The benefit of music in physical activity

CENTRAL RESEARCH

Physical activity adapted to age, at different stages of life, is necessary and essential to maintain health, not exclusively physical, but also mental. This was mentioned hundreds of years ago (in the second century AD) by the Roman poet Juvenal, with the expression “mens sana in corpore sano”, taken from his Satire X (line 356). But now, nineteen centuries later, science explains the underlying biochemical and neural mechanisms that underpin this claim.

Physical exercise improves the cardiovascular system, joints, and muscles, but surprisingly also contributes to improving cognitive functions such as attention and memory.

The repeated muscle contraction, due to movement, generates the muscle production of myokines, molecules formed by the union of different amino acids. Among these is the hormone irisin, discovered at Harvard Medical School (USA) in 2012, which is secreted by muscle tissue from the FNDC5 gene. This hormone favors the consumption of calories and energy expenditure, thus enhancing the consumption of fats. But it has other important properties since it is involved in the synthesis of proteins of “brain-derived neurotrophic factors” (BDNF). These neurotrophic factors contribute to promoting neurogenesis, synaptic plasticity, and the improvement of cognitive functions (learning and memory).

We could, then, consider which option to choose to improve cognitive functions: the practice of physical exercise or cognitive training with specific instrumental tests? According to Professor Sandra Champan of the University of Dallas (Texas), after investigating and comparing the benefits achieved with both options, she concluded that physical exercise affected memory more, while the use of cognitive instrumental tests did so in abstract reasoning.

What if we add music to physical activity?

Would we gain any advantage? Obviously, the first and obvious advantage is that physical activity would be more enjoyable, and motivating and would require less effort, but others, even more important, can be cited. One of them, observed in experiments with mice, is that simple musical exposure produces an increase in the levels of BDNF proteins. And, in humans, according to researcher Elvira Brattico (2021), there is evidence that the same thing happens, even in a fetal state. Therefore, the practice of physical exercise with listening to music would activate with greater emphasis the generation of these proteins, further enhancing the cognitive improvements mentioned.

One of the researchers who has most studied and observed the effects of music on sports practice has been Dr. Costa Karageorghis. In his book Inside Sport Psychology, he highlights that music is the legal doping of athletes, stating that sometimes it can increase the performance of the athlete by up to 15% and reduce the perception of effort by 10%.

During high-load microcycles when the need for motivation and enthusiasm is high, musicrelated interventions can help athletes achieve better results. Similarly, as an ergogenic aid, it can facilitate improved performance. At the end of the training, listening to sedative musical stimuli is possible to accelerate recovery and prevent complications related to the cardiovascular system.

Other studies focus on evaluating physiological changes in the presence of music. At the cardiovascular level, for example, alterations in heart rate and blood pressure are observed, as well as modifications in the release of the neurohormone norepinephrine that, among other functions, contributes to maintaining an adequate state of attention and action. Fast-tempo music increases these levels and decreases them if it is a slow-tempo.

Other advantages that listening to fast-tempo music while practicing physical exercise can bring are the synchronization of body movements and improved performance by maintaining a precise and constant rhythm and lower oxygen consumption. It is found that the synchronization of the movement with the musical tempo requires less oxygen, which indicates that the organism is working more efficiently: it does the same work with less effort.

By listening to slow-tempo music, especially when its speed (beats per minute, bpm) is below the heart rate or rate, contributes to a decrease in it (drag effect or entrainment) as well as blood pressure, thus facilitating rapid physiological recovery.

Music learning and motor coordination

One of the benefits of musical learning is the improvement in motor coordination. Among others, due to the constant activation, it causes in neural networks of both cerebral hemispheres through the corpus callosum and cerebellum.

Several decades ago, a woman, musician and athlete pronounced this phrase: “Sport taught me to relax, the piano gave me strong biceps and the sense of movement and rhythm.” It is a littleknown true story, but worth mentioning.

These were the words of Micheline Ostermeyer (1922-2001), great-granddaughter of the famous writer Victor Hugo (1802-1885) and granddaughter of the composer Lucien Paroche (1881-1915). He started in music at the age of 4, graduating from the Paris Conservatory of Music. A lover of sports, she made her profession and managed to be a three-time Olympic champion at the London Olympics (1948): gold medals in the shot put and discus, and bronze in the high jump. And, to celebrate, he improvised a piano recital at the headquarters of the French team, performing the Hammerklavier sonata, considered Beethoven’s most demanding composition for piano.

Being accepted as a concert performer, when she was a renowned athlete, required her to give proof of this. And so she did: she offered a concert in which she performed three piano works, one after the other (Brahms’ Concerto in D minor, César Franck’s symphonic variations, and Liszt’s E flat concerto). A feat, a demonstration of strength and resistance, which assured her reputation as a concert performer. At the age of 28, she abandoned his sports career but continued to dedicate herself to music, offering the last concerts in France and Switzerland a few years before her death in 2001.

Music, art, science, language, communication, emotion… and so many other things, influence us integrally, in all our dimensions, even in those as intimate as biological and/or genetic, according to incipient and complex current research. Music and sport are, therefore, good allies, which with proper use, and at the same time entertaining, contribute to improving and enhancing our physical and mental health.

Jordi A. Jauset, PhD

Courtesy photo: Linus Urpí

Doctor of Communication, engineer, and musician; Master of Business Administration and in Psychobiology and Cognitive Neuroscience; Scientific communicator. www.jordijauset.es

Sources:

Brattico, E., Bonetti, L., Ferretti, G., Vuust, P., & Matrone, C. (2021). Putting Cells in Motion: Advantages of Endogenous Boosting of BDNF Production. Cells, 10, 183.

Jauset-Berrocal, J.A. (2020). Beneficios de hacer ejercicio físico para el cerebro (y la memoria). CuerpoMente. Recuperado de https://www.cuerpomente.com/salud-mental/beneficios-ejercicio-fisico-cerebro-memoria_6408, el 20 de octubre de 2022.

Karageorghis, C., &Terry, P. (2011). Inside Sport Psychology. Australia: Human Kinetics.

Pereira, A. C., Huddleston, D. E., Brickman, A. M., Sosunov, A. A., Hen, R., McKhann, G. M., ... & Small, S. A. (2007). An in vivo correlate of exercise-induced neurogenesis in the adult dentate gyrus. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 104(13), 5638-5643.

Ruiza, M., Fernández, T. & Tamaro, E. (2004). Biografía de Micheline Ostermeyer. En Biografías y Vidas. La enciclopedia biográfica en línea. Barcelona (España). Recuperado de https://www.biografiasyvidas.com/biografia/o/ostermeyer.htm, el 20 de octubre de 2020.