# Why music makes our brain sing



## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

This is the title of an interesting NYT article by a professor of neuroscience. He describes some research into how music affects our brain activity -- very interesting stuff, especially the role of anticipation.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/09/opinion/sunday/why-music-makes-our-brain-sing.html?hp&_r=0


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## Taggart (Feb 14, 2013)

Nicely spotted!

Given the audience he studied, I am surprised he was able to measure any brain activity at all. 

Some of it obviously relates to muscle memory for players, but it is interesting that, ultimately, responding to music must be a learnt activity since we build up a picture of what we "like" presumably based on what we have listened to and find "acceptable".

On another thread somebody remarking that they found CP tonality "difficult" to listen to because they had heard so much contemporary music. Presumably this bears out the thesis.


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

Interesting article, though it addresses only the proximal causes of why we like music. A bigger question is why the brain evolved like that in the first place. I don't know how much progress has been towards getting an answer to that one.



> On another thread somebody remarking that they found CP tonality "difficult" to listen to because they had heard so much contemporary music. Presumably this bears out the thesis.


I think you may be referring to me, but I should note that I do not find it difficult to listen to or enjoy CP tonality. I just found it very difficult to make sense of its theoretical basis. It does seem to fit in with the hypothesis though.


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

Thought I'd bump the thread to add this (an article PetrB shared with me via PM):

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/01/the-neuroscience-of-music/


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## aleazk (Sep 30, 2011)

science said:


> Thought I'd bump the thread to add this (an article PetrB shared with me via PM):
> 
> http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/01/the-neuroscience-of-music/


Well, nothing new I must say. I think it's true, but that's only a very limited summary of what music can do and how it works.


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## Guest (Aug 12, 2013)

These articles are about par for the course for brain science, sad but true. The human brain is arguably the most complicated object in the known universe. The new imaging tools help, but what's needed are new ways of thinking about how the brain works, new metaphors if you will. If you don't know what to look for you probably won't find it.

One point made by the authors was the music is rewarding when the user correctly anticipates chord resolution at the end of a piece. To that I say the journey is it's own reward. Music is parsed by the brain into movement as well as pitch. Arguably pitch just helps us visualize the movement. We tap our feet and swing our arms without worrying too much about chord resolution. Chord resolution may just be a learned cue that this dance is over.


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