Community/Disease/Health/Spirituality/Uncategorized

How Neurochemistry helped me ____.

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  1. Instill a love for learning

Neurochemistry has been a unique course in that the majority of the necessary work is done outside of the classroom setting and independently. This upper-level course has forced me to engage with material without the immediate guidance and support of my mentor/professor. This learning style encourages the development of problem-solving strategies, independent research, and self-reliance. Though at times I found it challenging to find information or comprehend material without the immediate support of my professor, I found myself more engaged with the material, more determined to understand the content, more curious and explorative of other relevant and or supporting materials, and more accomplished after completing my assignment. After this course, I’ve found myself to be more of an independent learner and curious not only to learn what interests me but relevant and external materials as well.

2. Develop foundational skills and transferable intellectual capacities

This course has certainly expanded my arsenal of transferable skills and intellectual capacity. I’ve become more confident in my education, my knowledge, and my capability to learn and access necessary information independently. I feel more confident in situations with few or unclear instructions as I have grown in my critical thinking, my ability to focus, and my comprehension of complex materials. The class has allowed me to implement the foundational skills of research and literary analysis I learned through the prior years while incorporating creativity and exploring ethical, spiritual, and cultural dimensions.

3. Develop an understanding of disciplinary, interdisciplinary, and intercultural perspectives and their connections

Neurochemistry has allowed for the implementation of numerous perspectives through its flexible and independent learning format. The course has encouraged each student to pursue avenues of interest relating to each topic and the incorporation of diverse perspectives and conversations. This course truly embodies an interdisciplinary component as the topics are expansive and pull in content across numerous disciplines all of which are welcomed and encouraged in enriching the comprehension of the subject.

4. Cultivate an examined cultural, ethical, physical, and spiritual understanding

this course through weekly discussions delves into concepts of ethics, cultural interpretations and understandings, spiritual perspectives, and physical characteristics and properties of common diseases and disorders. The course as aforementioned not only focuses on the molecular and chemical interactions within certain conditions and disorders but allows for environmental, cultural, and societal contemplations as well.

5. Encourage responsible participation in the world

This course has helped address some of the stigmatisms related to common disorders and brought deeper awareness to the complexities of disease. The course has made me more knowledgeable, more empathetic, and altered my perspective towards disease and disability, correcting my prior misconceptions and reducing judgment and negative impressions. All the experiences I’ve had and the skills I’ve gained throughout this course have well prepared me for medical school and practice as a future physician. A deep understanding of not only molecular neurochemistry, but the environmental, cultural, spiritual, and societal components of disease are critical in my development as a competent and well-rounded future provider. The group discussions have taught me to seek the counsel of others as they provide unique and diverse input while independent learning has encouraged critical thinking, self-confidence, and a love for learning. Thanks for reading.

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Neurochemistry: A Course Like None Other

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I decided to tack on a neuroscience minor my sophomore year here at Concordia and had always planned on taking the drugs and behavior course instead of this one as one of my electives. When senior year rolled around and I noticed that drugs and behavior was not going to be offered in the Fall of 2020 and I became nervous as I knew deep down, I was going to have to do the inevitable and earn my neuroscience minor through this course. After speaking to students who had previously taken the course, to Dr. Mach, and while I look back at this class at the end of the semester, I realize just how lucky I was to be able to be a part of this class. This course is like none other and having the opportunity to take a course that is unlike any other science class during my time at Concordia is something that I have found to be extremely valuable. Not to mention how I was able to take it my senior year, and therefore bring with all of the tools and knowledge I had acquired from previous classes that were able to be integrated together for this class alone.

So, what do I mean by saying that this class is like none other? Instead of lecturing over chapter from a textbook or going into lab, I was able to read scientific journals regarding some of the most recent studies revolving around topics such as Alzheimer’s Disease, Obesity, Addiction, and more! This was a discussion-based class, so each day during the week, we would be able to discuss class-wide, one-on-one, and in groups on thoughts about the literature, questions we had, and even getting the chance to relate these issues to broader concepts for our community and the world! If that doesn’t make a case for a capstone experience, I’m not sure I’d know what does.

Having the opportunity to discuss scientific literature was both challenging and rewarding. Challenging, in a sense of how this is really the only course that I’m aware of that does anything like this, so you do not have much prior experience. Also, there is still so much future research that is needed, leading to many unanswered questions and thoughts. It is rewarding, however, even due to some of these challenges. It pushed me to not only incorporate new strategies on thinking but to also speak like a scientist and some of their possible thought processes while encountering these relevant problems we face. I was able to develop more of a voice for myself through all of the discussion that took place over the semester and this is something that I will definitely bring with me to future classes and careers as I continue to fine-tune it. Being able to take this with many familiar faces in the course also helps the discussion part of the class be so effective and enjoyable.

Having the ability to research specific questions for our Wednesday “speed-dating” sessions, group discussions on Fridays, and the blog posts all worked together and complimented one another when it came to how effective these parts of the course incorporated connections with the science of signaling all the way to the humanity and ethical concerns that all must be accounted for especially for the careers that many of us are heading into. The blog posts allowed me to grow as a writer, and also become someone who has specifically developed the skill to deduce complex concepts and ideas into a more general language and explanation that makes it easier for the majority of individuals to grasp and understand. This class encouraged me to develop a much broader thought process when it comes to problem solving and everything that goes into the continual efforts to advance the field of science.

In such a short amount of time, this class has left an impact on me that I know will exponentially increase my skills in the future as a leader through communicative interactions that establish connections with others and critical thinking towards problems we face in science that are often not just black and white answers. This course to me has been the epitome of what a capstone course at Concordia is all about. The experience this course provides through interactions with students who all have their niche in a variety of majors and lived experiences is one of the many factors that contribute to just how rich this course becomes. As I write this, I am struck with similar feelings from when I found out I would be needing to take this course, except the feelings are no longer fear and anxiety but rather one that is bittersweet because unfortunately now it is inevitably time for this course to end. Although the door for this course is closing, the memories, experience, and learning is here to stay and live on through all of my future endeavors.

 

Disease/Health

Prenatal, Perinatal, and Postnatal Music Therapy

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Music Therapy and the Brain: 

There are countless ways in which the listening, singing, or performing music promote positive chemical alterations in the brain. Coupled with traditional forms of treatment (e.g. medication, psychotherapy), music therapy can activate reward and motivation regions of the brain, suggesting music’s ability to modulate emotional and cognitive functioning. Listening to music has also shown to participate in management of stress and anxiety, as relaxing music has been shown to decrease cortisol levels and promote relaxation and lowered stress. Musical activities have also been shown to increase levels of the hormone oxytocin, suggesting that music plays a role in facilitating social interactions, and, as described later, childbirth.

From mood regulation to pain management, music therapy can therefore be utilized in a variety of clinical and nonclincal settings in order to provide both physiological and psychological benefits to pregnant individuals in the prenatal, perinatal, and postnatal phases of pregnancy and childbirth.  

Prenatal Music Therapy: 

Prenatal: the time period that begins at the time of conception and ends at 22 weeks gestation

Music therapy during the prenatal stage of pregnancy primarily targets the mother’s emotional and physical symptoms that accompany this phase pregnancy. 

  • Listening to the music of the mother’s choice has shown to result in overall decreases in prenatal anxiety and stress.
  • Music listening can aid with emotional regulation, as mood swings can be a significant challenge due to extreme alterations in hormone levels throughout pregnancy. 
  • Music therapy can be used to promote relaxation and pain relief, a useful aspect during the prenatal period in which there is rapid weight gain and tension due to stress that results in lower back pain and body aches. 
  • Prenatal music classes often involve singing lullabies to the fetus, further reducing maternal stress and encouraging infant attachment and bonding

Perinatal Music Therapy: 

Perinatal: the period of time that spans from 22 weeks gestation to 7 days postpartum

Music therapy during the perinatal phase of pregnancy is aimed at alleviating stress, anxiety, and pain right before and during labor. 

  • Preeclampsia is a condition in which the mother experiences abnormally high blood pressure during pregnancy, leading to potential complications during childbirth for both the mother and the fetus. Listening to relaxation-promoting music can lower blood pressure, indicating an additional potential treatment for preeclampsia. 
  • Music therapy helps to reduce stress and anxiety levels during labor, allowing for potential increased comfort throughout childbirth.
  • There is a key positive feedback mechanism that occurs during childbirth, in which oxytocin, produced by the hypothalamus and released by the posterior pituitary gland, promotes uterine contractions. These contractions then stimulate the release of oxytocin, establishing this amplification cascade that continues until the infant is born. Music therapy during labor has been shown to not only increase tolerance to pain, but also stimulate release of oxytocin that increases uterus activity and consequently shortens the duration of labor.

Postnatal Music Therapy: 

Postnatal: the period of time that continues after 7 days postpartum

Music therapy during this stage is primarily focused on alleviation of postpartum depression and anxiety symptoms. When coupled with other forms of treatment (e.g. medication, psychotherapy), this form of therapy can help to reduce the severity of postpartum psychological complications, promoting greater wellbeing and emotional satisfaction for the mother. 

Why is this research important for both the mother and the infant? 

As demonstrated above, music therapy can provide significant benefits for the physical and emotional wellbeing of mother. In additon to these advantages, music therapy can reduce overall maternal stress throughout the duration of the pregnancy, allowing for a potential reduction in the following risks for the child associated with maternal stress:

  • Preterm birth
  • Low birth weight
  • Congenital heart defects
  • Asthma
  • Depression 
  • Cognitive deficits/ developmental delays

As research continues to emerge regarding the potential benefits of music therapy, more aspects of female reproductive health and pregnancy may indeed see music therapy become an integral component of pain management and overall wellbeing of individuals.

 

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Neurochemistry: A class that sets the standard

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Neurochemistry has been one of my favorite classes that I’ve taken in college, and one of those reasons is because of the learning environment that was fostered within the class. At Concordia, I have been able to further develop both the concepts of how I learn and why I learn. Neurochemistry allowed for this learning to be expressed through reflection of topics, memorization of certain pathways, and collaboration in group discussions. In other words, there were a-ha moments of learning, chugging along moments, and listening moments, all of which were able to teach me different things. In high school I didn’t think I necessarily enjoyed learning, but in college, and specifically through classes like Neurochemistry, I’ve realized that learning is one of my favorite activities, as odd as that sounds for a hobby. 

In the future, I hope to make a difference in whatever avenue of work I choose to go down. This means being able to communicate effectively with a myriad of people and establish connections that are meaningful and purpose-driven. This pertains to my career (hopefully as an applied psychologist), and socially, wherever I end up living. A lot of this course stemmed from discussing complex scientific topics and further solutions for the problems that arise from such topics. This in and of itself is meaningful, as these solutions have the ability to affect countless people. Even if we were simply learning more about the topics and didn’t actually go do lab work or something similar, becoming informed and knowledgeable is the first step to being able to make a difference, and I think this class did a great job of transmitting knowledge. 

Speaking about becoming informed, I believe that liberal arts learning is about learning from a wider breadth than seems like is necessary with the intent to broaden one’s view of the world. Being able to understand people other than your “own” is such a crucial part of viewing the world through a responsible lens. I believe Neurochemistry was a great environment for this because of the diverse backgrounds of study that came into the class, such as biology, chemistry, psychology, and neuroscience to name just a few. This meant that discussions were filled with people speaking to their expertise, which allowed more learning to happen than with a monomajor class. This added learning was able to occur because of the discussion, as other classes might have some variance in background, but few classes discuss things to a level that uncovers those differences. Being interdisciplinary is the key to a liberal arts degree, and this class was able to provide a solid exposure to that. 

Our ability in class to start with a complex academic topic, deduce and discern important information by analyzing it in an efficient manner, and then translate that information into a few sentences or a brief discussion with the people around us is a difficult skill that I would argue even a lot of college students don’t possess. I would call this critical thinking, or maybe analytical deduction, which I think is one of the main skills that I developed further within this class. For me the difficult part has always been the translation of topics into words and summarized segments, and I think on the goals for liberal learning it would be referring to having “transferable intellectual capacities”. Neurochemistry gave me ample opportunity to practice that however, and I do feel like I’ve gotten better at putting ideas and concepts into a more presentable (and understandable) format. 

I’ll restate what I said at the beginning of this post, and that is that neurochem has been one of my favorite classes at Concordia. This wouldn’t have been possible without the enthusiasm of the people that took it with me, along with the leadership and guidance of Dr. Mach. The topics were interesting, applicable, and important for the health of people everywhere. Thanks for a great class!

 

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Pastime, Passion, or Potential Therapeutic Treatment?

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This Is Your Brain on Music. A brief summary | by Thomas A Dorfer | The Startup | Medium

While we often like to think of music as simply an art that we appreciate for its aesthetic value, most of us use music as a ‘tool’ to regulate our needs in one way or another. Despite this, we’re not always aware of the direct impact it has on us neurologically. A review article by Chanda and Levitin in 2013 describes some of the most scientifically backed benefits of music on the brain, comprising four main areas of research: reward, motivation and pleasure; stress and arousal; immunity; and social affiliation. I will also discuss another potential neurological effect that music has, as well as an intriguing musical ability that is not well understood. 

To briefly summarize these aspects of neurological impact, music has been found to trigger our reward systems through activation of dopamine and endogenous (made naturally within our bodies) opioid release. This can serve to inhibit feelings of stress or anxiety temporarily, and further motivate us to listen to music through reinforcement. Regarding stress and arousal, certain types of music- mainly slow tempo, low pitch- can reduce stress and arousal in individuals, very possibly through a reduction of cortisol levels along the hypothalamic-pituitary (HPA) axis of the brain. This effect has been indicated to help protect against neurotoxic effects of chronic stress. Both of these aspects, reward and stress/arousal, have also been suggested to be behind lowered requirements of analgesia after painful surgeries when the patient listens to music. 

Music may also impact the immune system, with studies suggesting that it could enhance our bodies’ immune functioning through increasing molecules that support the immune system and decreasing molecules that counteract it, although it’s not entirely clear what is mediating this effect. Finally, Chanda and Levitin provide an overview for the effects of music on social affiliation, asserting that music may help to establish and maintain social bonds through its impact on oxytocin, vasopressin, and endogenous opioids. 

A lesser known but notable impact that music has on the brain is the synchronization of brain stem neurons with tempo. As it turns out, humans have an innate ability to ‘entrain’, or simultaneously activate, neurons in our brainstem with those in our motor system through the tempo of music. Essentially, this means that when you hear a steady rhythm, it not only activates your auditory system, but automatically engages your motor system as well, even if you’re not physically moving. 

This function does have clinical importance, with research showing that rhythmic entrainment of motor function can significantly improve recovery of mobility in patients with neurological diseases, including stroke, Parkinson’s disease, traumatic brain injury, and cerebral palsy. Quite coincidentally, the movie I watched while writing this blog showed an example of this. In the 2010 film The King’s Speech, a future king with a stammer sees a speech therapist, and is without a stutter for the first time when he speaks while listening to music with headphones on. Part of this strategy was to make it so he couldn’t hear himself talk, but musical entrainment could very possibly play a role as well, smoothing out the actions of muscles necessary to control speech.

As a musician, I find the potential impacts that music can have on health or wellbeing an especially critical area of research going forward. Music may not be the cure for cancer, or for anything, but it may offer reduction of motor symptoms in certain neurological diseases, among other potential therapeutic uses. Future research will hopefully not only uncover new impacts of music on the brain, but strengthen our understanding of current findings through reducing common limitations of confounding distraction variables and locus of control issues. At the very least, listening to that song on repeat every time you’re sad or jammin to tunes while you jog won’t kill ya. 

 

 

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Listening the Pain Away

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Music and the Brain

If you think about it, we hardly go anywhere that does not have some type of music playing in the background; the grocery store, driving in the car, the gym, and the list goes on. We are so often encompassed with music that we may not even know that is playing. Most people would probably just assume that a store or company is just playing the music to have some sort of background noise while a person goes about their business, but without even knowing, the music being played might be affecting something even stronger than our passive thoughts: our brains. Although a fairly new science, the impact of music on the brain is indeed an exciting one.

Where and what?

Diagram showing the different areas of the brain activated when listening to music. https://medium.com/@Tells_a_Story/music-to-our-ears-4e6127a062ee

Studies using function magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) have shown that when music is played, various regions of the brain respond. The frontal lobe responds and strengthens signaling to music due to the due to its purpose in decision making and planning. Since the temporal lobe processes what we hear, it is also triggered when listening to music. Also, music can be seen as sort of an addictive drug due to the fact it enhances signaling in the nucleus accumbens which releases dopamine in the reward system. These are just a few to describe, but music can also affect areas like the occipital lobe, Broca’s area, the cerebellum, the amygdala, the hippocampus, the hypothalamus, and even a few more. Since listening or playing music affects so many areas of the brain, it would make sense that  a variety of reactions are triggered that affect our behaviors and feelings. Music has the ability to help a person recall a memory that might be associated with the song, can reduce stress, and music can even goes as far to be used to help patients who have acute or chronic pain, have had a stroke, or who have epilepsy.  To understand music’s full capabilities, more extensive research will be needed, but it is definitely exciting to think about the possibilities!

Managing pain with music

Those dealing with chronic pain, like patients with fibromyalgia, or those dealing with acute pain, like pre- or post-operative patients, may benefit from introducing music therapy as an additive treatment to their pain treatment. It may seem like an abstract concept now, but recent studies have began to show how music can help those in pain and may be able to

Diagram showing the connections between music and pain perception. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5570730/

reduce the amount of opioids or other pain killers prescribed. One study showed that dopamine release peaked “immediately before peak emotional response.” This response is also correlated to endogenous opioid signaling. When a person experiences a “wanting” emotion towards hearing a pleasurable song there is an increase in the circulation of endogenous opioids and an increase in the presence of the mu opioid receptor. With this understanding, scientists and researchers have theorized that music could potentially be a complementary treating to pharmaceuticals in treating pain. This means that the dosage or need for opioids could possibly be decreased immensely which could in turn reduce opioid addiction prevalence. The scientists who conducted the study mentioned above, found that using a technique called automated discovery showed the most pain reduction. This technique uses an algorithm to compile playlists that are tailored to a person’s music interests but continues to provide new music to its listener. Patients with chronic pain were “treated” with this type of music therapy and ended up showing a decreased need for opioid treatments for their pain. Although there is still much more research needed to completely understand the role of music on the brain, the potentials for music therapy seem endless and extremely beneficial for many health aspects.

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Neurochemistry: Liberal Learning at its Best

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Coming into Concordia confident that I would pursue a Neuroscience major, the Neurochemistry course is one that has always been on my radar. To say I enjoyed this class is an understatement. Each week, I came to class ready to read and engage with peers on a relevant topic in today’s world. This class is also unlike one I had taken before, so the new methods of learning information were extremely beneficial to my understanding of the course content and helped me develop my critical thinking and communication skills. Courses such as this are the reason I chose to come to Concordia: wonderful classmates who were just as excited and ready to be there, an engaging course with focuses on real-world topics relevant to many of our future career choices, and a discussion-based learning style to allow us to dive deeper into topics that we are actually interested in. As I said earlier, I can’t speak highly enough of this course, as it is surely one of my favorites so far in my Concordia experience. Concordia’s five goals for liberal learning present a good template to explain my takeaways from this course.

Instill a love for learning

For me, I think I have always had a love for learning, leading me to pursue challenging courses that I know I am interested in. Also, Concordia offers the chance to take a variety of classes outside of your major, so I’ve had the opportunity to expand my love for learning in that regard as well. Still, while I would say I had a pretty well-developed love for learning coming into Neurochemistry, this course revolutionized the way I see that love for learning. Like I mentioned earlier, this course has a different style than any I had taken before, and the discussion-based “workplace” setup of the course solidified for me the fact that I am passionate about Neuroscience and love learning and exploring the subject with peers. Also, reading dense literature articles is very relevant to what I am considering pursuing for a career, so I appreciated getting to develop those skills in a classroom setting before going off into the “real world.” Neurochemistry greatly helped develop and expand my love for learning.

Develop foundational skills and transferable intellectual capacities

This goal was incredibly evident throughout the Neurochemistry course. Especially considering everyone (or most everyone) taking the course was a Neuro major or minor, these skills we learned are so valuable to not only our major, but also to future career paths. As mentioned previously, reading literature articles is one example of a foundational skill that I appreciated getting to focus on in class. Also, I know that my communication skills have improved throughout the duration of this course in a variety of ways. Blogging was something completely new to me, so it was a helpful learning experience to spend time focusing on writing a creative, compelling piece of writing while also including valuable information about the science as well. Along with blogging, communication was an important facet of this course through the Wednesday “speed-dating” days and Friday discussion days. In both of these, it was important to demonstrate understanding of the topic and reflect that well through your communication with peers.

Develop an understanding of disciplinary, interdisciplinary and intercultural perspectives and their connections

Because Neuroscience is a very interdisciplinary field in itself, this course definitely expanded on those themes. Especially in reading current literature, we were exposed to a wide variety of research fields, techniques, and concepts that did not fit under one umbrella. Also, the community action project, one of the main elements of the course, was combined with social work students, who had different insights on certain subjects. Their perspectives helped widen the range of ways I was able to think about concepts.

Cultivate an examined cultural, ethical, physical and spiritual self-understanding

While this goal may not apply as directly to the Neurochemistry course, I still found elements of this within my time in Neurochem. Self-understanding is crucial to being successful, and I think it’s a concept which I have developed throughout my years at Concordia. Specific to Neurochemistry, we were able to have rich discussions on many “hot topics” that brought about questions where self-understanding comes into play. Being confident in my own opinions and experiences is probably where I see this the most.

Encourage responsible participation in the world

The biggest way in which this was accomplished was through the community action project in the course. My group members and I were able to get into the community and engage with at-risk youth, promoting addiction awareness and resources should they need them. It was a pivotal experience, as I had yet to really see addiction in action and this project allowed me to do so and feel like I was making a difference. I don’t know that I would have received as great of an opportunity if it weren’t for the Neurochemistry course.

All Together

Neurochemistry, in my opinion, was the epitome of a capstone course. It allowed me to step back, reflect on all that I’ve already achieved at Concordia, and also see where I am able to go. I had such a fun time in this class and I will surely miss our engaging discussions, interesting course concepts, and just having fun with classmates. My biggest piece of advice would be to take Neurochemistry if you get the chance!

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Why You Should Take Neurochemistry at Concordia

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photo by C.Eisenschenk

I’ll be honest; the Neurochemistry 475 course here at Concordia College seemed to be a challenging feat for me when I first saw it on my required course list. Unlike some of my peers, I had only taken a survey of organic and biochemistry course while others had completed multiple semesters of both subjects. This fact made me question whether or not I would struggle in the course, but the course, while still challenging in some regards, helped me form and cultivate new foundational learning skills. It’s ironic in a way that the class I was most nervous for is the one I will miss the most from my semester workload.

Benefits of Taking NEU 475

I’ll use Concordia’s five goals of liberal learning to summarize my experience in the course to provide a framework for future Concordia students taking the course.

  1. Instill a Love for Learning: I’ve always loved school, and that’s never changed. While I may tire of homework or studying, my desire to learn and absorb new knowledge has still been present. This course present neurochemical material in a way that relates it to the world, which helped my learning of the signaling pathways and molecular levels of the brain. The discussion aspect adds such a nice element for differing views and opinions and makes me interested to learn how neurochemistry is involved in various areas.
  2. Develop Foundational Skills and Transferable Intellectual Capacities: The written and oral exams that occur within the class are extremely valuable in developing foundational skills that are necessary in many fields, but especially science. My critical thinking was put to the test by having to break down information and fit it into what knowledge I have to try and formulate a hypothesis about what signaling pathway is occurring. This critical thinking will be necessary when analyzing scientific writing and can transfer into many areas of life.
  3. Develop an Understanding of Disciplinary, Interdisciplinary and Intercultural Perspectives and Their Connections: The discussions that students partake in the class truly helps you understand other perspectives. During the discussions, either personal experiences or research on them, would be brought up to relate the neurochemical research to the world in order to understand how it impacts specific people or is used in different disciplines.
  4. Cultivate an Examined Cultural, Ethical, Physical and Spiritual Self-Understanding: The course helped me self-evaluate and reaffirm which areas of neuroscience I was interested in and also allowed me to reflect on the ethics of medicine on a deeper, more personal level. With our weekly discussions on course content, peers would often ask each other, what would you do in this case? It sounds like an easy question, but when you take the research into account and the neurochemical foundation behind it, it takes your self-understanding up to a new level.
  5. Encourage Responsible Participation in the World: The blogs are a great resource in relaying the course material in a more generalized format so the public and whoever is interested in reading on the topic can fully understand the neurochemical functioning behind something. I believe it has already helped me greatly in my current job that I have working with neurodevelopmental disorders as it provides me with a greater background knowledge on what is physically happening in the brain to cause specific symptoms.

 Neurochemistry here at Concordia has benefitted me in a variety of ways and helped me refine a great set of foundational skills like critical thinking, communication, and empathy. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my time in the class, and it has helped me establish my passions in the neuroscience field. I’m thankful for Dr. Mach’s expertise on the subject matter and willingness to help students learn in any way they may need and for the insightful discussions with peers. If you’re still on the fence about taking NEU 475, TAKE IT!

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Music To My Ears (And To My Brain!)

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While there are inevitably reasons why people enjoy listening to music, many of these reasons can be attributed to changes in the brain, giving off a reward signal that leads to the pleasurable feelings associated with music. Music’s impact on the brain is a relatively new area of research, so there are still many, many unanswered questions. However, research over the last couple of decades have given us more information than ever before on the neurochemistry of music. The four areas on which to focus are 1) reward, motivation, and pleasure, 2) stress and arousal, 3) immunity, and 4) social affiliation.

Reward, Motivation, and Pleasure

The main question regarding music’s impact on reward is whether it has the same features of another rewarding stimulus that encourages repetition of the activity to obtain the pleasurable feeling. Music is already known to have the capacity to evoke emotions in an individual, and these emotions can span across the entire spectrum: happy, sad, joy, fear, etc. While musical pleasure can be tied to the intensity of emotional arousal, music doesn’t seem to have the survival benefit or addictive properties associated with other reward-inducers, such as drugs of abuse. There is evidence, however, that music effects the same reward systems as other reinforcing stimuli, so music is surely capable of giving off a rewarding feeling.

Music has also been identified as involving activation of the nucleus accumbens (NAc), which is a brain region crucial to reward responses. This was discovered through the use of positron emission tomography (PET) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), demonstrating that pleasure-inducing music was associated with higher blood flow (activation) to the NAc. To support the contention that music acts along the same pathways as other rewarding stimuli, fMRI was used to identify the involvement of dopaminergic reward pathways in the processing of music.

Stress and Arousal

Music has largely been thought to decrease stress levels and modulate arousal levels. Interestingly, music has also been used following a stressful operation to decrease use of painkillers in recovery. There are plenty of ways for music to be used as therapy, especially since it is known to have a notable effect on mood. Guided Imagery and Music, a specified therapy technique, was shown to reduce activation of the HPA stress axis and decrease cortisol levels, both of which are very positive responses. However, these findings do depend on the type of music, as some genres had the opposite effect. This could also mean that personality plays an important role in music’s effects, as preferred genres will likely have a more significant effect. Music is believed to initiate reflexive brainstem responses, which explains why it can affect stress levels and mood.

Immunity 

Music’s role in immunity is one that has produced many questions, but also some interesting findings as to how music could be used to strengthen immune responses. It might be obvious that music can cause positive feelings, but what may not be obvious is the fact that those positive feelings can mitigate negative effects of age and stress on the body and brain. One specific experiment studied the effect of group drumming on participants and found that it caused enhanced immune functioning and a buffered stress response. What a positive finding! There are also studies that concluded that recreational music-making can counteract immune modulation normally caused by advancing age and stress levels. Essentially, there appears to be a modulatory role for music in immune regulation.

Social Affiliation

It’s clear that music creates positive feelings within those who experience it. Two possible sources of these social effects are the neuropeptides called oxytocin and vasopressin. These molecules suggest a biological basis for music’s role in the formation of social bonds. For example, a 30-minute singing lesson caused an increase in oxytocin levels. However, there are questions surrounding music’s role in social affiliation due to the findings so far not having controls required for full comparison. This is an important future pursuit.

Conclusion

While the neurochemistry of music is a relatively new area of research and discovery, it is clear that there are interesting findings yet to be discovered. Future research should consider more comparative controls, allowing for more conclusive results. Still, it means that there’s music to your ears, but also music to your brain!

For further reading, check out the paper linked here.

Community/Spirituality

NEU 475: How A Senior Came To Love Her Major

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Wait, you didn’t love your major? As a senior in college?

Yes, it’s the truth; going into my senior year as a Biology and Neuroscience double major, I was quite sure that in my career I wanted to pursue the ecological side of biology and wanted little to do with molecular biology and neuroscience. When I came to Concordia, I was completely unsure about what I wanted to major in or what career path I wanted to follow. Based on a questionnaire from a prospective student visit day, Concordia’s registrar gave me Biology and Neuroscience majors and placed me into freshman-level chemistry and biology along with inquiry courses.

Along the way, I discovered that I am most passionate about environmental studies and religion, but I have enjoyed classes across diverse subject matters from art to English in my four years at Concordia. I continued my Neuro major because PSEO credits would allow me to comfortably pursue two majors and minors and I certainly enjoyed aspects of the major including interdisciplinary foci emphasizing the nexus of neuroscience and art/music/literature etc., psychology-focused classes, animal behavior, and, of course, wonderful, passionate, and incredibly intelligent classmates. However, I could see that I didn’t share the intrinsic passion for the subject matter with my fellow Neuro majors.

What happened in NEU 475?

Ironically, NEU 475 (Neurochemistry) was the course that I was most nervous to take out of the entire Neuro major. Although I had done well academically in previous chemistry courses required for the major, I have no particular affinity or aptitude for chemistry and had to work hard for those grades. Additionally, I knew that most classmates going into this course had taken two semesters of organic chemistry and two semesters of biochemistry, giving them a strong foundation that made my one-semester survey of organic and biochemistry look pretty wimpy. Envisioning lengthy biochemical pathways to memorize, I walked into class on the first day with apprehension.

By the time we were a month into the course, my feelings had done a complete 180. We spent the first few weeks refreshing background knowledge about important neurochemical signaling pathways, which was useful even for the most neurochemically informed of my classmates and put us on a ‘level playing field’ knowing what we needed to be familiar with to succeed in course discussions. After that, we began discussing papers about different issues in neurochemistry. The format encouraged asking questions in class discussion after a close reading of the paper to ensure that we understood it as fully as possible. The next class period allowed us to each investigate one component of the paper (or tangentially related topic) and discuss them individually with classmates, coming together for a larger-group discussion on the third and final day addressing each paper.

The collaborative format of these discussions from days one through three erased my concerns of being the least knowledgeable in the class as we all brought our own expertise and passion into the topic at hand. I was able to relate ideas about Alzheimer’s, spirituality, ecology, animal behavior, and dozens more topics based on other classes I’ve taken and on personal experiences. I ‘blossomed’ in this course as I felt emboldened to ask questions and share ideas I had, confident that I was adding to the discussion rather than making myself look silly.

So, you ‘blossomed’, but did you BREW?

Yes! I will summarize this section using Concordia’s five goals for liberal learning as a framework:

  1. Instill a love for learning: Through neurochemistry, I gained confidence discussing neurochemical concepts from molecular signaling pathways to cultural implications of neurological disorders and greatly enjoyed doing so. My future considerations about subjects that might include neuroscientific components will spark this excitement to broaden conversations to do so.
  2. Develop foundational skills and transferable intellectual capacities: Beyond broad and neurochemistry-specific critical thinking skills, this class helped me greatly improve my science communication skills through weekly blog posts challenging us to translate these heavily molecular ideas into language that any reader should understand.
  3. Develop an understanding of disciplinary, interdisciplinary and intercultural perspectives and their connections: As stated above, the class informed my understanding of neurochemistry as a discipline in particular as well as how to make connections with other realms of science and humanities. Beyond this, our open-ended, student-led classroom discussions enabled us to draw from personal experiences, causing me to learn more about other students’ diverse perspectives on many current issues that we discussed.
  4. Cultivate an examined cultural, ethical, physical and spiritual self-understanding: I found myself doing significant self-examination and growing during this course as I reflected on what sparks my interest and passion. I found that the spiritual side of the issues we discussed was often what I was most drawn to, which helped inform my decision to apply to divinity graduate programs to continue my education and pursuing questions that are also often asked in neuroscientific contexts, such as the nature of consciousness, ethics, etc.
  5. Encourage responsible participation in the world: Finally, I was fortunate to work with neurochemistry classmates Kenny and Zach as well as three Social Work majors to complete a PEAK community action project aiming to educate educators about PTSD in children. This outreach into future classrooms and in support of future students was one of the most meaningful aspects of this course, or any I’ve taken at Concordia.

In summary, NEU 475 changed my outlook on my Neuroscience major as well as my future plans post-graduation. I enjoyed the opportunity to discuss neurochemical pathways, ethical queries, and current events with a fantastic group of motivated and intelligent scholars and wish everyone happiness in the future as they pursue their own passions!

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