The "Mozart effect" is the name given to the series of supposed benefits produced by listening to the music composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
In 1991, the otolaryngologist and researcher Alfred A. Tomatis published the book Pourquoi Mozart based on his Tomatis Method, and in which he used music during therapy sessions with his patients, stating that Mozart's music helped in the process and that he could cure cases of depression.
In 1993, the psychologist Frances Rauscher et al. from the University of California5 described in an article, "Music and Spatial Task Performance", published in the journal Nature, that the exposure of 36 students for 10 minutes to the sonata for two pianos in D major KV 448 / 375a (in the Köchel catalog) had positive effects on tests of space-time reasoning. This effect lasted about 10 minutes.
The study was carried out on three groups of 36 high school students in each group. While one group listened to the quoted work, a second group listened to relaxation instructions designed to lower blood pressure. A third group remained silent. Within ten minutes, they had to complete a series of tasks, including Stanford-Binet reasoning tests and paper folding and cutting tests. The researchers found that students who had listened to Mozart scored higher than students in the other groups.
The mozart effect not only helps us to concentrate when performing a task that requires concentration and to have our mind clear, it is currently used as a method of relaxation and it is scientifically proven that it is very positive for our health to listen to symphonies by this well-known composer of classical music.
