The Brain, Music, and Unity
As someone who enjoys the arts, I have been interested in how music and art are used to interpret our understanding of God and His creation. I recently heard a talk given by John Lennox, professor emeritus of mathematics at Oxford University, bioethicist and Christian apologist, in which he mentioned a scientific study observing the interaction of music and the human brain. Being curious, I looked up the study and found the following.
In a 2022 study, researchers at MIT using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), observed the effects of singing on the brain and have discovered a select area of neurons in the brain’s auditory cortex that respond specifically to music. They found two types of neurons, one that responds to music in general and another that responds specifically to singing. This study built on previous studies that found the following facts about singing: it increases levels of Immunoglobulin A which lowers stress levels, it releases dopamine (the brain’s neurochemical response for pleasure and reward), it increases oxytocin which promotes social connection and helps to lower interpersonal walls, and it influences centers in the brain responsible for emotional regulation.
Our brain is made of two hemispheres which are both involved in nearly all brain activity, but there are important differences that have a huge influence on our understanding of reality. The left hemisphere works to analyze information and apprehends what and how by taking the information apart to form a small picture. The right hemisphere comprehends why, adding meaning to the data and forming the big picture. Singing uses both the left and right hemispheres concurrently as the brain directs the physical movements singing utilizes along with interpreting data and bringing meaning to the data. All of this together builds neuropathways in our brain, changing its structure.
As I understand the study’s findings, singing together changes the structure of the brain in such a way that it builds interpersonal bonds. Since we sing to worship God, putting this data into the context of corporate worship brings a deeper meaning. Singing a campfire song together as a group of friends or family can build the sense of belonging, but worshiping God together takes singing from a “seen realm” activity into something spiritual which transcends into the “unseen realm”. In order to worship God, a transaction must take place that requires sacrifice of self on the altar of the heart in order to elevate God to His rightful place in our understanding. As John the Baptist asserted in John 3:30 as he witnessed to his disciples about the identity of Christ, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” This is why it is important to sing songs corporately that extol the character and works of God rather than how I may feel about them. Keeping the focus on God rather than on myself gives the Holy Spirit opportunity to minister truth to my spirit, and then our emotions are activated in response as the truths bring life. How amazing our God is to create our brains in such a way that when we sing together in worship, our brain structure is changed in a way that encourages unity in both the seen and unseen realms!
However, worship in song is only one side of the coin. In Romans 12:1, Paul writes the cry of his heart to the church in Rome: “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. This comes after Paul’s theological manifesto detailing our need for a savior and the eternal riches Jesus made available for His own. Our response is to put to death our old nature-the desires of the flesh (Galatians 5:15-21) in order for the Holy Spirit to initiate His desire within us, which is to bear fruit. Just as Jesus did and said only what His Father told Him to do as He walked this earth, we are to sacrifice our idea of how to live for God’s. This also takes place on the altar of the heart-the unseen realm and is acted out in the seen realm in a continual minute by minute transaction. When we bear fruit, we are being readied to take our place as Christ’s bride in order that we may rule and reign with Him.
It is Christ who unites us. A group of broken sinful people, who are being transformed into the image of Christ under His headship and through the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, are through Him united in a single purpose under a single Head. Isn’t it like our amazing Creator, to illustrate this truth in how He created our brains to function when we worship Him together!
Mit.edu/2022singing-neurons-0222
“Clinical Research on the Benefits of Singing” singfit.com