What’s the soundtrack to your study sessions? Forget rock, pop and RnB. If you’re aiming for top marks it’s time to switch on the classics! Studies have found that listening to classical music while hitting the books could help you stay alert and retain more information.
Researchers from the Stanford University School of Medicine found that listening to symphonies helps the brain organise incoming information. Using brain images of people listening to short symphonies, researchers saw that areas of the brain involved with paying attention, making predictions and updating the event in memory were engaged. Interestingly the silence also plays a role and brain activity peeked during short periods of silence between musical movements.
“In a concert setting, for example, different individuals listen to a piece of music with wandering attention, but at the transition point between movements, their attention is arrested,” said Vinod Menon, PhD, associate professor of neurosciences at Stanford.
So add some Beethoven and Mozart to your music collection. Your sophisticated appreciation for the finer things in life could impress your next date but more importantly, it could help you ace those exams!
Source: Stanford