This Is Your Brain on Music : The Science of a Human Obsession

by Levitin, Daniel J.

• ISBN13: 9780525949695
• ISBN10: 0525949690
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-08-03
• Publisher: E P Dutton

Summary

A fascinating exploration of the relationship between music and the mind-and the role of melodies in shaping our lives. Whether you load your iPod with Bach or Bono, music has a significant role in your life-even if you never realized it. Why does music evoke such powerful moods? The answers are at last be- coming clear, thanks to revolutionary neuroscience and the emerging field of evolutionary psychology. Both a cutting-edge study and a tribute to the beauty of music itself, This Is Your Brain on Music unravels a host of mysteries that affect everything from pop culture to our understanding of human nature, including: bull; Are our musical preferences shaped in utero? bull; Is there a cutoff point for acquiring new tastes in music? bull; What do PET scans and MRIs reveal about the brain's response to music? bull; Is musical pleasure different from other kinds of pleasure?

Author Biography

DANIEL J. LEVITIN runs the Levitin Laboratory for Musical Perception, Cognition, and Expertise at McGill University, where he holds the Bell Chair in the Psychology of Electronic Communications. Before becoming a neuroscientist, he was a record producer with gold records to his credit and professional musician. He has published extensively in scientific journals and music trade magazines such as Grammy and Billboard.

Table of Contents

This Is Your Brain On Music Introduction
I Love Music and I Love Science—Why Would I Want to Mix the Two?

1. What Is Music?
From Pitch to Timbre

2. Foot Tapping
Discerning Rhythm, Loudness, and Harmony

3. Behind the Curtain
Music and the Mind Machine

4. Anticipation
What We Expect From Liszt (and Ludacris)

5. You Know My Name, Look Up the Number
How We Categorize Music

6. After Dessert, Crick Was Still Four Seats Away from Me
Music, Emotion, and the Reptilian Brain

7. What Makes a Musician?
Expertise Dissected

8. My Favorite Things
Why Do We Like the Music We Like?

9. The Music Instinct
Evolution's #1 Hit

Appendices
Bibliographic Notes
Acknowledgments
Index