FINDING OUR MUSICAL BRAINS
Why are we humans the only species to appreciate abstract things like art and music? Because we are the only ones who possess a medial prefrontal cortex. How can music make us feel chills up our spine, sprout tears, or experience joy? Our almondine amydalas kick into gear when we hear it.
"It is interesting to think that while animals get these 'rewards' from things like eating and sex... humans get them form abstract or aesthetic pleasures like art, poetry or music, that, as far as we know, don't have any survival value," neuroscientist, Valorie Salimpoor pointed out in an interview with Business Insider.
Salimpoor and Robert Zatorre, of McGill University in Montreal, Canada, focus on music’s impact on the brain. They have mapped the parts of the brain that respond to music by detecting blood flow in fMRI scans.
In their most recent study, published in the journal Science in April, Salimpoor and Zatorre found that music triggers reward-related circuits within the nucleus accumbens, one of the first structures to develop in our brain’s evolutionary timeline.
If we like a new piece of music, we get an extra burst of dopamine, just like we do with other pleasurable stimuli, like excellent food and sex. Even more fascinating is the fact that new music impacts your brain in different ways and in different areas than familiar music does. The brain’s inferior frontal cortex processes novel musical patterns, comparing them to patterns stored in the superior temporal gyrus region. And the patterns we store are essentially the building block of our musical taste. They predict what we will like in the future. My superior temporal gyrus is unique to me as yours is to you, because it is formed by music we have each heard in the past. Salimpoor likens it to our very own biological music-recommendation system, a Genius Playlist that anticipates our pleasure.
Have you ever anticipated notes or a musical phrase about to come next in a song or composition you are listening to? You have your nucleus accumbens, working in conjunction with your superior temporal gyrus, to thank for that. This is the part of the brain where music-induced pleasure starts. This is also the part of your brain that tells you how to move your body as you dance, giving you milliseconds of advance notice so you appear to be coordinated and “dancing to the music.” Of course some of us are more coordinated than others in this respect.
Salimpoor and Zatorre assert that the powerful emotional component of music, the part we feel most deeply when we listen, is largely about the creation of expectation. They have found that activity in the nucleus accumbens indicates whether or not our musical expectations are being met or surpassed.
But the stimulus-reward phenomenon is not the only one that determines our relationships with music.
Daniel J. Levitin and Mona Lisa Chanda, also of McGill University, recently reviewed 400 scientific papers, to get a meta-perspective on music’s effects on our brains. Their findings, recently published in the journal Trends in Cognitive Science, were grouped into four buckets:
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Mood regulation
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Stress reduction
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Immunity regulation
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Social behavior
Why does some music make us relax more? Because it causes a drop in cortisol, our stress hormone. Music was also found to impact antibodies and pain levels in our systems. Music, in effect, is a drug, that can deliver benefits to our bodies without the sometimes dangerous and expensive use of pharmaceuticals, usually with very pleasant side effects.
And, while we each have unique musical brain libraries, we have commonalities in how we experience music when we are together. That’s why thousands of Bic lighters flick on at a Journey concert, mosh-pits are surfable, and anthems unify us in the spirit of patriotism and sport.
Music holds the potential to help us to manage disorders, disease, and recovery, as well as how we behave, as individuals and together in society. The next set of quests in the investigation of the neuroscience of music is to determine which chemicals in the brain are involved in music listening and performing, and in which parts of the brain they are active. Brain cell activity greatly increases when the brain is involved in language and music interactions, and they differ depending on whether you are playing an instrument, composing, or jamming.
This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession
Video: e2wjay
The Portland Chamber Orchestra (PCO) has become known for their union of music, art and science. Yaacov Bergman, Artistic Director of PCO is excited by the fusion and its impact on developing minds. "We live in a time where one study after another, music education proves to be beneficial not just for a sense of aesthetics and enjoyment, but that it shapes the ability and potential of a young person to look at things in different ways," Bergman said. "The cognitive and emotional understanding is strengthened when the arts are connected to each other."
Some may contend that viewing art through a scientific lens takes its magic away and dulls its spirit. Some only want to consider the soul of an artist. We disagree. We are equally fascinated by the brain. In our view exploring the ways in which science impacts both our production of and experience with art, makes it all the more beautiful.
Check out the rest of our Beautiful Brains series, running this week, as well as our other posts looking at science and beauty together.
