The Brain and Music

I’ve heard people say for several decades now, that the brain is the last unexplored frontier.   I find that extremely exciting because I know how powerful music is and I believe that the more we understand about how music affects us, through the brain, then the better we can help humans to heal from a wide variety of physical and mental illnesses, and also help humans to move toward a greater realization of their full potential! According to a 1997 article in the Harvard Gazette,

      “Your inner ear contains a spiral sheet that the sounds of music pluck like a guitar string. This plucking triggers the firing of brain cells that make up the hearing parts of your brain. At the highest station, the auditory cortex, just above your ears, these firing cells generate the conscious experience of music. Different patterns of firing excite other ensembles of cells, and these associate the sound of music with feelings, thoughts, and past experiences.

That’s a sketch of how the brain listens to music — just a short ditty to outline the complex symphony of activity that governs our perception of everything from Bach to U2. It’s also a lot more than was known until recently.

“We know much more about how we see than how we hear,” says Mark Tramo, assistant professor of neurology at the Medical School, Ph.D. student, and published songwriter. “What happens in hearing is harder to understand intuitively.”

Sound transmitted to the inner ear is broken down according to the spectrum of frequencies that make up sounds. This orderly arrangement of low to higher frequencies is mapped onto the brain much like the way low to high notes are mapped on a piano keyboard. However, not much is known about how the pieces are put back together when we recognize melodies, words, or the scolding sound of someone’s voice.

Beyond the working of specific bunches of brain cells, humans may come into the world with a predisposition to enjoy singing and music, just as language capacities seem to be prewired into our heads. Culture and experience also play a major role in how we perceive music. Finally, there’s evidence that young children who study music become better problem-solvers than those without such training.”

William J. Cromie is th author of the above.