Neuroscience of music

I went to university to study music because I wanted to know how it worked. In a fairly standard BMus degree this was never tackled or even hinted at (though I did manage to sneak the topic very briefly into an essay).

I'm delighted to find there is now a field of study of music from a scientific view point and even popular science books on the topic. I've also occasionally met researchers in this field and I'm really looking forward to hearing more as the study unfolds.

I find music as a phenomena fascinating - there are so many layers of processing to make it all work, none of which even necessarily tell us why it grips us massively. From a political / education (and financial) point of view, I hope proof gets found for why learning music is so important, what it can bring cognitively of benefit.

Time to introduce one concept - your mind synchronises with every rhythm it hears. Therefore in a room of people listening (or playing) the same music, everyones mind is synchronised. I intrigued as to what this does to us, particularly the fairly fanciful idea that those in the room might briefly be part of the same neural network. Triggering this synchronisation is certainly a powerful tool. This week New Scientist ran an article reporting that performing activities in unison within a group can increase your loyalty to that group (full article here How to control a herd of humans by David Robson).