“Zip-a-dee doo dah, Zip-a-dee-ay …”
–A. Wrubel, R. Gilbert
“Do-wah diddy-diddy dum diddy-do …”
–The Moffats
“Super-cali-fragilistic-expialidocious …”
–The Sherman Brothers
“What an odd thing it is to see an entire species–billions of people–playing with, listening to, meaningless tonal patterns, occupied and preoccupied for much of their time by what they call ‘music.”‘
–Oliver Sacks, [...]

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The research team showed that music engages the areas of the brain involved with paying attention, making predictions and updating the event in memory. Peak brain activity occurred during a short period of silence between musical movements—when seemingly nothing was happening.
Beyond understanding the process of listening to music, their work has far-reaching implications for how [...]

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Brain ‘closes eyes’ to hear music
Our brains can turn down our ability to see to help them listen even harder to music and complex sounds, say experts.
A US study of 20 non-musicians and 20 musical conductors found both groups diverted brain activity away from visual areas during listening tasks.
Scans showed activity fell in these areas [...]

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Of all my blog topics that I write about, the topic of music and the brain seems to generate the most response and the most comments and questions.  I can see why too!  Everybody loves music although taste in music varies radically from pop, rock and jazz to symphonies, chamber music and opera.  Then there [...]

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