From exploring the neuroscience behind the music-evoked emotions
to debunking the “Mozart Effect,” we have seen a plethora of exciting research that is bridging the world between music and science. And there is further evidence that music is becoming a very integral part in the future of neuroscience. An increasing number of labs are devoting their research to music and the effects it has on the brain, and several institutions have even specially devoted departments and facilities towards music-neuroscience research...
EVER HEARD THE PHRASE, “MOZART MAKES BABIES SMART!”?
Since its inception, this claim has scattered like dandelion seeds. It is the basis of million dollar franchises such as Baby Einstein, a company that makes DVDs and products with classical music and other forms of art that are “proven” to help promote cognitive development in children.
Where did this blown-up myth come from?
In the 1990s, 36 students in a study at the University of California at Irvine listened to 10 minutes of a...
STEVEN PINKER, A RENOWNED COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGIST,
coined the term “auditory cheesecake” to describe music as “a delightful dessert” rather than the “main dish” of language.1 But though the view that music came only as a by-product of language was widely accepted at the time, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow challenged him with the idea that “music is the universal language.” Up until the recent years, many neuroscientists have held the traditional view that music and language are entirely separate from each other, and that at most, language gave rise to music as societies developed. However, some new theories are now rising that support the contrary view — that music in fact develops with language and can even help language development...
