Brains On Purpose™

Music can facilitate mediation. . .But what kind of music?

Poster I made from drums at studio of Colorado Jazz Workshop

Although I have not blogged in a while about the use of music in conflict resolution, I still research the topic with much enthusiasm and discuss it with a few of my colleagues who have knowledge of music. (Click to read previous posts from here at BonP.) For those of you who are like me—also interested in this use of music—I bring to your attention today a post from Denver Music Therapy; it includes some hints about music choice.

From "Music and the Brain: What kind of music is 'best' for you?":

There are all sorts of studies looking at music preference for both sociological and therapeutic reasons.  The use of preferred music evokes a stronger emotional connection and activates the emotion centers of the brain; generally people remember and have stronger responses to music that they like and are familiar with (Green, Baerensten, Stodkilde-Jorgensen, Roepstorff & Vuust, 2012; Stalinksi & Schellenberg, 2012).  This is one of the main reasons that familiar music evokes strong memories, even in people suffering from dementia.

Click to read the rest.

 

Denver's own Hugh Ragin

 

Conflict concert? Dispute ditty? Mediation minuet? Can the speech of angels lead to agreement?

Music is well said to be the speech of angels; in fact, nothing among the utterances allowed to man is felt to be so divine. It brings us near to the infinite. --Thomas Carlyle

It's been a while since I last blogged about the role of music in conflict resolution. But I was reminded of its potential by a recent piece of research done by Daniel Levitin. Dr. Levitin and his colleague Mona Lisa Chanda analyzed many scientific papers and derived some conclusions about the benefits of music. The abstract of "The neurochemistry of music" (Cell):

Music is used to regulate mood and arousal in everyday life and to promote physical and psychological health and well-being in clinical settings. However, scientific inquiry into the neurochemical effects of music is still in its infancy. In this review, we evaluate the evidence that music improves health and well-being through the engagement of neurochemical systems for (i) reward, motivation, and pleasure; (ii) stress and arousal; (iii) immunity; and (iv) social affiliation. We discuss the limitations of these studies and outline novel approaches for integration of conceptual and technological advances from the fields of music cognition and social neuroscience into studies of the neurochemistry of music.

Obviously reward, motivation, pleasure, stress, arousal, and social affiliation are basic ingredients in dispute resolution. This is why many of us believe in the strong potential of music in the management or resolution of conflicts.

For more about the research, read "Can Music Be More Effective Than Drugs?" (io9). Excerpt:

According to a new analysis of 400 published scientific papers, the old adage that “music is medicine” may literally be true. Canadian psychologists from McGill University have shown that the neurochemical benefits of music can boost the body’s immune system, reduce anxiety, and help regulate mood. The time has come, say the researchers, for doctors and therapists to start taking music much more seriously.

Mediators, too?

Music changes your brain: Listen to a soothing song after an argument?

For those of you have joined me on my quest to learn the best way to use music in conflict resolution, here's an article that quotes some of the best music researchers. Reading it will remind you of some of music's effects. From "Music: It's in your head, changing your brain" (CNN):

Here's one way you might not already be using music: Making a deliberate effort to use music to alter mood. Listen to something that makes you energetic at the beginning of the day, and listen to a soothing song after an argument, [Daniel] Levitin says.

Is there anyone reading this who has not experienced music changing his or her mood? And who has not seen a shift in mood move parties in a dispute towards resolution? So if music can shift mood, can it facilitate conflict management? I have met many people who think so but the challenge so far has been in finding the right music, knowing that the effects of music are not universal. A song that annoys me may lead someone else to a state of calm.

From the article, more properties of music that might be beneficial in mediation.

"I think there's enough evidence to say that musical experience, musical exposure, musical training, all of those things change your brain," says Dr. Charles Limb, associate professor of otolaryngology and head and neck surgery at Johns Hopkins University. "It allows you to think in a way that you used to not think, and it also trains a lot of other cognitive facilities that have nothing to do with music."

...

Music is strongly associated with the brain's reward system. It's the part of the brain that tells us if things are valuable, or important or relevant to survival, said Robert Zatorre, professor of neurology and neurosurgery at Montreal Neurological Institute.

Click to read the rest.

Improvisation, emergence, chaos, and conflict resolution

Partly because the "E" in my CARVE Disputes Model stands for "emergence," I was drawn to this article about an improvisational dance professor cum mediator. Plus, the article once again reminded me of how constrained we are in the way we conceptualize and practice mediation. I continue to hope that this century will see us leaping out of that narrowness and incorporating helpful tools from many arts and sciences, perhaps even including body movement. After reading about Susan Sgorbati, maybe you will join me in that hope?

From "Professor to showcase 'emergent improvisation' at EMPAC" (Times Union):

What do flocks of birds, schools of fish, neurons in the brain and dancers improvising movement have in common? According to Bennington College professor Susan Sgorbati, they are all functioning according to similar principles of self-organization, creating sense and order out of what might have been chaos.

...

"The improvisation work was always very important to me, because it had a connection to real life and to relationships," she said. "When I started talking with the scientists and realized this organic structuring was everywhere in nature, I started seeing everything differently."

...

As an experienced mediator (she developed Bennington's conflict resolution curriculum and supervises a mediation clinic for Bennington County in Vermont), Sgorbati was equipped to recognize the parallels between the way dancers move together and the way people in conflict move over time toward a mutually agreeable solution. That realization has led her to question whether emergent improvisation principles, coupled with the essential ingredient of empathy, could be somehow employed to help humans work out their differences, in the political, social and environmental arenas.

A couple of previous posts about art and mediation:

• Using the arts in conflict resolution: Some more pieces of the puzzle?
• Professional Artistry of Mediation: Accessing more of your brain and the knowledge of your body
• Images can help you paint a bright resolution to conflict
• Play what you know and then play above that: The role of improvisation in mediation
• Conflict resolution through artistry: Music, painting, and shadow puppets

Image credit: EMPAC.

Music clearly affects the brain: Does it encourage cooperation? Facilitate social interaction?

Hear answers to those questions by listening to this very interesting video from University of California at San Diego and Association of Psychological Sciences. If you have read past posts here about music and conflict resolution, you may guess what is said about music, cooperation, and facilitated interaction in this video.

From the Web page of A Conversation About Music, Mind, and Health:

What effect does music have on the brain, and what can music teach us about the brain? In this video 24th APS Annual Convention Speaker Aniruddh Patel and music therapist Barbara Reuer speak with David Granet of the University of California’s Health Matters about music, cognition, and health.

Scientists are just beginning to understand music’s implications for language acquisition, emotions, social skills, learning, and memory. Watch the interview to learn more about music and the mind, including research published in Psychological Science showing that music and other synchronized activities encourage cooperation.

Click to read other posts about music. Click to read about the research mentioned in the video: Marching to the Beat of the Same Drum Improves Teamwork.

Notes of resolution: The impact of music on conflict

Because the amount of research on the impact of music on the brain continues to grow, as does the collaboration between musicians and neuroscientists, I grow ever more optimistic about the benefits and usefulness of music in the resolution of disputes. (Click to read some of my past posts about music and dispute resolution.)

We are already learning that knowledge about the brain can help us in resolving conflict. The number of conflict resolution practitioners utilizing brain knowledge has grown since I first started this blog nearly five years ago. The use of music in our arena is not yet common but I don't think that scarcity will continue much longer. Music affects most of the brain and I firmly believe it can be harnessed to facilitate agreement, or help make wise decisions not to agree.

From "Scientists study music's effects on our brains and bodies" (Isthmus-The Daily Page):

[I]t turns out that music is a good subject for brain research because it affects so many neurological pathways.

The combination of music and neuroscience is a hot topic these days, and there is an exciting convergence happening between neuroscientists and musicians. Old walls have broken down, and the bridge between the disciplines can be crossed without suspicion. Researchers use music to give us insight into time, emotion, healing and language — a glimpse into our human nature.

And that's what is at the heart of conflict and its resolution: Time, emotion, healing, language, human nature. Music may be able to yield insight about why we disagree, and will likely help to quell tension and lessen contention, disharmony, and discord.

In addition to the research I've been doing about music in the last couple of years, I am in conversation with a few people who are experts in both music and conflict to create some musical tools for conflict professionals. 2012 will be the birth year of music playing a big part in mediation. Listen for it!

Note: Here is a blog post with a link to the program mentioned in the article linked to above: In this program, neuroscience meets jazz, mindfulness, and improv (idealawg).

Guitarist and jazz great Kenny Burrell has endorsed YOU ARE NOT YOUR BRAIN

Although many people are excited about the upcoming book You Are Not Your Brain: The 4-Step Solution for Changing Bad Habits, Ending Unhealthy Thinking, and Taking Control of Your Life, I was particularly happy to see one of the book's endorsements.

As regular readers here know, I sometimes write about my strong interest in music and its role in conflict resolution. Therefore, I was pleased to see what jazz guitarist Kenny Burrell said about the book. Burrell wrote:

The book YOU ARE NOT YOUR BRAIN will be very helpful to those who want to improve their outlook on life and enhance their quality of life.  As this book shows, and most every musician knows, You Are Not Your Brain.  The Heart and the Spirit are the source of real creativity.  The brain is a vehicle to express that creativity.

I am in wholehearted and whole-spirited agreement with this jazz great.

Interested in music and conflict resolution? Symposium in May and call for presentations

The announcement:

9th and 10th May 2011, University of Exeter, SocArts UK
Call for contributions
In the past decade there has been a growing interest in music and social conflict both inside and outside academia. Interdisciplinary research from music sociologists, ethnomusicologists, music psychologists and musicologists has focused on music’s dual use, both as a resource for conflict transformation and as a medium that can be used to incite conflict and channel violence. This research has also dovetailed with practical initiatives by non-governmental organisations (NGOs), local communities, academics and individuals attempting to utilise music to avoid or transform conflicts. Together these activities are slowly improving our understanding of the interesting, and at times pivotal, functions of music related activities in conflict and post-conflict scenarios. However, it is clear that there is still a great deal of

One world, one song? Probably not: Looking at music in conflict resolution

I have blogged so frequently here about the possible use of music in conflict resolution that music is one of the categories in the list over to the right. If you are interested in the question of whether or not there is any music that is universal enough to positively benefit most mediations, you will likely like the article "The Mind on Music" (Chicago Tribune).

Excerpt:

Philosophers for millenniums have marveled at the power of music to speak to our souls, to inspire joy, melancholy, aggression or calm with visceral insight beyond the grasp of our rational minds. Thanks to advances in neuroscience, researchers are beginning to understand what it is about music that touches us so deeply, and how to harness that power to soothe, uplift, comfort and heal — to use music as medicine for emotional and physical health.

...

It can seem obvious which songs would bring you up and which might bring you down. And indeed, there are structural components to songs that are meant to communicate joy, such as a fast tempo in major mode, or sadness, such as a slower tempo in minor mode. But there's a difference between the emotion communicated through music and the emotion actually induced in the listener. Our memories, personal preferences and

A way out of the prison of No Man's Land? Use the key of music

Musician David Amram tells a story in the beginning of his book Upbeat: Nine Lives of a Musical Cat, and that story holds a big clue about why I want to include music in conflict resolution. I first heard a quick reference to his adventure several years ago, found the book to read more details, and since then have told Amram's story many times.

In the spring of 1978, he was stuck in the New Delhi Airport in India. He was supposed to be performing in Tehran, but instead was held up in this airport, in a room called No Man's Land,

the nickname given to the isolated room ... where travelers whose connecting flights were canceled or delayed for more than 24 hours were housed and not allowed to leave the airport since they had no visa for India ... .

In addition to delayed travelers, he was housed with "suspected drug dealers, ... and criminals arrested in the airport who were waiting to be extradited." The carpet upon which he sat was "ratty," and he was hungry and thirsty.

The situation gets even worse.

A young man in a navy blue uniform ... strode into the

Take and make notes, conflict professionals: Let's conduct mediation in the gymnasium for the mind

My desire to use music in conflict resolution is undaunted and, in fact, increases daily. (Scroll through these older posts for more about music and conflict.) My eyes and ears are always watching and listening for how music can affect disputes. Most recently I read the book The Music Instinct: How Music Works and Why We Can't Do Without It, and was once again inspired to find a way to include music in mediation.

Read this excerpt from the book and see if it does not resonate with your deepest affection for music.

Unlike language, say, music has no dedicated mental circuitry localised in one or a few particular areas: it is a “whole brain” phenomenon. On the one hand this makes it immensely challenging to understand what is going on. On the other hand, it shows why music is so fundamentally important: no other stimulus comparably engages all aspects of our mental apparatus, and compels them to speak with one another: left to right hemisphere, logic to emotion. ... It is quite simply a gymnasium for the mind.

I agree with the book's author Philip Ball that it may be no coincidence that words that describe how we get along with each other come from music: harmony and dissonance.

We are deeply musical beings. In some cultures, if you were to say you were not musical, it would be akin to saying you were not alive.

[M]usic is too deeply embedded in our cultures to be extracted. It is [also] too deeply embedded in our brains. ... Music is a part of what we are and how we perceive the world.

Why would we want to deny conflict resolution such an intrinsic key to our selves and our cultures? Is it because we are not yet quite sure how to use music in these situations? If so, I firmly believe we need to solve that puzzle, and soon. This is a new century and, as I have been saying (probably sounding like a broken record to many), we need to move beyond, and to leap out of, twentieth century mindsets and models and methods.

If we needed proof that music has a profound influence on our minds and brains, neuroscience is delivering the evidence. Let's find out how to most effectively use this tool with our clients. Who wants to join me?

The brain for non-scientists: A 75-minute lesson in 12 short segments

Want to learn about

• Plasticity
• Imaging/Development
• Vision
• Hearing
• Motor System
• Language
• Music
• And more?

Then take a look at Changing Brains, a Web site created by University of Oregon. Click on "Watch Online" to see the videos that will give you information about your brain. Click on "References" for a list of readings. Clicking on "Resources" will take you to a long list of links. Thanks, U of Oregon.

Read more about the videos in "All About the Brain, in Just 75 Minutes" (Newswise):

It is the consistency of room-temperature butter, fits easily into two outstretched hands and contains a galaxy's worth of neurons. It is the human brain and the focus of a DVD -- "Changing Brains: Effects of Experience on Human Development" -- produced at the University of Oregon.
Did you ever wonder how everything we know, feel, and think is wired in this delicate organ? Did you ever wonder how children’s experiences shape their brain? Answers to these questions and more can be found the 75-minute program created for parents, teachers, caregivers, policymakers and anyone else interested in the mysteries of the brain.

Students, faculty and staff in the UO's Brain Development Lab produced the content for DVD, which is geared for non-scientists. There are 12 segments, including nine specific topics, all presented in mostly everyday language. ...

"The central theme of our production is that virtually every aspect of the development of the human brain and the sensory, cognitive, social and emotional skills that it supports is dependent on and shaped by experience -- input from our environment," said Helen Neville, a professor of psychology and neuroscience and holder of the Robert and Beverly Lewis Endowed Chair at the UO. "Every statement that is made in this DVD is supported by evidence from scientific studies."

The program begins with an introduction that describes the human brain, the central role it plays in human functioning, its fragility and the methods used to study its structure and function. Also detailed are mechanisms that allow experience to shape the brain's development. Its architecture is likened to a house: structurally sound if built appropriately or weak and subject to collapse if not.