New
research explores how--and why--music affects our brains
by
Frederik Joelving
Music has an undeniable power
over mind and body—and the science behind its mysterious
sway is a hot topic at the moment. In the latest study
to show music’s physical effects on the body, researchers
found that volume changes affect heart rate and other
physiological markers. But why? A recent NOVA documentary
and a new article from Scientific American MIND magazine
explore the vexing question of why music moves us.
In the new study from the journal Circulation, an Italian
team showed that heart rate, blood pressure and breathing
depth faithfully mirrored rising and falling sound levels
in classical music. Earlier, the scientists had observed
the same effect for musical tempo. These physiologic effects
might intensify our emotional response to music and help
explain how music therapy works in people with neurological
impairments such as stroke.
Studies like this one help to answer the question of how
music affects us, but researchers struggle to explain
why. Patients with neurological problems that affect musical
talent, appreciation or understanding are one source of
important clues. Last week on PBS, the NOVA premiere called
“Musical Minds” told the story of several
such cases, based on neurologist Oliver Sacks’s
book Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain. One story
focused on Tony Cicoria, an orthopedic surgeon who developed
an obsession to play the piano after being struck by lightning.
Although we might glean valuable insights from extreme
cases such as Cicoria’s, we still lack a firm understanding
of how and why the average person’s brain is so
tuned in to music. Inspired by her own recreational interest
in singing, Karen Schrock—an editor at Scientific
American Mind—explores the latest research into
this question in “Why Music Moves Us,” featured
in the current issue of the magazine. As Sacks told Schrock,
“Music is the most direct and mysterious way of
conveying and evoking feeling.”
MORE
INFORMATION
This article first appeared
in the Scientific American in July, 2009. Their website
can be found at www.scientificamerican.com.
Music without words means leaving behind the mind. And leaving behind the mind is meditation.
Meditation returns you to the source. And the source of all is sound. — Kabir
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