Information Related to "Your Brain On Music"
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I
can't get that song out of my head!" is a common complaint when a jingle
from a commercial rattles around in our minds and we hum it endlessly.
Why do those bits of music get stuck in our memory?
Recent research has located the section of the brain that seems to foster holding on to a tune. A team of researchers from Dartmouth College scanned the brains of volunteers while bits of songs were played and then stopped suddenly.
The auditory cortex, the section of the brain that deals with information
from the ears, showed brain activity while the music played and, interestingly,
it also functioned when the music was turned off. The volunteers reported
hearing the tune in their heads even after the music had stopped. The brain
supplied the rest of the music from memory.
Familiarity plays an important part in how much of a tune or even the lyrics of a song stay in you memory. In other words, the more you listen to a particular song, the more likely it will become part of your memory.
The musical mind
In his recent book, This Is Your Brain on Music, Daniel Levitin analyzed how the brain listens to a whole piece of music. Volunteers underwent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) while they listened to classical music selections. The brain went through a strategic series of processes during the listening experience.
First the forebrain analyzed the structure and meaning of the tune and then dopamine was released, triggering a sense of reward. Next the cerebellum, the brain area connected to physical movement, reacted by assessing the tempo, rhythm and emotional peaks of the song. Dr. Levitin theorizes that in this step the mind was trying to figure out where the song would go next.
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