Dancing Makes You Smarter
It's no coincidence that dancing in a group of friends can bring on sheer elation. Not only can dancing boost your mood, it's also related to a host of other benefits. Dancing causes a larger endorphin release than any other form of exercise, while also reducing cortisol levels (Halliwell, 2016). In one study, participants were sent into a room with music for five minutes and had the option to either sit, cycle on an exercise bike, or dance. All participants had to take a cognitive task following their five minute activity. Participants who chose to dance, showed increased problem solving skills and improved mood. Incorporating music and dancing into your morning routine may be the perfect start to the day. Dancing before class may provide some stress relief and enhanced critical thinking performance during class discussions.
Dancing has an effect on our neural oscillatory activity, in other words, dancing changes our brain waves. Cognitive processing and memory formation has been linked to increased theta wave activity (Basso et al., 2021). It is theorized that dancing increases theta wave activity, which could explain why dancing may make you a better problem solver. Dancing also increases the amplitude of other brain waves. At rest, dancers have higher alpha and beta brain frequencies compared to other athletes and healthy controls (Basso et al., 2021). Alpha waves are associated with a relaxed yet awake state and beta frequencies are associated with a more focused and alert state. Some researchers claim that increased alpha activity may increase creativity and decrease stress, anxiety, and other depressive symptoms (Basso et al., 2021).
The combination of music and rhythmic physical activity can do wonderful things for the mind. Music stimulates the brain’s reward centers and dancing stimulates sensory and motor circuits (Edwards, 2015). Dancing involves the motor cortex and somatosensory cortex, amongst other areas (Edwards, 2015). The motor cortex allows us to plan our movement while the somatosensory cortex aids in hand-eye coordination (Edwards, 2015). Dancing involves communication over several regions of the brain. Utilizing these regions may increase neural plasticity, which decreases risk for several neurodegenerative diseases.
In one study, researchers analyzed the effects of different physical activities on the risk of dementia in elderly individuals. The effects of eleven activities, including golfing, swimming, tennis, and cycling were studied. However, only dancing was found to have a significant effect in lowering the participants risk for dementia (Edwards, 2015). It can be hypothesized that the social and rhythmic aspect of dance has synergistic benefits when compared to physical activity that does not include those qualities.
TLDR: Put on your favorite song and dance! It may make you a happier, healthier, and better student.
Basso, J. C., Satyal, M. K., & Rugh, R. (2021). Dance on the Brain: Enhancing Intra- and Inter-Brain Synchrony. Frontiers in human neuroscience, 14, 584312. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2020.584312
Highly recommend looking at this article if you have time ^^^ Very interesting!
Edwards, S. (2015). Dancing and the Brain. Harvard Medical School. https://hms.harvard.edu/newsevents/publications-archive/brain/dancing-brain
Halliwell, R. (2016, April 29). Why dancing feels so good. The Telegraph. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/good-news/seven-seas/why-dancing-feels-good/
Now I finally have an excuse to dance more! Is there any type of music or dance that stimulates this type of preventative mechanism? I have heard there are limited finding around the "Mozart effect" which specifically looks at classical music having an effect on problem solving.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I did find a randomized control study specifically looking at children with epilepsy seeing if listening to Mozart's K.448 decreased the number of epileptiform discharges (slow-wave complexes without observed clinical seizures). What they found is those that listened to Mozart's K.448 had more parasympathetic activity and less epileptiform discharges. Somehow listening to Mozart was able to keep the kids calm and spiking! I wondering if they were also dancing while listening too!
From what I am hearing, music is good for the soul and body!
Paprad, T., Veeravigrom, M., & Desudchit, T. (2021). Effect of Mozart K.448 on interictal epileptiform discharges in children with epilepsy: A randomized controlled pilot study. Epilepsy & behavior : E&B, 114(Pt A), 107177. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yebeh.2020.107177
Hi Priscilla,
ReplyDeleteAs someone who danced from the age of 6 to 15, now I know why I did so much better in school than after I stopped!
Just kidding, but I am not surprised at the fact that dancing releases more endorphins than any other type of exercise. I always used to feel rejuvenated and happy coming out of dance class.
I also found an article that talks about dancing leading to an elevated pain threshold as well as greater social bonds with those you are dancing with. The social bonds is not a huge shock, but the pain threshold is slightly shocking. This is also due to the endorphins being released. The more endorphins released, the less pain the body will feel. The article focuses on "silent disco's" which if you went to the silent disco at Regis our freshmen year during Ranger week, you would probably agree that although it may have been slightly awkward, it did improve social connections with those around you and probably helped make new social connections as well. There is nothing better than everyone embarrassing themselves on the dance floor, together!
Tarr, Bronwyn, et al. “Silent Disco: Dancing in Synchrony Leads to Elevated Pain Thresholds and Social Closeness.” Evolution and Human Behavior, vol. 37, no. 5, 2016, pp. 343–349., https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2016.02.004.