The Kinship of Music + Mind

“Music is the medicine of the mind,” American soldier and politician John A. Logan once said. None other than Friedrich Nietzsche wrote, “Without music, life would be a mistake.”

Music-making is a complex phenomenon involving multiple brain areas and neural connections. Engaging with music, whether playing or listening, is among our most cognitively demanding tasks. Decades of research have shown that music shapes the brain’s structure and function, particularly in areas responsible for attention, memory, language and emotional processing.

MAPPING MUSIC IN THE BRAIN

In its 38th season, the Bravo! Vail Music Festival held a conference examining the impact of music on the brain and human behavior. The event, held July 9, 2025 at the Vail Interfaith Chapel, featured Bravo! Vail Artistic Director Anne-Marie McDermott and renowned neurosurgeon Dr. Kalmon Post. About 150 people attended the seminar, which offered a rare look at the intersection of music and neuroscience.

These connections between music and the brain have been studied for centuries. However, as Post explained, imaging developments now provide much more information. Now retired, Post was the Chief of Neurosurgery at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. He pointed out that with modern imaging, “we can see things in the head now that were not visible before. We can actually do imaging while a person is playing an instrument, seeing the endorphins, dopamine and other brain chemicals being affected.”

Music is proven to cause both structural and functional changes in the brain, both with immediate exposure and over extended time periods. Music is processed by so many areas of the brain (the cortex, limbic system, neuroendocrine and autonomic nervous systems) that it affects our bodies as well.

Post presented slides which helped to explain what occurs in the brain relating to music, and cited relevant studies. “All of the active sites of increasing blood flow while playing music are visible with imaging,” he noted.

HEALING THROUGH HARMONY

“Specific regions of the brain involve the temporal lobe,” Post explained, “which processes auditory information that helps us appreciate tone and pitch. The right lobe is more creative and emotional, while the left lobe is more logical, managing rhythm and pitch with the language area. The cerebellum has to do with rhythm and timing, coordinating movements, especially when listening or playing music.” Music listening improves cognitive functions such as memory, attention span and behavioral augmentation.

McDermott, a professional pianist who performs worldwide, has been artistic director of Bravo! Vail for 16 years. She has worked with Post for much of that time. “I am utterly fascinated by how the brain is related to classical music,” she said. “Part of my job is to get people excited to understand more about music. Music has the incredible ability to speak to us collectively and individually. In my position as artistic director, I have found that people want to learn. People are curious.”

Thus, the two decided to partner and designed the conference. For several years, Post has been deeply involved with Harmony Program, a nonprofit in New York designed to bring music education to underserved communities in the city, and he has become increasingly interested in the studies of music and the brain.

Post explained that long-term studies on music’s effect on the brain and language reveal notable benefits. After just one year of musical training, children ages 8 to 10 demonstrated improvements in speech timing, verbal intelligence, reading and overall cognitive skills — gains that were not seen in control groups. “On the whole, musicians outperform non-musicians in a wide variety of tasks — verbal memory, walking memory and sequencing,” he shared.

“Music helps regulate emotions, reducing stress and anxiety. Listening to music can improve memory, attention and overall cognitive function. It can even help with pain relief. There are some studies showing that less pain medications are needed in ICU patients if there’s music playing,” Post said. “In physical health, music often lowers blood pressure, reduces cortisol levels and increases social bonding.” He remarked that numerous studies have shown that Parkinson’s patients’ mobility improves with the rhythmic training from music.

Music-based therapies have shown high success rates in treating depression and anxiety, as well as in helping patients recover neurological function after a stroke.

“When people have a stroke, they can increase cognitive and emotional measurements afterwards. Someone with Alzheimer’s may not recognize their family members but can sing every word in a song because recent memory and old memory are stored differently,” he said. “Certain things trigger old memories, and music happens to be one of them.”

In 2026, Bravo! Vail plans to hold another session, this one directed to specific types of music and how they light up different areas of the brain. “There is so much more to see now,” Post said. “In my 50 years in neurosurgery, I felt like it was magic when the scans became available.”

In the end, music is more than sound — it’s a kinship that unites brain, body and spirit.