Brain Music: how does the brain work?
Study Shows More of the Brain Used When Making Music
On November 8, 1998 at the Society for Neuroscience annual meeting
in Los Angeles, Dr. Lawrence Parsons of the University of
Texas-San Antonio discussed the results of his research which
showed that significantly more of the brain was being used during
music making that previously thought.
Through his use of imaging research, Dr. Parsons analyzed music's
influence on the brain by examining expert musicians. One of the
studies found that expert musicians use widely dispersed,
interconnected brain areas when they intently listen to different
aspects of a piece of music including its rhythm, melody, and
harmony. In addition, he and his colleagues found that there is an
area in the right half of the brain that interprets written
musical notes and passages of notes, that is known to interpret
written letters, and words. Moreover, they report an overall,
strong activation in the cerebellum, a brain area traditionally
thought to coordinate only fine movement or motor behavior.
"We believe this is the first detailed study of the functional
neuroanatomy of the expert musicians' comprehension of musical
structure." says Parsons. "The research shows more clearly than
ever that music is represented in mechanisms widely distributed
throughout the brain rather than localized in a single region as
are other kinds of information, such as visual or movement
information." In addition, the researchers say that their findings
show that the structure of music, and our use of it, are similar
in key respects to language structure and use.
"An understanding of the brain locations that represent the separate aspects of music will help us identify the neural mechanisms that are specific to music, specific to language and are shared between the two," says Parsons. "The finding that there is a right brain region for notes and musical passages that corresponds in location to a left brain region for letters and words illustrates how a neural mechanism may be present in each of the two brain hemispheres becomes special adapted for analogous purposes but with different information contexts."
Non-musicians also are able to direct attention to the musical
components of
harmony, melody and rhythm
and would therefore produce similar, but probably smaller
activation in most of the same music brain areas, according to the
researchers.
brain and music and neuroscience
Singing Familiar Songs is Found to Use Spatial Abilities
Singing appears to be much more than just a fun thing to do; it
seemingly uses a person's spatial intelligence. Researchers in the
United States and New Zealand report in [a 1997] issue [vol. 24,
No. 2] of the English scientific journal "The Psychology of Music"
that the simple act of singing changes the way the brain "thinks"
about music. These findings come on the heels of recent reports
showing that piano playing increases the spatial ability of
children. Now it seems that singing uses the same mental skills.
Spatial intelligence is that aspect of our intelligence that
allows us to make judgments about the three-dimensional world in
which we live. A football player catching a pass relies on spatial
intelligence to judge the trajectory of the ball. An architect
uses it to visualize what a building will look like when it is
completed. We all use it every time we drive a car and have to
judge the distance to the car in front of us. Advanced math
courses require good spatial intelligence.
The report tells of a fairly complex experiment that was conducted
to determine how the human brain thinks about music while singing.
The experiment counted on the brain's natural desire to group
things together. For example, if a person goes to the grocery
store but forgets his or her list, he or she will to try to
remember what was on the list. The most common way would be to
remember the items according to some logical groups; say dairy
products, meat products, and cleaning products.
Another way would be to remember by menu; if they were having hot
dogs for lunch they would remember hot dogs, buns, baked beans,
mustard and ketchup and then go on to the next meal that is
planned. If you watched this person in the grocery store you could
tell how they had things grouped in their head by the paths they
took around the store. This same logic was used with the singing
experiment.
Drs. Robert Cutietta from the University of Arizona and Gregory
Booth from the University of Auckland taught college students to
sing many melodies by hearing and singing them over and over for
five weeks. The melodies were deliberately written to be very
similar to each another. It soon became obvious that the students
were grouping the songs in order to remember them. [However, the
students] grouped them according to a very abstract aspect of
music - the shape of the melody - even though there were many
other more obvious ways they could have been grouped. Melodies
with similar patterns of notes going up and down were grouped
together by the students. This happened even though they had never
seen the music for the songs and did not know they were supposed
to group them.
Thus, the students were converting the sounds into an image in
their heads. This image was actually a picture of what the melody
would look like if it were somehow projected on a piece of paper.
Interestingly, trained musicians and non-musicians did it exactly
the same way showing that it is probably a basic way the brain
works, not something that is learned.
These findings help answer a fundamental question about music.
Researchers have long wondered why a person can recognize a song
when it is played in different keys. For example, if "Happy
Birthday" is played in two different keys, the two versions could
have no actual notes in common. Yet almost everyone, regardless of
musical training, will recognize it as the same song. It has long
been suspected that the brain remembers music by the "shape". This
research supports that idea.
These findings also add support to music programs for children in
elementary school. Music classes, filled with singing, are often
considered fluff by many school administrators. Now it seems this
fun activity is actually developing a child's spatial ability: an
ability important in everything from driving a car to advanced
math.
Source
Reference: Robert Cutietta & Gregory Booth. The Influence of
Metre, Mode, Interval Type, and Contour in Repeated Melodic
Free-Recall. The Psychology of Music, vol. 24, No 2. Pages:
222-236.