Archive of the former Yahoo!Groups mailing list: MOTM

There have been a lot of recent studies that seem to indicate that
music is hardwired into the brain. There have, for instance, been
studies that show that music causes activity in the emotional
centers of the brain in newborns. This is somewhat perplexing,
because it would seem to indicate that there is a survival benefit
attached to having an emotional response to music, (or else why
would we have evolved it?) It would also seem to indicate that
response to music is genetic and not solely a product of nurturing,
although nurturing certainly can further develop the response.

There is also a cultural element. Certain ethnic groups that rely
heavily on pitch in their language seem to have a higher percentage
of children born with perfect pitch, for instance. This may be
something that evolved within that group over time.

There is also a correlation between perfect pitch and synesthesia, a
condition where a person sees light or color involuntarily in
response to certain sounds.

Certain artistically inclined persons can put colors together in
certain patterns and evoke an emotional response much the same way
musicians can put different musical frequencies together and evoke
an emotional response. The brain functions that enable them to do
this seem to be related.

There is also a correlation between rhythms that are perceived as
musical and certain brain waves. It is possible to induce a
transcendental state in a person through the use of certain rhythmic
patterns either heard binaurally through headphones or seen with
special glasses that show a different pattern to each eye.

Yeah, I read a lot!

Paul Haneberg