Music elicits “a splash” of activity in many parts of the brain, said panelist Jamshed Bharucha, a neuroscientist and musician, after moderator Steve Paulson of the public radio program “To the Best of Our Knowledge” asked about the brain’s response to music.
“I think you are asking a question we can only scratch the surface of in terms of what goes on in the brain,” Bharucha said. [ Why Music Moves Us ]
Images of creative brains reveal complicated activity, but one theme has emerged: Some decline in activity in the prefrontal cortex, a region sometimes called the “CEO of the brain” and associated with cognitive analysis and abstract thought. This area of the brain isn’t turning off; instead, certain processes that are typically prominent recede into the background — for instance, conscious self-monitoring, which produces concerns about doing something correctly, Limb said.
[T]he brain associated with autobiographical self and self-reflection becomes more active in musicians when they are performing.
Musicians offer a conduit to study the larger realm of creativity, said Limb. Improvisation can take place at different levels, but expert musicians have the skill set to improvise at a profound level in a way others cannot, he said.
The appeal of music goes beyond pleasure; people are also drawn to sad and angry music, Bharucha said. “The notion of resonance and synchronization is much more important than making you happy or lifting your spirits.”
Iyer, too, pointed to the importance of music to for creating a common experience.
Music also has a therapeutic power. Panelist Concetta Tomaino, a music therapist, works with patients with neurological problems such as brain injuries, Parkinson’s disease and stroke that have caused them to lose functions, such as memory, and motor and verbal skills.
Yet the structure and emotional content of music can help them to access these functions again, she said. “It speaks to the structures that are shared by musical perception and musical ability with other functions.”