Why do human beans like music?

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

Obviously humans like music, but why? I'm not looking for sociological answers, but neurological ones. What does music do to the brain and why is this pleasurable etc etc...

― DG, Monday, 8 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

NEW NEUROLOGICAL ANSWERS!

― DG, Monday, 8 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

DG you may want to enrole on this course MSc in Music Psychology at Keele report back in a year.

Alternatively DG you may be interested in this position Essex Nu Metal band Kilkus seek bass player as you know them, maybe you could bring some Joy Division influences to their music!

― DJ Martian, Monday, 8 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Hooray! Kilkus! Ah, I remember the old days, back in '99, when all the local metallers claimed they were best mates with them and always made a point of buying them drinks...sigh...then they had some small measure of success and everybody hated them for it.

― DG, Monday, 8 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Hmmm I seem to remember reading somewhere that music was something that humans developed at the same time as language, and that broadly the same parts of the brain are used when listening to music as when recognising speech. Something about how rhythm and pitch, the two components of music, are obv. very important in understanding speech. I guess that explains why we can *hear* music, tho I'm not sure it explains why we *enjoy* it. I'm gonna go off to try and find that article now.

― Steve.n., Monday, 8 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

The most plausible explanation to me is its overstimulation of our language area in the brain. Like masturbating while watching porn and being stoned and eating a choco cake.

― Mike Hanle y, Monday, 8 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

All at the same time, Mike? Wouldn't your hands shake a little too much to get the fork to your mouth as you neared orgasm?

― Christine "Green Leafy Dragon" Indigo, Monday, 8 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

eat cake with a fork?

well, i say!

― ambrose, Monday, 8 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Like masturbating while watching porn and being stoned and eating a choco cake.

I've probably done that. More likely a cookie or an oatmeal creme pie than cake, though.

― Nitsuh, Monday, 8 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Try the latest Lingua Franca--it's got a creative animal (us) article talking about one scholar's take on evolutionary benefits of creativity.

― Mickey Black Eyes, Monday, 8 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Hey I go to Keele. Rock on. I can raid the psychology department at night with a balaclava and a big stick, and steal all the cool stuff if you'd like.

Alterntively, this might be an answer you're looking for.

You lot sound like nice people. Yay, yet another place to waste my time...

― Mr Deft, Tuesday, 9 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

“PEOPLE NOW ARE using music to help them deal with sadness and fear,” said Dr. Anne Blood, a researcher at Massachusetts General Hospital in Charlestown, Mass. “We are showing in our study that music is triggering systems in the brain that makes them feel happy.”

Well knock me over with a feather. Who da thunk it?

― Richard Tunnicliffe, Tuesday, 9 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Mr Deft: Yeah, they do seem to be nice people. I've been circling the board and posting unspeakably pompous statements to random threads for a couple weeks now, and no one's chased me out with a burning stick yet.

― Christine "Green Leafy Dragon" Indigo, Tuesday, 9 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Music can give pleasure because it is a superb means by which to trigger the expectation/reward pleasure-cascade mechanism in the mesolimbic dopamine system and specific subregions of the basal forebrain. This is not the region of the brain responsible for language, and indeed, people with severe injury to their language centers can still deeply enjoy music.

This is why compositional techniques of tension and resolution can work so well, or why the sound of a ES-335 being plugged into a Vox AC30 can give someone a chill before a single note has been played.

Basically, music is another way of tweaking the same part of the brain that a drug-addict or compulsive cake-eating onanist seeks to alter.

― aeon, Tuesday, 9 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.