Scientists have found that singing together not only synchronizes our brain waves but also causes us to experience an exchange of oxytocin (a hormone related to empathy, trust, and relationship building). Interestingly, they found that these effects are most pronounced when singers improvise together. I encourage you to use instrumental moments in worship (i.e., when the band is playing but there are no words on the screen) as a time to improvise your own song to the Lord. Whatever is top of mind, sing that! 
• Singing together has also been shown to decrease one’s sensitivity to pain by reducing the stress hormone, cortisol. 
• Psychological principle: “Name it to tame it.” When we listen to a song that gives voice to how we feel, we are better able to transmute and metabolize difficult emotions. This is why we want to listen to sad songs when we are feeling down. 
• “Mirror neurons” fire both when you act and when you observe that same action performed by someone else. The neuron “mirrors” (imitates) the behavior of the other, as if you yourself were doing the action. 
• Exposure to music in young children has been shown to promote prosocial behavior. 
• Children who learn to play an instrument demonstrate higher levels of empathy, intelligence, memory, motor skills, mathematics, and problem-solving ability. These effects seem to be long-lasting, even after they stop practicing. 
• The neuro-pathways responsible for inter-hemispherical communication are increased in size and complexity when one learns to play an instrument (and, to a lesser extent, when one simply listens to music). 
• The music of Baroque composer, Bach, is often cited as an example of how melody and harmony share in the beauty of God’s created order independent of any text for theological validation. As one author put it, ​​Bach establishes a kind of music that stimulates us to imagine “a cosmos that reflects and shares in the life and love of a Triune God.”* 
• Put differently, our souls can be moved to worship even by instrumental music. The Holy Spirit intercedes for us with wordless groans (Rom. 8:36) and, perhaps, on occasion, He uses music to make us participants in the same.  

I could go on and on! There are tons of studies out there that, when read through a Christ-centered lens, offer us some insight into why God commanded us to assemble together often for worship. We were not wired to benefit from passive observance of worship on the Lord’s Day; merely hearing the words and giving intellectual assent to their truth is simply not what our souls crave. We desire true communion with the Holy Spirit. The Bible tells us that one of the most powerful ways we can experience it is through corporate singing (e.g. Eph. 5:18-20). So, naturally, the science proves it is so. 

If you’re interested, I thought this short TED Talk was fascinating (though not overtly Christian): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZFFwy5fwYI

“May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Romans 15:5-6)