This Monday in "Sans Rendez-vous", the professor of cognitive psychology and co-author of La symphonie neuronale, Emmanuel Bigand, discusses the beneficial effects of music on our brain at different stages of a human being's life. 

Neural development, learning aid, cognitive flexibility ... Music, whatever the style, can have amazing effects on our brain, even before birth.

In "Sans Rendez-vous" this Monday, the professor of cognitive psychology and co-author of 

The Neural Symphony

, Emmanuel Bigand, takes stock of the effects that a few note sequences can have on our brain and its development over a lifetime. 

Music helps fetuses develop neurons

Even before birth, music has beneficial effects on the fetus, affirms Emmanuel Bigand at the microphone of Europe 1. He knows for example "to recognize when his mother is speaking to him" thanks to "musical elements linked to communication like the rhythm or the change of tone ".

From the 24th week of gestation, the stage at which the auditory system begins to develop, the fetus can therefore analyze these sound elements.

And as he naturally seeks to communicate with his mother, "the fetus has every interest in developing neurons to understand her", explains the specialist. 

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More surprisingly, according to "studies which remain to be confirmed", the fetus would even react to music with movements of the mouth and tongue from the 16th week of development.

"As if he was responding by speaking," says Emmanuel Bigand.

Music could therefore be "a super stimulus of language by helping to set up communication patterns" in force in our society. 

Listening to music for a baby helps their development

Once the fetus becomes a baby, music continues to be a positive element for the human brain by helping to control emotions.

It is even an "essential element for the good development of baby: if he finds himself alone in the face of his anxieties, the latter will invest a lot of energy in managing them, an energy that he will not put into his development. "

For the professor of cognitive psychology, the emotional taking charge of the baby by the mother will therefore become a communication issue between the two, pushing the latter to develop neurons to better understand her. 

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 Music is good for memory and motor skills

Music would promote learning to read and write

If the action of music on learning is still an area that has its gray areas, Emmanuel Bigand nonetheless points to studies which have obtained "very interesting" results.

Among them, that led by the University of Burgundy on children in the last year of nursery school.

By having participated in musical workshops every week for two hours, Emmanuel Bigand's colleagues were able to observe "facilitations in school acquisitions for reading and writing".

Benefits which therefore continue for years after the workshops have stopped. 

Listen to several musical styles to have a "more flexible" brain

In adulthood music can have many effects, including pain relief for patients with chronic illnesses.

But musical diversity makes it possible to improve cognitive flexibility, that is to say the functioning of synapses, which allow inter-neuronal communication.

By listening to several musical styles regularly (and therefore several tempos, sounds, etc.) the neurons will get used to working with a different rhythm, that of the music, which will stimulate the connection with the synapses and promote "cognitive flexibility. ".  

>> LISTEN - The full interview with cognitive psychology professor Emmanuel Bigand

Yes, music softens manners

It is certainly one of the most famous adages of the French language: "music softens manners."

A well-founded proverb, explains Emmanuel Bigand: "We thought that musical pleasure was purely intellectual and without substance, but no. Music changes the biochemical state of the brain and can stimulate the reward circuits that produce dopamine, an essential neurotransmitter in the notion of pleasure. " 

But that's not all, in addition to "completely changing the hormonal production in depth", these changes last for several weeks. "So to take care of your brain, listen to music often and do not hesitate to go to the discovery of new artists.