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In Brief
- Some scientists conclude that music’s influence over us may be a chance event, arising from its ability to hijack brain systems built for other purposes such as language, emotion and movement.
- Music seems to offer a novel method of communication rooted in emotions rather than in meaning. Research shows that what we feel when we hear a piece of music is remarkably similar to what everybody else in the room is experiencing.
- Songs facilitate emotional bonding and even physical interactions such as marching or dancing together and thus may help cement ties that underlie the formation of human societies. In addition, tunes may work to our benefit on an individual level, manipulating mood and even human physiology more effectively than words can.
As a recreational vocalist, I have spent some of the most moving moments of my life engaged in song. As a college student, my eyes would often well up with tears during my twice-a-week choir rehearsals. I would feel relaxed and at peace yet excited and joyful, and I occasionally experienced a thrill so powerful that it sent shivers down my spine. I also felt connected with fellow musicians in a way I did not with friends who did not sing with me.
I have often wondered what it is about music that elicits such emotions. Philosophers and biologists have asked the question for centuries, noting that humans are universally drawn to music. It consoles us when we are sad, pumps us up in happier times and bonds us to others, even though listening to an iPod or singing “Happy Birthday” does not seem necessary for survival or reproduction.
This article was originally published with the title Why Music Moves Us.
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35 Comments
Add CommentOn page 3 the author writes:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"The responsive region turned out to be the superior temporal sulcus, a part of the brain’s surface near the ears that responds to nonverbal social cues such as nonspeech vocal utterances, eye movements and body movements. The activation of this region hints that music may indeed be helping to forge social ties."
Does this region activate in individuals with autism?
Observers who say "musics influence may be a chance event, arising from its ability to hijack brain systems built for other purposes" are not being analytical. They may well be suffering from survivor bias as they view the remaining evolved hominoids. Did Neanderthals fail to compete because they had no music appreciation and could not marshal group fighting emotions before a battle via music and chants, like homo sapiens did, and still do? We may never know the answer, but clearly those who dismiss music as "not fundamental" have not thought clearly about the situation.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAll I know is listening to Mozart arias brings tears to my eyes. It is the beauty of the songs!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMusic in the form of rhythm (drum beat) and chant would seem to come before language and not "piggyback" on it. Just as babies burble before they say words.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt surprises me that the article seems to makes no mention of two very reasonable inferences.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOne of these is that music exhibits similar characteristics to higher level organising activities within the brain. I'm referring to the wave nature of masses of neuronal impulses, and coordination and entrainment through sympathetic resonance, superimpositions and interference patterns which are collectively reasonable to impute as being a key organising principle within the brain. Neuronal surface depolarisations are not simply "electrical" in nature. All the various positive ions involved have mass, and waves of depolarisation - "impulses" - are waves of pressure and temperature variation as well as local electromagnetic oscillation. So music is of the essence of thought and mental action.
The second big thing is that it is reasonable to hypothesise the externalisation of rhythmic brain action being copied by others - such copying being facilitated by mirror neurons - and that this activity started as mother-child play and child-child play. What evolved was a predisposition to dance and strut in unison at first just for the fun of it. Part of the fun was that it made the dancers together look and feel like one big animal.
A very useful consequence of this was that animals of other species could be bluffed. Three of four hominids stomping, shouting, waving sticks and banging them on the ground in unison looked and sounded like one big and powerful creature. This allowed them to drive hyenas, jackals, dogs, and so forth away from kills and carrion.
Dances of re-enactment and fireside singing evolved soon after. I believe this was all happening well before the development of versatile grammar, in fact was probably a concomitant of the evolution of word making in the first place.
"Motherese" is not the correct term to describe the way people speak to infants. The correct term is Child Directed Speech (CDS).
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMaybe it's just about being able to hear the changes in the environment. Perhaps the areas of the brain responsible for hearing pitch were more finely tuned in homo sapiens than in Neanderthals. Is a dog's sense of smell different from a cat's? Or a cat's night vision different from a dog's?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt would make sense that pitch activate emotion where both contributed to survival. The smaller, weaker homo sapiens would be more motivated to get out of the way, while the bigger, stronger Neanderthals--who were better equipped for fighting--wouldn't necessarily need to.
I used to own an African Grey parrot who would also apparently exhibit musical enjoyment. For example, he would leave the room when jazz was being played, but would would instantly come back in if some classical (of funnily enough, heavy metal) started. He would also sing along to the music he "liked".
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt could of course be that he was just responding to some of the sounds but it does make me wonder if musical enjoyment isn't just a human trait..
We (and all of creation) were created by the Light and Soundwave of God when God spoke the fiat: "Let there be Light, and there was light". The fiat contained all of the planning and intent, the Divine Blueprint and Plan, of the Mind of God for the creation in all of its vastness.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYou may have seen the experiments with sound shown on this You Tube video http://curezone.org/forums/fm.asp?i=862325. In the 1960's Dr. Hans Jenny performed similar experiments with sound projected at a metal plate on which he placed different substances such as kaolin paste, salt, sand, milk, etc. He played a classical music piece with milk on the plate and the milk started "growing" in what looked like the stems and leaves of a plant. When he vocalized a sustained Auuuuuummmm (Aum, or OM) at sand it formed the Shree Yantra which can be seen here http://www.rudraksha-ratna.com/shreeyantra.htm. This yantra has been used for hundreds of years to help raise consciousness. It was featured in the movie "The Last Mimzy".
Dr. Emoto has done experiments with music directed at water. He freezes the water and looks at its crystaline structure before and after playing the music. You can see some of the results here http://www.life-enthusiast.com/twilight/research_emoto.htm. Sometimes he just writes a word or phrase like "love and gratitude" on a piece of paper and places it on the glass container and observes the change in the crystaline structure of the water. And since the human adult is approximately 70% water there is profound significance to us as well.
An ancient Greek once said something like this: I do not care who writes the laws, let me write the music and I will control the world. Pure art and music were very important to the ancient Greeks, so much so that they had laws with exile as punishment for those who violated standards. Some believe maintaing the standard helped raise their civilization to a high pinnacle. Relaxing the standard may also have been what destroyed it. Maybe there is something there for us to also consider. What has happened to America (and the world) since the introduction of jazz and rock music?
Dr. Denis did research in the 1960's on the effect of music and muscle kinesiology. He found that certain rhythms increased muscle strength and others reduced it dramatically. The waltz rhythm of 3/4 time increased strength. The syncopated beat found in Rock, Jazz, and in Voodoo music reduced muscle strength dramatically.
Those who have 'single eyed vision" via the "Third Eye" chakra see the effects.
music is a universal quality. there is a song of the universe. cleary rythum has a lot to do with procreation. so does dance. more study of music and its orgins is needed.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNeanderthal Man by Hot Legs...nuff said
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisso good, I know more about music
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisso good, I learn more about music.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis is rather interesting. I am interested to find out why some people are much much more receptive to more modern forms of music (e.g. Stravinsky, Shosakovich, Prokofiev, Debussy, Ravel [woot!]) or even radical avant-garde (e.g. Xenakis, Varese, Schoenberg, Webern [um, OK...]) than others who detest such music and prefer more moderate forms (e.g. Bach, Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven [yuck]).
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMaybe someone will conduct an experiment and find out why... maybe it has something to do with exposure at an early age...
I have a nephew with severe autism. I am sure he has perfect pitch. (I myself also have perfect pitch and am a music teacher.) My nephew is mostly nonverbal but communicates when he wishes with a limited number of words and phrases.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHe just turned 15 years old and is still intrigued with nursery rhymes in song. (He is an amazing artist and is obsessed with creating his own picture books of nursery rhymes, redoing them through the years as his artistic talent develops and matures.)
If he takes me by the hand and leads me to the piano and names a specific song, he wants to hear the e song he hears in the same key as he has heard it on the particular video or recording which he favors for the song. If I do not play the piece in the correct key he is anticipating, he looks at me like I am crazy and is totally unsatisfied until I play it in his desired key.
The mathematical balance of harmonic music's sound waves resonate with the atomic and molecular energy levels associated with neuronal activity in our pleasure centers.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisJeff Brown
Delray Beach Florida
Marty Sereno, UCSD, has presented a very interesting hypothesis on the origins of language and music. According to his hypothesis music would be a pre-adaptation, which combined with the semantic system evolved around our senses gave the origin to language (music with meaning).
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisFurther speculations deriving from this hypothesis are that music is primarily as the peacocks tail a feature of sexual selection. Music is also observed in other animals like birds that learn to sing in order to reproduce. Implies then, the better early humans could sing the more likely they would mate. Furthermore, this would also give way as to why music is associated with more primitive (right side) areas of the brain. And why music with no apparent meaning is still stimulating or music also stimulates babies.
It is a bit surprising to see this hypothesis is not even mentioned on the article that is essentially speculative. Even though just a hypothesis, it underlay very well the research reported on the article with a much less abstract and, in my opinion, much more exciting conclusion.
By the way, the Serenos lecture is available on the internet The Origin of the Human Mind: Insights from Brain Imaging and Evolution
Marty Sereno, UCSD, has presented a very interesting hypothesis on the origins of language and music. According to his hypothesis music would be a pre-adaptation, which combined with the semantic system evolved around our senses gave the origin to language (music with meaning).
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisFurther speculations deriving from this hypothesis are that music is primarily as the peacock’s tail a feature of sexual selection. Music is also observed in other animals like birds that learn to sing in order to reproduce. Implies then, the better early humans could sing the more likely they would mate. Furthermore, this would also give way as to why music is associated with more “primitive” (right side) areas of the brain. And why music with no apparent meaning is still stimulating or music also stimulates babies.
It is a bit surprising to see this hypothesis is not even mentioned on the article that is essentially speculative. Even though just a hypothesis, it underlay very well the research reported on the article with a much less abstract and, in my opinion, much more exciting conclusion.
By the way, the Sereno’s lecture is available on the internet “The Origin of the Human Mind: Insights from Brain Imaging and Evolution”
I can't even Carlton22 dissed jazz. Jazz is one of the most important genres of music ever created by Man. Just because Carlton22 likes a different genre doesn't make it a destructive force. Brazilian jazz and Jazz Fusion increase my appreciation of creativity. So, there. To equate 'what's happened in America' to the rise of jazz and rock is a total red herring.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThat was supposed to be 'can't even believe...'.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThree comments on the article and previous comments:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this1) I, too, had a parakeet who, like others of his persuasion, seemed musically talented. I noticed that when he came to the musical source, usually a cheap table radio, tuned in to a classical station, he would chirp along with it, generally on the dominant of the key of the piece!
2) Assigning words to describe music is appropriate only to the most primitive forms, like songs, ditties, and the like. Mendelssohn was more right than most aestheticians and dilettantes when he said that the reason that (serious) music was so difficult to describe is not that it is so amorphous and ambiguous but that it is so precise. It is exactly those notes and the way they are directed to be played even if they may imply metaphoric experiences.
3) I wonder what results would occur if a musically trained listener's brain was examined while he/she experienced music that reached higher than "happy" or "sad," like a late Beethoven quartet or almost anything by Bach, and how they compared to the average listener's while listening to simple music. I am reminded of a comment by the young and naive genius Schubert's complaint that Beethoven, "the world's greatest composer," couldn't tell the difference between comedy and tragedy in his music.
Leonard Marcus
Some farmers with a lot of pigs keep them quiet by playing music. They seem to be very fond of music by J.S. Bach.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI simply love music but I don't understand its technicalities. I cannot even play any of the musical instruments. I cannot differentiate between different notes. But I can whisle a tune very well. I feel musical coordination between my brain ,ears and whistling system is far better than my hands, fingers and brain-ear duo. I feel a bit depressed at the age of 57+ for not knowing much about music.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisEndorphine levels are increased when you listen to music that you like, this makes a person happier.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMusic communicates to emotional-perceptual (creative and non-verbal or non-symbolized intellect) brain processing directly via wave matching of sound waves and memory encoded waves in the brain. Spoken or written words do the same thing but must first be decoded, in the brain, into non-verbal waves, so the communication is indirect.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMusic communicates to emotional-perceptual (creative and non-verbal or non-symbolized intellect) brain processing directly via wave matching of sound waves and memory encoded waves in the brain. Spoken or written words do the same thing but must first be decoded, in the brain, into non-verbal waves, so the communication is indirect.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMusic communicates to emotional-perceptual (creative and non-verbal or non-symbolized intellect) brain processing directly via wave matching of sound waves and memory encoded waves in the brain. Spoken or written words do the same thing but must first be decoded, in the brain, into non-verbal waves, so the communication is indirect. Music is a universal language while language is not, but language is decoded in the brain as a universal language like music. The creative-perceptual basis, of conceptual language, is universal, while language itself is learned-specific.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisXodarap , I found your comment the best and most interesting so far ! Adie Viljoen.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMusic is innately mathematical. This is the key. The subconscious recognises the mathematical symmetry (or variance to that symmetry) and responds with pleasure. This recognition applies to both tones, harmonies and rhythm.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMusic does indeed have great power. But it may not be correct to assume that all music has a beneficial effect. If music can soothe, it can also agitate. Unlike classical music, some types of music seem to express - and perhaps therefore evoke - anger, frustration and and aggression.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWe need more research in this area.
to LeaderofMen: Your quote: "I can't even Carlton22 dissed jazz. Jazz is one of the most important genres of music ever created by Man. Just because Carlton22 likes a different genre doesn't make it a destructive force. Brazilian jazz and Jazz Fusion increase my appreciation of creativity. So, there. To equate 'what's happened in America' to the rise of jazz and rock is a total red herring."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI provided several links to those who did the studies, or to those who replicated them (which is a scientific proof) and quoted historical fact. It is not a matter of opinion or of likes or dislikes. The proof and history are there for those with eyes to see and ears to hear.
That is True.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNo doubt.
Music is the only and universal communication: the sound as the word from the beginning, the vibration, the string, immediate after the light
that is the Truth.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNo doubt.
Music is the only and the universal communication: the move, the vibration, the string, the flash after the light.
Carlton...Just because jesus didn't know of Jazz, doesn't make it evil. You are a kook. Music is simple mathematical equations. Our brains are evolved to detect patterns. That is the simple reason of why we learn to appreciate different kinds of music. You ae SLIC, I am NOTSLIC.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMusic and Emotions
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe most difficult problem in answering the question of how music creates emotions is likely to be the fact that assignments of musical elements and emotions can never be defined clearly. The solution of this problem is the Strebetendenz-Theory. It says that music can't convey any emotion at all, but merely volitional processes, with which the music listener identifies himself. Then in the process of identifying the volitional processes are colored with emotions. The same happens when we watch an exciting film and identify ourselves with the volitional processes of our favorite figures. Here, too, just the process of identification generates emotions.
Because this detour of emotions via volitional processes was not detected, also all music psychological and neurological experiments, to answer the question of the origin of the emotions in the music, failed.
But how music can convey volitional processes? These volitional processes have something to do with the phenomena which early music theorists called "lead", "leading tone" or "striving effects". If we reverse this musical phenomena in imagination into its opposite (the sound wants to change - I want that the sound stays unchanged), then we have found the contents of will, with which the music listener identifies himself. In practice, everything becomes a bit more complicated, so that even more sophisticated volitional processes can be represented musically.
Further information is available via the free download the e-books "Vibrating Molecules and the Secret of their feelings": http://www.willimekmusic.homepage.t-online.de/homepage/Striving/Striving.
Enjoy reading
Bernd Willimek