The Interaction between our Brains and Music

Abstract

Why do children dance when they hear music? Do you notice yourself involuntarily tapping with your fingers, nodding with your head or shaking your legs when there is music in the background, even when not consciously paying attention to it? How actually does music affect the brain? Music is the nourishment of our souls. There is an evidenced association between perception of music and movement. Many researchers have been done to investigate centres of the brain affected by music. Mapping the mental activity of the brain shows that music stimulates certain areas of it just as food, drugs and sex do. Moreover, music has the power to alter emotions and mood in the majority of people. Listening to music activates several areas of the cerebral cortex. The auditory cortex in the temporal lobe which is concerned with hearing has also the ability to figure out the rhythm, speed, melody, volume and pitch of heard music. The inferior frontal gyrus is concerned with recalling memories associated with the heard music [1].