Musicophilia - music & relationship to the brain


I am listening to Science Friday today. There is very interesting interview with Oliver Sacks.
http://www.sciencefriday.com/
Intro on the site for the interview:
Join Ira in this segment for a conversation with neurologist and author Oliver Sacks about 'Musicophilia,' his latest book. In this book, Sacks, the author of over a dozen books including 'Awakenings' and 'The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat,' looks at the way music and the brain interact. Why can music sometimes remain in the brain long after other memories fade? Why can a person with limited language abilities still be able to sing unimpaired?

This show will be available to listen to online at this link (once it's archived).
http://www.sciencefriday.com/program/archives/200711095

Here's the book and links to some videos that are interesting.
http://www.amazon.com/o/ASIN/1400040817/sciencefriday/

I gotta get back to work but wanted to post before I forget... more later...
meanwhile...
Thoughts?

Angela
angela100

Showing 2 responses by angela100

Emailists,
Your observations are exactly why I posted this here. I do believe that "audiophiles" have trained their brains to use even more areas to derive pleasure from music than the average person.

This study talks about how many different areas of the brain are engaged in listening and enjoying music, not just a certain part.

We often talk of joy experienced when listening. The changes we make to ours systems where music sounds differently must have a different affect on certain parts of our brains. It's got to stimulate them.

We hear that we should keep our brains stimulated to stave off Alzheimer's and other later life dementia. So the question is: Do you think that simply listening to music is considered that type of stimulation?

If you answer is yes, could be, then we all have yet ANOTHER GOOD REASON to keep doing what we're doing :-)

Angela