Does music improve your focus?

BètaBreak edition January 2019

In the January edition of the BètaBreak we will discuss the effect that music has on our brain and, specifically, if there is such a thing as ‘study music’. These days, we see more and more headings in the media making statements such as ‘students perform better when they listen to the right type of music during studying’. On YouTube and Spotify there are thousands of ‘study music playlists’, or ‘cognitive enhancing sounds’. Even a radio station is known, called ‘Brain.fm’, claiming to provide noticeable results within 15 minutes or less. However, is there any evidence proving this phenomenon? And if so, why and how does it work? What can we do to optimize results if we decide to give it a shot?

Speakers

Rebecca Schaefer (Neuroscientist at Leiden University)

Dr. Evert Bisschop-Boele (professor at the Hanzehogeschool Groningen)

Dr. Ashley Burgoyne (lecturer at the University of Amsterdam)