We attribute many virtues to music. The documentary The Super Powers of Music dissects its positive effects on cognitive development, on the birth of feelings of love and even on the learning abilities of people who have Alzheimer’s disease.

Humans are a musical species, says neuroscientist Robert Zatorre of McGill University, who has been studying the brain and music for years. “It’s an exciting phenomenon,” he says, “because it depends on the interplay between very complex cognitive functions, related to perception, and basic biological functions, related to survival. »

It has long been known that music is embedded in various areas of the brain, which would partly explain why people with advanced Alzheimer’s disease respond favorably to songs from their youth, sometimes going as far as remember lyrics or old memories. We know less, on the other hand, that people suffering from this same affection can learn and memorize new songs.

This observation, made by French researchers, is one of the surprises of the Super powers of music, a documentary that is not very pleasant in its form, but with a fascinating subject. Emmanuel Bigand, holder of the Music Cognition Brain Chair at the Institut universitaire de France, acts as a guide through his surveys which take stock of current knowledge about the benefits of music.

Recent research has demonstrated that the fetus perceives the difference between simple vibrations and organized sounds. This sensitivity would not be a detail: the perception of rhythm and music would have structuring effects on the brain of the unborn child, then of the newborn in whom this would promote the acquisition of language. Later, learning music would even have a very positive effect on the acquisition of knowledge in a school setting.

“Two hours of music a week has as much cognitive effect as doing homework,” sums up Emmanuel Bigand.

We have already heard that music can improve sports performance (by reducing the perception of effort and pain, in particular) or that it is an excellent antidote to stress. However, researchers have also shown that it has a significant impact on our social relationships and the development of feelings of love: a tryst wrapped in “groovy” music would also have a better chance of creating sparks…

The subject is complex, but director Jacques Mitsch and his guests communicate in an accessible way the experiments carried out by the researchers and their surprising discoveries. Emmanuel Bigand and Barbara Tilleman, the two French scientists behind the film, convincingly defend their thesis that not only is music good for human beings, but that it is downright essential to them, in particular because it stimulates the reward system, associated with vital functions such as food and reproduction.

“Music stimulates different parts of the brain. Neurons coordinate and synchronize like musicians in an orchestra. The more the orchestra has the opportunity to rehearse, the better it will become. It’s the same with the brain,” insists Emmanuel Brigand in the film: the more the brain has the possibility of synchronizing, the more it will develop its skills.

The Superpowers of Music follows on the heels of several other documentaries that decipher the effects of music on the brain and our overall health, such as Music for the Brain (Isabelle Raynauld, 2019) and the fascinating Alive Inside: A Story of Music and Memory (Michael Rossato-Bennett, 2014).