Do you know that feeling when a song starts playing, and you’re instantly flooded with memories ? Maybe it’s the jam you always played while getting ready for a big night out or the one that reminds you of a spontaneous road trip with friends. Most of us think of these musical moments as clear, unchangeable snapshots of the past. Recent research suggests that music doesn’t just bring back memories; it might actually alter the way we remember them.
(Also read: Stress can make you anxious about harmless things: Study reveals how it alters fear memories ) The connection between music and brain When you listen to music, it’s not just your ears doing the work. Your brain’s emotion and memory centres, like the hippocampus, which helps store and retrieve memories, and the amygdala, the hub for processing emotions, light up too. This explains why some songs don’t just stick with you but feel deeply tied to emotional moments in your life.
We already know music has the power to trigger emotions and bring memories rushing back. But what if it goes beyond that? Could music actually change how we feel about those memories? This question leads to the concept of memory reactivation—the idea that every time you recall a memory, it becomes temporarily flexible, opening the door for new emotions or details to weave into the original experience. Can music change how you remember? Yiren Ren , along with Thackery Brown and University of Colorado Boulder researchers Sophia Mehdizadeh.
