The Brain and Music

Research published earlier this year showed that listening to music releases the
neurotransmitter dopamine in the brain and sends pleasure signals to the rest of
the body. Now findings recently published in NeuroImage offer
additional insights into how music affects our neural circuits.

In the study
Finnish researchers recorded the brain responses of
individuals who were listening to a piece of modern Argentinian tango using
functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) technology. Afterwards, they used
computer algorithms to analyze the musical content of the tango and illustrate
how its rhythmic, tonal and timbral components evolved over time. They then
compared the brain responses and the musical features. Medical News Today reports:

The researchers found that music listening recruits not only the auditory
areas of the brain, but also employs large-scale neural networks. For instance,
they discovered that the processing of musical pulse recruits motor areas in the
brain, supporting the idea that music and movement are closely intertwined.
Limbic areas of the brain, known to be associated with emotions, were found to
be involved in rhythm and tonality processing. Processing of timbre was
associated with activations in the so-called default mode network, which is
assumed to be associated with mind-wandering and creativity.

Similarly, a past
Stanford study showed music engages the areas of the brain involved with paying
attention, making predictions and updating the event in memory. The findings
also suggest that music can help the brain organize incoming information.

Published by Stanford University School of Medicine.  article by Lia Steakley