music and brain

[archiemac]

How does music affect your brain?

[andy hughes]

I am sure there will be a seriously scientific answer to this question - but more simply - music moves all of us in various ways, even if we fail to understand why. Barber's 'Adagio' is sad music. Why? I have no idea, but play it to an audience, and that's the reaction you will get. Play Tamla Motown records at a party, and people will dance. Why? Still no idea, but the fact is that music affects us in a way that seems almost primeval in its intensity, but if you need the scientific lowdown on chemical changes etc., I'm sorry, but I know that I've listened to some sort of music every day of my life since I've been old enough to have a free will, and I suspect there are many like me. What ever the affect is, it's powerful.

[awol]

Research done in the Massachusetts General Hospital in Charlestown found that music makes people better able to deal with sadness and fear as it affects parts of the brain that make them feel happy. Scientists used PET scans to detect areas in the brain that are stimulated by music and discovered that the happiness experienced by music touches the same parts of the brain as food and sex.