When senior Wonnie Kim (H’25) walks across Georgetown’s campus, she pops in her AirPods and listens to Korean indie, Olivia Dean or showtunes, depending on her mood.
When she reads or writes, she cues up a different mix: the Spotify playlists “Jazz for Study” or “House Focus” for instrumental, uplifting beats.
“I’ve found that a certain type of work fits a certain type of music, and I can be more productive based on that,” she said.
There’s science behind her system.
A new study published in the journal PLOS One found that a certain type of instrumental music can boost both listeners’ mood and productivity. After 10 minutes of listening, it also can help decrease anxiety, said Joan Orpella, a Georgetown assistant professor of neuroscience who led the study while in a previous role at New York University.
As Georgetown students approach finals, music known as “work flow” may be the answer for calming nerves and increasing their studying pace.
“People use music to regulate their mood, and there are many commercial platforms that advertise music that is geared to make people feel better and/or increase productivity and focus,” said Orpella.
Orpella wanted to find out whether this type of music lived up to its hype.
He and fellow researchers from New York University, City University of New York and Stanford University asked study participants to complete a demanding psychological task while listening to office noise, pop/rock music, deep focus music or work flow music.
Deep focus music (from the Spotify playlist “lofi”) was instrumental, tranquil and ambient; work flow (from the music app Spiritune) was also instrumental but more energizing and upbeat.
In analyzing the results, work flow had the winning formula — keeping your spirits high and your attention focused.
“Work flow music did not feature any lyrics or sudden changes in melody that might induce distraction, which may be critical when people are performing complex tasks,” said Orpella. “Even participants who reported moderately high levels of anxiety at the beginning of the experiment were able to improve their mood and provide faster accurate responses in the cognitive task.”
Orpella said he and fellow researchers were surprised that the “lofi” playlist with deep focus music did not positively impact mood and that office noise did not have a measurable negative effect.
“There are huge individual differences in musical taste, but this study can help students find music that helps them keep a positive and productive state of mind,” he said.
Cecilio Sandoval Aguilar (C’26), a pre-med student in the College of Arts & Sciences and Laidlaw Fellow who researched music’s impact on the brain, listens to movie soundtracks while studying.
The score from Doctor Strange or the TV series Wednesday are in his latest rotations. He said he’d be open to listening to workflow music, especially if it activates different emotions.
“Sometimes I can get chills by listening to music or maybe there’s a drop in the music track that makes me feel emotional. I don’t become distracted with the music. I notice the change and acknowledge it. It keeps me on track,” said Aguilar, who also composes and publishes his own music for his friends to use to study.
Music has direct access to the brain’s limbic center, the part of your brain that processes emotions, said Josef Rauschecker, a professor of neuroscience at Georgetown who mentored Aguilar on his Laidlaw project. It’s why music can directly influence our mood and emotions as opposed to other noises or outdoor sounds we hear, he said.
Scientists are discovering more about the healing benefits of music on anxiety, depression, memory and attention. Orpella said the study sheds light on music’s ability to make us feel better — and its power to regulate both our mood and cognitive performance.
Orpella doesn’t plan to listen to music to help him work though. As a former professional violinist, he finds music too distracting.
“Whether it has lyrics or not, it doesn’t matter to me. My attention goes to music right away,” he says. “As a trained musician, I never got over that part.”
Prior to neuroscience, Orpella led a successful career as a violinist, touring the world and teaching in a Barcelona music conservatory. A diagnosis of focal dystonia in his left hand led him to pivot to a Ph.D. in neuroscience, an interest he had been exploring in his free time. Years later, he prefers to keep the two worlds separate.
“Music has not been the focus of my scientific interests so far,” he said. “I always thought that the magic of music is best left alone.”
Kim said she would be open to listening to work flow music, particularly as she completes her senior thesis.
“I am someone who needs music to study,” she said. “I’m always open to trying different playlists.”
