音乐对大脑有极大的价值
发布时间：2026-03-20 15:35:24 浏览量：1
Music Provides Great Value to the Brain
音乐对大脑有极大的价值
Music’s many benefits point to reasons why we like it so much.
音乐的诸多益处揭示了我们如此喜爱它的原因。
Posted March 16, 2026 | Reviewed by Davia Sills
发布于2026 年 3 月 16 日 | 由 Davia Sills 审阅
Brain research provides powerful insights into the mechanism of how people like music.Understanding why human beings like music requires exploring the value of music to the brain.There are several compelling benefits of music that can explain why we have strong emotional connection to it.
脑科学研究为我们深入了解人们喜爱音乐的机制提供了强有力的见解。要了解人类为什么喜欢音乐，就需要探索音乐对大脑的价值。音乐有几个令人信服的好处，可以解释为什么我们对音乐有强烈的情感联系。
A recent article about music is currently enjoying wide circulation.1 In it, we learn that our brains are hardwired to respond emotionally to music.2 The author illustrates this concept through the story of a man whose brain does not respond emotionally to music. His condition is called musical anhedonia, and it affects roughly 5 percent of people.3
最近一篇关于音乐的文章正在广泛传播。文章指出，我们的大脑天生就会对音乐产生情感反应。作者通过一个大脑对音乐没有情感反应的男子的故事来阐释这一概念。他的这种状况被称为音乐快感缺失症，大约影响5%的人口。
Tests of this man’s brain reveal the cause of his condition. He lacks strong neural connections—the hardwiring between the hearing (auditory) system and the emotional (limbic) system in his brain. In clear and accessible language, the article explains how we come to like music. But not why we like music.4
对这名男子的大脑检查揭示了他的病症原因。他缺乏牢固的神经连接——大脑中听觉系统和情感系统之间的硬连接。这篇文章用清晰易懂的语言解释了我们是如何喜欢上音乐的，但没有解释我们为什么喜欢音乐。
To answer the why question, we need to explore the evolutionary value of music. Consider this: 95 percent of people do respond emotionally to music, and this response is hardwired into our brains through our genes, so it must be important. So important, in fact, that it promotes the most important goals of evolution: our survival and procreation as a species. Let’s look at several reasons to explain this.5
要回答“为什么”这个问题，我们需要探究音乐的进化价值。想想看：95%的人会对音乐产生情感反应，而这种反应是通过基因根植于我们大脑的，所以它一定非常重要。事实上，它如此重要，以至于它促进了进化最重要的目标：我们作为物种的生存和繁衍。让我们来看看几个解释这一点的理由。
First, the human brain pays close attention to the near future. It constantly makes predictions based on past experience about what will happen next. This ability is valuable “because an organism can more effectively prepare an appropriate response to an event if that event can be predicted.”6 Like any skill, prediction improves with practice, and music helps the brain practice this ability.
首先，人脑非常关注近期未来。它会根据过去的经验不断预测接下来会发生什么。这种能力非常重要，“因为如果能够预测某个事件，生物体就能更有效地做出相应的反应。” ⁶和任何技能一样，预测能力会随着练习而提高，而音乐有助于大脑练习这种能力。
One leading explanation for our emotional response to music is called the prediction model. According to this model, the brain uses its knowledge of musical structure—the rules that determine which sounds typically follow others in a particular style of music—to predict what will come next.7 Our emotional response stems from the music either following these expectations or breaking them. These emotional reactions influence whether we like or dislike a piece of music. They also bind us to the practice of using music to strengthen our prediction skills.
解释我们对音乐的情感反应的一个主要理论是预测模型。根据这个模型，大脑会利用其对音乐结构的认知——即决定特定音乐风格中哪些声音通常接连出现的规则——来预测接下来会发生什么。我们的情感反应源于音乐是否符合这些预期。这些情感反应会影响我们对一首乐曲的喜好。它们也促使我们通过聆听音乐来增强预测能力。
Second, music helps people live and work together. Humans are social creatures. Our social nature developed out of necessity because even a healthy individual cannot face many of nature’s challenges alone. Music plays an important role in helping people connect with one another. This is true across the entire age spectrum. In a nutshell, “Making music together is simultaneously building a community together, which is considered by many to be the most adaptive and the most evolutionarily significant aspect of musical experience worldwide.”8
其次，音乐有助于人们共同生活和工作。人类是社会性动物。我们的社会性源于生存的需要，因为即使是健康的个体也无法独自应对自然界的诸多挑战。音乐在帮助人们彼此联系方面发挥着重要作用。这一点适用于所有年龄段。简而言之，“共同创作音乐的同时，也在共同构建社群，这被许多人认为是全球音乐体验中最具适应性和进化意义的方面。”
Because music provides these pro-social benefits, humans have evolved strong emotional connections to it. These emotional ties draw us to music automatically, no conscious thought required. As a result, the benefits of music are available to us at all times.
由于音乐具有这些促进社交的益处，人类进化出了与音乐之间强烈的情感联系。这些情感纽带使我们自然而然地被音乐吸引，无需任何意识控制。因此，我们随时随地都能享受到音乐带来的益处。
The strong emotional bond between people and music supports the idea that music is valuable to human life. Two social psychologists who reviewed a variety of studies on this topic summarized their findings this way: “People’s emotional responses to music are intricately tied to the . . . core social phenomena that bind us together into groups. In sum, this work establishes human musicality as a special form of social cognition [social intelligence] and provides . . . direct support for the hypothesis that music evolved as a tool of social living.”9
人与音乐之间强烈的情感纽带印证了音乐对人类生活的重要价值。两位社会心理学家回顾了多项相关研究，并总结道：“人们对音乐的情感反应与……将我们凝聚成群体的核心社会现象密切相关。总之，这项研究确立了人类的音乐性作为一种特殊的社会认知（社会智能）形式，并为音乐作为一种社会生活工具而进化的假设提供了直接支持。”
Third, music can also help our conscious mind manage our inner emotional world. Even when we try to avoid them, our conscious thoughts are often interrupted by unwanted emotions or feelings that arise from the subconscious. At other times, unwelcome thoughts appear and trigger negative emotions. These mental intrusions can sometimes influence our behavior in ways we would prefer to avoid.
第三，音乐还能帮助我们的意识管理内心的情感世界。即使我们试图避免，我们的意识也常常会被潜意识中涌现的不想要的情绪或感受所打断。有时，不愉快的想法会突然出现，引发负面情绪。这些精神上的干扰有时会以我们不愿看到的方式影响我们的行为。
Several strategies exist for dealing with this common problem. One of the most effective is engaging with music. Our conscious mind has learned to leverage music’s influence on the subconscious. In fact, the most common reason why people choose to listen to music is to alter their mood.10 Music, therefore, becomes a tool that the conscious mind can use when unwelcome thoughts or feelings threaten to overwhelm it.
应对这一常见问题有多种策略。其中最有效的策略之一是聆听音乐。我们的意识已经学会利用音乐对潜意识的影响。事实上，人们选择听音乐最常见的原因就是为了调节情绪。因此，当不愉快的想法或情绪威胁到意识时，音乐就成为了一种工具。
Feeling down? Play upbeat music to lift your mood. Feeling anxious? Listen to calm, soothing music to relax. Feeling bored? Try music from an unfamiliar style and explore new sounds.
心情低落？播放欢快的音乐来提振精神。感到焦虑？聆听平静舒缓的音乐来放松身心。感到无聊？尝试一些不熟悉的音乐风格，探索新的音乐世界。
Our emotional connection to music is so deeply built into the brain that these techniques can be remarkably powerful. They can even help people whose memory and cognition are severely damaged. Research has shown that people with Alzheimer’s disease can still understand the emotional meaning of music and respond appropriately when they hear it.
我们与音乐的情感联系深深植根于大脑之中，因此这些技巧可能非常有效。它们甚至可以帮助那些记忆力和认知能力严重受损的人。研究表明，阿尔茨海默病患者仍然能够理解音乐的情感含义，并在听到音乐时做出适当的反应。
