{"id":618,"date":"2017-10-01T02:57:09","date_gmt":"2017-10-01T02:57:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/healingmusicenterprises.com\/brain_blog\/?p=618"},"modified":"2017-10-30T01:24:23","modified_gmt":"2017-10-30T01:24:23","slug":"eighth-cranial-nerve-music-enters-brain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/healingmusicenterprises.com\/brain_blog\/2017\/10\/eighth-cranial-nerve-music-enters-brain\/","title":{"rendered":"Eighth Cranial Nerve: Where music enters the brain"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\"<\/a>The eighth cranial nerve is where music enters the brain. \u00a0It is the pathway into the brain! \u00a0 This has been known for a long, long time; but it wasn’t always accepted that the brain was even the seat of intelligence. \u00a0That honor was reserved for the heart!<\/p>\n

In ancient Egypt, the brain was removed with a hook before mummification, but the heart was left intact. \u00a0Apparently, the Egyptians believed that the brain was simply a form of stuffing. \u00a0Even today there are remnants of that still exist, as when we say that we’ve learned a piece of music “by heart.”<\/p>\n

The evolution of our understanding of anatomy is ongoing, even the anatomy of the brain, but we do know that music enters the brain through the 8th cranial nerve.<\/p>\n

Another interesting theory is that rather than the ear being differentiated skin, that the entire body, covered in nerve-filled skin, is actually a giant ear!! \u00a0This theory was put forth by Dr. Alfred Tomatis, with whom I studied in 1991. \u00a0Dr. Tomatis was a brilliant man and was endlessly fascinated by the connection of the ear, the brain, and the voice. \u00a0Dr. Tomatis believed that we could use our own voices to change the brain, and our mood and energy levels. \u00a0Yes, his work was controversial, but for those people whose lives he changed, he was a brilliant scientist and physician. \u00a0Dr. Tomatis believed that even if a person is completely deaf, they can still feel vibration through their skin and can enjoy music and other sounds through bone conduction and feeling the vibration through the skin of their entire bodies.<\/p>\n

The famous Scottish percussionist, Evelyn Glennie, is a fabulous performer and travels around the globe playing with orchestras and having composers write music just for her. \u00a0 See a video of Evenlyn Glennie<\/p>\n