The psychological process of listening to music and its psychological benefits

I was watching a few videos from one of my favorite YouTube channels, WIRED as I was getting ready for bed, I came across a video that caught my attention titled "How Does Music Affect Your Brain?" This title intrigued me because I've always known that music has psychological impacts on humans, such as its ability to reduce stress, increase motivation, enhance moods, etc. But I never really thought deeply about how our brain processes music so that it ignites certain sensations that we feel in our bodies. In the video, Daniel J. Levitin, the author of the book This Is Your Brain on Music, explained the theories presented 25 years ago, stating that languages are on the left side of our brain and music are on the right side is false. However, since there are so many new technological advancements, many studies and experiments prove that music is processed through many regions of our brains, including the front, the back, the right side, and the left side, through different parts of our brains, such as the auditory cortex, visual cortex, motor cortex, cerebellum, and hippocampus. The auditory cortex is where tones and sounds are analyzed and perceived, such as loudness, rhythm, and pitch. The visual cortex is stimulated when you're reading music as a musician or watching others perform. The motor cortex is involved during music-related movements, such as playing an instrument, dancing, tapping your foot, snapping your fingers, etc. The cerebellum mediates rhythm and helps interpret timing, and also mediates the emotional responses that occur while listening to music. The hippocampus is involved in making musical memories and experiences, such as being able to find a familiar passage in our brain's memory banks.

Well how does this process eventually benefit us? One of the most profound psychological effects of music on the brain is the release of dopamine, a neurotransmitter associated with pleasure and reward. A study performed in 2011 demonstrated that listening to pleasurable music led to a 9% increase in dopamine release in the nucleus accumbent, a key region in the brain's reward system. This increase is similar to the dopamine release associated with other pleasurable activities such as eating, exercise, and even drug use.