Music sounds better under the influence of cannabis. Why?
- Listening to music is enhanced by the effect of hemp
- The subjective feeling of improving listening is due to the influence of several brain centers
- Most recreational users and patients receiving cannabis are in this respect
Close your eyes, put on your headphones and start to sensitively coat your favorite variety with your brand new vaporizer. You've heard this album countless times, but this time you feel every key, rhythm stream, and developing melody that resonates with you at a completely different level than ever before.
"When you work on a song for a few hours at a time and then light a joint during a break, it's like you hear that song differently - again and again."
This is how Lindsey Buckingham, a member of the US-English rock group Fleetwood Mac, describes her relationship to cannabis and music. The interconnectedness of music and medicinal cannabis dates back to the beginnings of the twentieth century, the emergence of jazz andit is linked to the icons of this then fresh improvisation genre, for example, Louise Armstrong or Dizzy Gillespim. History of Cannabis and his connection with music is very rich and one could surely debate the true beginning of the mutual partnership of these two phenomena.
How is it that music sounds better under the influence of cannabis?
Studies focused directly on this question are very limited, however, there are several hypotheses trying to explain the mechanism of this sweet duo.
Some oftheories point to the effect of cannabis associated with affecting perception time and timing which is so important for musicians and is connected with rhythm and stream of melody.
One of the studies investigating this phenomenon has shown that subjective perception of time of individuals under influence cannabis on the example of a 15 second time interval, it will increase by almost 2 seconds on average. "If you look at all the literature on cannabis and the perception of time, it looks like the brain systCannabis influences are a type of perception where a slower backward countdown occurs, ”explains Jorg Fachner, Professor of Music, Health and Brain at Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge.
"You can imagine that your internal time units will inflate a little, it will increase. The musicians are under the influence of cannabis during the musical improvisation a little more time to plan the next tone and find the rhythmic fibers more easily. "
Certainly, that would make sense, for example, in jazz musicians who can "push" more notes into a given music section without disrupting the rhythm or melody. Moreover, musicians praise the greater "richness of the resulting production" under the effect of cannabis. However, these views are still only subjective and have not been proven by any official study.
Concentration and attention
"The moment when your perception of time changes, the functions of attention and concentration change," he saysfurther ventures Fachner. "Put on your headphones, turn on your favorite song, and listen to some hearing information a lot while listeningmore selectively - some more than usual and others less. As a result, individual tones, rhythms and melodies are more intense. "
Podle Fachner is just bent ability to perceivebreaks between the notes "by the influence cannabis makes music more vivid and clearer.
Yearin 2002, Professor Fachner conducted his own study in which he examined the changes in the brain during cannabis listening. To measure brain activity, he used the EEG - Electroencephalogram, a tool capable of detecting even very small changes in the electrical activity of neurons. During the study, Fachner first measured the brain activity of sober subjects during the moments of silence as well as listening to music and repeated the same at a time when participants were under the influence of cannabis.
Fachner also decided to do experiment in a comfortable living room to avoid disturbing subjective experience due to laboratory environment and subsequent distortion of results. After the first listening and then thirty minutes pahave already been submitted to the participant medicinal cannabisabout content20% THCand the whole experiment was repeated while listening to the same songs.
As a result, after the application of cannabis, the brain activity of the participants increased mainly in the area of the right temporal and left occipital lobe - the brain region responsible for regulating the concentration and processing of sound and information about the surrounding area. "One ofThe interpretation of this observation is that it is under the influence cannabisit is possible to concentrate better on the stream of music while not requiring as much mental energy. As a result, listening is a simpler and much more relaxing process. "
Changes in visual processes under influenceref hemp
Also interesting are the changes in the left occipital region, which is normally responsible for the perception of space and the processing of visual information. "When you listen to music, there is always a sensually spatial element," Fachner explains.
"Our sense During evolution have evolved in such a way that we are able to recognize where and where all the surrounding sounds come from. This mechanism is being processed simultaneously using both sound and visual circuits of the brain. "
Changes inthe way the brain processes visual and audio information in certain cases leads to a sense of mixing or connecting these senses. "Some of the people who use medical cannabis before listening to music are, in their own words, able to better visualize the music and watch it in a certain way," Fachner adds.
Some of the other studies fromAlso mentioned in the 1970s are people under the influence of cannabis who are experiencing a "feeling of louder sounds, especially higher frequency sounds, thus increasing the chances of sound hallucinations."
Memory Functions
One of the other potential and interesting ones is according to Fachner a temporary change in user memory hypothesis cannabis.
Since cannabis mainly disturbs the short-term, working memory during action, music is experienced at ktAs a result, the user is more present at the moment. "By flushing short-term memory, let's say a 'compressed' version of memory, which is reflected in the feelings of greater presence and more detailed recognition of individual music tones."
In other words, "man, by breaking the short-term memory to some extent, loses contact with the past and the future, and is thus much more settled in the present moment, which is perceived as longer or timeless, free of continuous time," Frederick Melges said. , a psychiatrist performing at Stanford University.
So if we summarize everything, while listening to music under the influence of cannabis, there are:
- Changes in acoustic space perception
- Changes in the perception of the time course of music
- Different brain strategies to focus on individual tones
- Changes in frequency perception
Future research and applications
Thanks to the available knowledge from Fachner's research, it seems that hemp is also potentially useful for improving the hearing function of hearing impaired people. Fachner himself hopes that in some casesit may be possible to fine-tune the perception of sound frequencies or to better recognize where the sound comes from.
"With a higher perception of higher tones and improved acoustic recognition capabilities, you get more information about the origin of sounds in a particular room," says Fachner.
So, whatever cannabis-responsible neuronal circuits responsible for the excellence of listening to music, most recreational users of cannabis and patients treated with this versatile herbal match agree that music and cannabis simply fit together.
Source:
Hoffman, Adam. "Why Does Cannabis Make Music Sound Good?" Leafly