Most of us already know music can bring old memories flooding back. A song from a particular summer, a wedding dance, a tune that played on a long drive: hear a few bars decades later and the moment returns almost... Continue Reading →
The piano’s resonance was not merely music; it was a force, a contagion that seeped through her, unbidden and unrelenting. Each note, struck with precision and fervor, echoed in her marrow, filling the spaces between her thoughts with an unsettling... Continue Reading →
An international team of scientists has identified the neural mechanisms through which sound blunts pain in mice. The findings, which could inform development of safer methods to treat pain, were published in Science. The study was led by researchers at the... Continue Reading →
For the first time, MIT neuroscientists have identified a population of neurons in the human brain that lights up when we hear singing, but not other types of music. These neurons, found in the auditory cortex, appear to respond to... Continue Reading →
In a new paper, a team of USC computer scientists and psychologists teamed up to investigate how music affects how you act, feel and think Your heart beats faster, palms sweat and part of your brain called the Heschl's gyrus... Continue Reading →
George Gershwin dropped out of school and began playing piano professionally at age 15. Within a few years, he was one of the most sought after musicians in America. A composer of jazz, opera, and popular songs for stage and... Continue Reading →
In the eternal search for understanding what makes us human, scientists found that our brains are more sensitive to pitch, the harmonic sounds we hear when listening to music, than our evolutionary relative the macaque monkey. The study, funded in... Continue Reading →
The popular view that music enhances creativity has been challenged by researchers who say it has the opposite effect. Psychologists from the University of Central Lancashire, University of Gävle in Sweden and Lancaster University investigated the impact of background music... Continue Reading →
John Coltrane and Jerry Garcia became improvising legends for their ability to mix musical elements on the fly. How the brain accomplishes such feats of creativity under pressure remains a mystery, though practice is increasingly thought to play a pivotal... Continue Reading →