Music and the Mind | Anjana Iyner | TEDxYouth@SHC
[Applause] tell your story change the conversation colonized by students TEDx youth at shc human behavior is truly fascinating I myself have always been a curious observer and since I was little girl I've enjoyed watching people react to optical illusions or mind games or even just unfamiliar experiences for example I would always have a million questions after watching a movie or reading a book how was the Little Mermaid so intrigued by humans that she was willing to give up everything or how did Lord Voldemort love power and immortality so much that he was willing to pursue it at any cost observing people's reactions to different phenomena was and still is fascinating to me so psychology has always been a big part of my life but I began discovering a seemingly completely different passion in middle school when I was in the sixth or seventh grade I was watching the latest Pirates of the Caribbean movie when I noticed how the theme song flowed beautifully through the different scenes so I excitedly started learning how to play it on the piano and as I spent more and more time with the composition I began picking up on all its little nuances this was the start of my passion for film and soundtracks I explored more into the huge collection of film scores on Spotify and I discovered some of my favorite composers now you may not have heard of them but unless you've been living under a rock you've definitely heard their music Hans Zimmer who composed the otherworldly soundtracks of Inception and my favorite movie interstellar Thomas Newman who composed both finding nemo and finding dory and the latest two James Bond films and Alexandre de soie who composed the last two Harry Potter films most people don't pay too much attention to the music and a movie but just imagine how different the experience of watching a movie would be if it wasn't there but that's the whole point isn't it the music is supposed to further convey and deepen the visual experience of watching a movie without being noticed but if you keep an ear out the next time you watch a movie you'll hear pure magic in the form of sound now this opened up an entirely different world for me if you're like me and your Spotify playlist at film scores is past 365 songs or you can identify the composer of a new song just by recognizing their signature style you know you've taken this to a whole new level so whenever I watch a new movie one part of my brain is closely listening for all these little details in the music and if you listen well enough you can sometimes even guess what's about to happen in the movie just based on the tone of the song the music is supposed to further reflect and build on the characters emotions whether it be a rapid drumbeat during an action scene or a slow cello sequence during a heartfelt moment the composer adds to the storytelling by making just the right type of music and it adds that extra element to what the actors are portraying and enhances how you as the viewer experience that story for example check out the scene from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 directed by david gates and composed by alexandre des voix in this clip 17-year old Harry has to bury his friend Dobby the elf Dobby was a lovable and loyal character that has been present since Harry was 12 years old take a look Owens variant [Music] properly without magic [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] now that gave me chills just imagine how different that clip would have been without the music while the scene itself is powerful the music is the reason why the viewers are able to feel the emotions of the characters like I said pure magic in the form of sound now what about my passion for psychology psychology and film are closely related even though it's hard to find that connection at first psychology involves observing human behavior while making a film means that the director and the composer really need to understand human behavior so that they can breathe life into their characters by digging deep within these emotions the director can create the most realistic film possible and the composer can reinforce those emotions in the soundtrack many composers do this so well that their scores have put me at the edge of my seat and I kid you not almost reduce me to tears but there's a more scientific aspect to this connection as well nearer scientist Ori Hassan shared the results of one of his experiments in this experiment he had people either tell or listen to stories while being put through an fMRI scanner now before the stories began each person's neural responses in their auditory cortices were different and unsynchronized but once the storytelling began all their neural responses synced up and moved in the same way this is called neural and treatment when we hear a speech or we take in stories our neural responses sync up people experience the same intensity of emotion when they're watching a movie even if it's in different languages is this because their neural responses sync up when they watch the movie or hear the soundtrack this is part of the reason why a movie score is so crucial for the viewers to really understand the emotions of a movie it's almost like all our brains are onboard the same train and the composer is taking us on a journey but let's take it a step further what other connections can we find between music and the human psyche psychology involves observing human behavior so if a composer can channel the human emotions that they observe into the music that they create then perhaps a psychologist can correlate music with emotions to understand what their patient is feeling what if we were able to ease a patient by playing just the right type of music what if we were able to correlate music with memories to help Alzheimer's patients improve their memories what if we could extend even their brief moments of remembrance but let's go even further imagine the therapeutic possibilities if we use music in virtual reality to bring an entire world complete with characters and realistic sounds to hospitalized or bedridden patients we'd be able to bring the experience of climbing Mount Everest or hiking the Inca Trail to people for whom these experiences would otherwise be impossible there are so many new things for us to try and keeping an open mind to all these different fields can really allow us to expand the range of research exponentially now I myself don't know what the full impact of combining these fields is but I plan to study psychology neuroscience and film as I began college in the fall and I'm really excited to see where they take me and what I can do to contribute to these kinds of research to quote a fantastic movie Doctor Strange composed by Michael Giacchino you wonder what I see in your future possibility and the possibilities are truly endless thank you