Music and the Brain

A recent scientific study found that the brain responds differently to music than other forms of noise such as talking, a door slamming, or a dog barking. The researchers say that the brain has a “Music Room” that only activates when listening to music or something similar to music, like whistling. They used an F.M.R.I. which is a scanning device to measure where the brain is active when something is happening. Basically, it shows what part of the brain “lights up” when the person perceives music. In looking at many scans of the auditory cortex (a part of the brain near the temporal lobe that relates to hearing), they were able to determine that some neural pathways respond to the music. It is interesting to take into account the amount of music that people listen to. The average person listens to about 4 hours of music per day. That is 17% of a 24 hour day, but if you take into account about 8 hours of sleeping, hearing music could account for 25% of your day. This article pointed out that many cultural activities revolve around music as well. Many cultures create different types of music, but that aside, here we have dances at weddings, graduations, and funerals/ memorials that all have music within them. Also, at sports games, the national anthem is played, which is another area of music. Scientists still do not know why the specific part of the brain is active, but it is also intriguing to see the amount of music is in everyone’s day to day lives.

Here is the link to the article: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/09/science/new-ways-into-the-brains-music-room.html?_r=0