You don’t need to be distracted while driving — it’s dangerous. Therefore, for example, you can not talk on a mobile phone. But listening to music is even recommended. The psychophysiologist explains.
Due to the abundance of road accidents, the question of the possibility of talking on a mobile phone while driving has not been discussed for a long time: you cannot talk on a mobile phone. Such conversations really divert the attention of drivers from unexpected circumstances on the roads. They are dangerous even if the driver does not participate in the dialogue, but simply listens carefully to the interlocutor.
So, while driving, you can’t listen to anything at all? But many of my acquaintances, people who are very responsible, often turn on their favorite pieces of music when they get behind the wheel. They are not turned on very loudly so that the music does not interfere with hearing any external signals. They claim that their favorite music not only does not interfere with their driving, but even helps to avoid an accident.
What is it — self-hypnosis, to reserve the right to pleasure? I think no. I trust my friends who are not at all risk-averse. They really try not to talk with acquaintances at full speed, they immediately warn that they are driving, and in case of an urgent need for such a conversation, they stop the car. And they listen to music at full speed and literally live these impressions. What is the difference?
Speech is verbal information addressed to the left hemisphere, which is responsible for logical analytical thinking, focusing attention on specific details, with the inevitable limitation of attention to everything else.
The sounds of music help the right hemisphere to perceive live visual impressions, to see the surrounding world in its entirety.
And this means that all other visual and auditory impressions at this moment are filtered and relegated to the background so as not to interfere with the most important thing — what the analysis is focused on. Such «superfluous» impressions include landscapes flickering outside the window, and sounds, and cars flying past, and cars that suddenly slow down or move off the lane, and people crossing the road.
Everything that requires instant orientation and quick «grasping» of a variety of signals from the outside world, that which ensures accuracy and speed of reaction — all this is not included in the functions of the left hemisphere in the process of communication. The brain is fully occupied with the perception and reflection of what has been said.
Music and singing, on the other hand, are directed to the right hemisphere. They don’t need analysis. The right hemisphere is designed in such a way that it does not concentrate on something limited and specific and does not parse the world into separate elements in order to analyze them and build them into a strictly ordered system. It perceives the world as a whole and is open to all its manifestations, “grabs” them simultaneously, and the sounds of music do not interfere, but even help it to perceive at the same time live visual impressions, to see the world around it in all its fullness and brilliance.
For each person, this should be such music in which he literally dissolves with pleasure, as during meditation, when the alpha rhythm of rest dominates on the electroencephalogram, but the brain is open to any sensory experiences.
The right hemisphere is responsible for the integrity of our behavior, for the harmonious combination of movements, for the ability to make, even before awareness, a quick and unmistakable choice of the right movement in conditions where salvation depends on such movement, in an extreme situation. This choice occurs almost intuitively, without prior analysis, and then, as a rule, a person does not remember what exactly he did and in what sequence and how he managed to react quickly.
Music does not create an alternative to the problem being solved — it creates a good background for the solution
And music could help him, sounding not only in his ears, but also in himself, music that creates inner harmony and at the same time does not distract from what is happening outside, does not focus our attention on one thing.
This means that pleasurable music is worth listening to not only while driving, but also while solving a wide variety of problems, in order to see the problem in a wide context of associations and various connections with other problems. At the same time, music does not create an alternative to the problem being solved — it creates a good background for the solution.
I know professional computer scientists and programmers who work successfully to music, which even, they say, allows them to better focus on a particular problem and not get tired at the same time.
The activity of the right hemisphere during the creation or perception of multi-valued figurative representations does not require additional energy costs from the brain. Therefore, creative people do not get tired precisely in the process of creative activity, and readiness for a creative solution is useful in any kind of activity.