In a society where talent shows dominate our TV programmes
and we secretly cannot wait for our weekly X-factor fix, it is surprising how
little we actually know about the science of music. While we’re swinging that
leg over the dance floor and belting out to our favourite tune on the karaoke
machine, neuroscience is probably the last thing that pops into our minds. But
in fact, even humming a melody involves a range of complex cognitive processes,
ranging from music processing and sensory-motoric functions, such as dancing or
balancing, to storing and retrieving the information.
Once belittled as “auditory cheesecake”, neuroscience of
music is a relatively young field that aims to understand cognitive brain
functions and processing, in particular speech, and is gaining increasing
attention by scientists [1]. And as such, we are now beginning to understand
how music is processed in the brain, and whether it is similar to language
processing.
It was once thought that the left-brain hemisphere is
responsible for language processing, while the right hemisphere is responsible
for music processing. Nowadays it is known that listening and engaging to music
is processed bilaterally throughout the brain, involving the cortex, sub-cortex
and cerebellum mainly in the right but also in the left hemisphere. Brain areas
processing speech and music do not completely overlap but some common grounds
can be found, for example in the syntax [2]. However, lateralities exist in
some cases, that is certain information is only processed on either left or
right side of the brain [1]. Melodic attributes can also be found in the way we
talk, which is with different pitches. High flat pitches are associated with
fear; while falling pitches are comforting and large bell shaped pitches are
associated joy or surprise. It was even shown that with composers, the rhythm
of the native language is reflected in their instrumental music [3, 4].
Music also changes brain structure and function and it was
found that brains of musicians differ in morphology and function to the brains
of non-musicians[5]. Music enhances brain activity, and those who learned to
play an instrument at a very young age show a lot more changes in the brain
than the ones learned as a teenager or in later years [6]. Moreover, links
between musical discrimination and cognitive abilities have been found, for
example children with dyslexia have impaired melodic and rhythmic tasks
abilities [7]. A change of brain morphology happened in musicians’ brains, but
also in people suffering from amusia [8]; a deficit in music processing in
which people cannot discriminated between pitches less than a semi tone apart,
although it is nowadays seen as a rather selective impairment of perception,
concerning either rhythm, or melody, or both, or in more simple terms
“tone-deafness“.
Many people see emotion as the essence and purpose of music.
And although the role of emotion in music processing is still widely debated
[9], it was shown that music can indeed trigger emotional responses such as
shivers, thrills and changes in heart rate [10]. When listening to music, the
same brain areas are activated in a similar manner to other emotional stimuli
[1], and dopamine, a chemical that triggers the brain’s sense of reward, is released
[11]. Oddly, sad music can make people happy. It tricks the brain to release
prolactin, a bonding hormone released during breast feeding or sex, which
induces a positive mood change [12].
Undoubtedly, music has a great significance in our lives and
as John Miles put it in his ode to music “Music was my first love and it will
be my last, music of the future and music of the past”, no one can imagine a
world and life without music. The field of neuroscience of music has only
recently started to flourish and due to the advancement of brain scanning
methods, research in processing music will provide us with a better
understanding about cognitive abilities, from auditory to motor processing and
speech. It will also bring us more insight about developmental disabilities
such as autism. And it may answer the maybe the most intriguing question, why
have we evolved music and a musical brain? Although scientists argue that music
has no purpose in an evolutionary context and had no adaptive value for our
survival, it certainly has an uncannily important value for our wellbeing and
society, now as much as in the past, as well as in the future.
