Why/how humans recognize music (NYTR)

hemol

Interesting article about the ways that music recognizing works. Leaves a bit to be desired, but it's a newspaper article.

mandrew

thanks for passing along the article. i'm just about to start his book 'this is your brain on music.' if you felt the article 'left a little to be desired' you should check it out. one thing the NYT piece doesn't get into is why music is so darned lovable. it briefly touches on the physical responses in our brain, but not the the basic reasoning behind our enjoyment... which i think is organization. so many of the noises we hear everyday are unorganized - traffic, baby crying, even speech is less organized than music. music offers a somewhat steady, predictable, and pleasant procession of sounds. this dynamic of setting up an auditory pattern and then following through with it, perhaps after some slight detours and moments of tension, is what triggers our reward center.
i may be biased cause i studied this field in school, but i find this stuff incredibly interesting... in particular, the evolutionary psychology debate - does/has musical expertise provide an evolutionary advantage (does it increase one's ability to reproduce) or is it just for fun (is it "auditory cheesecake")?


indeed

*and a bonus reference to 'brown sugar' haha