Key insights from
This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession
Audio available
12 minute read
Published Aug 28, 2007
What you'll learn
Whether you’re moved by Mozart, bound by Bob Dylan, or caught up in the lifts and dips of John Coltrane, music wraps you in an electrifying experience. There’s a reason why the Beatles’ song “Yesterday” sounds fresh nearly everyday and Paul Simon’s “Graceland” weaves a story from a handful of chords we call magic. One of humanity’s most universal experiences comes down to processes within the equally mystifying human brain. Uniquely qualified musician, neuroscientist, and Professor of Psychology Daniel Levitin composes a score of research to discover how music compels memory, stirs emotion, and strings seemingly disjointed lives into one seamless song.
Key insights
- • What you'll learn
- 1 Listen for musical timbre; it doesn’t sound like a falling tree.
- 2 A single song ignites every part of the brain from the cerebellum to the prefrontal cortex.
- 3 The Beatles know what you want, but they’re not gonna give it to you—not yet at least.
- 4 Music is a vehicle of memory—“multiple trace memory models” may explain why.
- 5 Music is both individual and collective: Our modern day playlists began with a 50,000 year old Slovenian bone flute.
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