December 2, 2010 • 31 mins
It's been said that music has the power to soothe savage beasts, but what scientific impact does music have on humans? In this episode, Julie and Robert explore the influence of music on human brain cells -- and whether it can actually rebuild your brain.
Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuff
Works dot com. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind.
I'm Robert lamb Um Julie Douglas, And as our wonderful
theme music fades into the background, there, Uh tell me, Julie,
what how does that music make you feel? What comes
(00:26):
to mind? I gotta tell you, Like, there's that that
sort of something that really kind of makes me feel
a little booty busting. Yeah, yeah, kind of kind of
makes me in my head not a little. It has
kind of like a kind of an i d M.
Intelligent dance music kind of sound to it. To it.
It makes me sort of think of like a a
(00:46):
dark Alison Wonderland type forest, and there's like all sorts
of weird things going on in the darkness, maybe like
flashing little points of light and there's something there's something
really amazing going on in the darkness, and uh, and
you're just kind of wondering, all my goodness, what's what's
going on out there? Like all I'm talking about is
classics shaken and you're and you've fallen down the rabbit hole.
(01:09):
I like that than another Loose Carroll reference there. Yeah, yeah, well,
I mean that's the great thing about music because it's
it's you know, And this is kind of a an
overstatement of the obvious here, but it has a profound
and varying effect on on on the listener, right, Yeah, absolutely.
I mean, do you have any earworms or there any
(01:30):
instances that you feel like with music that really sort
of grabs you by the shirt tails or oh? I
mean I I listen to music pretty constantly at work. Like,
I don't think I'd get any work done or or
be able to commute properly if I didn't have f
music going. And I've also found that, like when it
comes to it to earworms, I will I will definitely
(01:51):
get some like annoying earworms here and there, but but
most of the worms I get are more like just
the music and not the lyrics. Like even I think
a an earworm that a lot of people may suffer
from is that that Lady Gaga song the what is it?
The I don't know, Yeah, I refuse to let it
(02:12):
into my brain. Okay, well you you you're you're fortunate
this far. I mean, I I don't know. I kind
of like a part of the song, but then the
rest of it just kind of like just slams in
your head and won't let go, and then you're just
trying to shake it out. Yeah. Yeah, so that's the
problem with earworms. Yeah yeah, Yeah. For me, I've got
a couple like one that's just a benevolent earworm right
now is a Tarrangela by Robin Hitchcock. So sometimes I'll
(02:36):
wake up in the morning I can hear the harmonic
and it's nice, and then yeah, that's a good ear warm.
Most of my worms I feel are good. Okay, so
you're lucky because I've got one that's I've had for
like a decade and I can't shake. And it usually
happens like at three o'clock in the morning. I can't
go to sleep and all of a sudden, I can
hear the piano going, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't. It's
a hard not And I know there's something about that
(02:59):
song and the lyrics. So it's interesting that for you
it's it's not necessarily lyrics that are haunting you. But
but that's what music is. For me. It's both. It's
both the destroyer and the creator. Yeah, it's um. It's
also a huge energizer, Like I think it's interesting how
uh you know. The scientists pointed out that like the
(03:21):
like slower music, you're you're sad music, you're you're you're
you know, more relaxing music tends to be a lot
you know, you know, slower and slower beat going on
and then and then the faster music. You know, it
has some sort of like really you know, raxtous beat
to it that that's what gets you pumped up. Like
if you I don't know if you've ever done this,
if you've ever put on I have the tiger Oh
(03:41):
yeah this morning? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, you know sometimes
that's that's what you need to get out of the
house or you know, to to really throw yourself at
a project. Yeah yeah, I do that right before I
scale the steps eight hundred steps um near my local park.
Oh excellent, yes, yeah, well cool. Then in the fighting
spirit right and then I get it, I get it.
The adrenaline is pumping. Yeah. I also have this theory
(04:04):
that nobody can listen to Staying Alive without altering the
way they walk, you know. But that's a good thing.
That's I I think it's a good it's a great song,
and I think we should always walk Like we're listening
to that. I think about how that would change the world.
Like imagine of like like like soldiers and people in
our OTC, Like if they had to march to staying alive, Like,
it would be an entirely different scene. That's right. There
(04:24):
would be no wars, right, it would just be people
styling and looking good. See that's an't that's a good
example of how music can change your brain. Yeah. And
when we say it change the brain, I mean it's
it's really it's really amazing what it can do and
what it what it does do on like to all
of us like every day. But like first, like what
what do you think music is like? And what is
(04:46):
it to you? Bare bones? Yeah, well, I I was
thinking about it, and I kept coming up with with
kind of elaborate answers. But I actually have to just
sort of refer to Websters on this one because the
Westers is a very it's not very creative. It's you know,
the Webster's definition. It's pretty succinct, and it just says
the quote the science or art of ordering tones or
(05:09):
sounds in succession, in combination, and in temporal relationships to
produce a composition. Having unity and continuity. So it's like
it's a series of sounds that makes some sort of
sense that have like a almost almost a kind of
like a narrative flow to them, even though there are
no characters in a song unless you're going with some
(05:29):
sort of Peter and the Wolf type of motif. You know. Yeah, okay,
so you have to have rhythm, tone meter, what else? Um,
Sometimes instruments a melody a melody, right, A little air
horn drops in here and there just for sure becauzoo zoo. Yeah, yeah,
I just sneeze. Um. So I think that's the really
(05:56):
cool thing about music is that it can really be anything. Yeah.
And it cross culture is too. Yeah. I mean it's
a deep part of our cognitive architecture too. Is as
we discussed previously when we're talking about what alien how
aliens would interpret human culture and what really stands out
about who we are, like, music is a huge part
of who we are and uh, you know it changed.
It has the power to change our mood, to heighten
(06:17):
our our emotions. Um. Well, and the the thing though
that should be noted is that, um, we're not entirely
sure how music affects our brains were just now getting
some data from what the last ten years, Yeah, five
to ten. It's it's it's pretty much and continues to
be an emerging area of study. Yeah, I mean, that's
(06:38):
pretty explosive area to to look into our explicit field
right now. And you've got cognitive psychologists and linguists. Stephen Pinker,
who uh, he's just he's sort of the oh, I
don't know. I guess you would say that he's the
party pooper on this. He thinks that music is just
auditory cheesecake and it's space like an accident of evolution, like, hey,
(07:02):
guess what it gets talk and sing? Yeah, I mean
he he at least he's not a complete villain about it.
And he's kind of like, like, I understand wanting to
make more out of music than it is, but I
don't you know, that's that's his his whole argument, right,
And then you have other people on the other side
of the coin. They're like, they're saying, we've got to
make more out of this because of the findings. So
(07:22):
um so I think it's interesting to to dive into
that and look at the findings and find out how
our brains work on music and specifically, like when we're
listening to music, what's what's happening inside of our brains?
Like just to put things in perspective, Like a lot
of times, you know, people wonder is music, um, is
(07:44):
it this thing under itself or is it just like
the flip side of language? But you know, there are
parts of the brain that respond to music that don't
respond to language. And there are separate parts of the
of the brain that respond to the melody of language,
um that are different from the parts of the brain
that respond to music. So it's it's not just you know,
it's clearly doing unique things to our mind. Yeah, Like
(08:07):
if you look at a brain scan that you can
see that it's letting up like a pinball machine or
you know, as as someone had said um before in
some of the literal I was reading that it's it's
almost looks like a symphony. There are different parts of
the symphony that are queuing up and working in concert. Yeah,
and what they're looking at tends to be um um,
blood flow, oxygen flow in the brain. That those are
(08:29):
the indicators to show that there's something that there's there's
definite neural activity going on. And I think we've all
seen these brains, you know, if you haven't seen it
in a movie, you've seen it on you know, at
least channel flipping through your you know, your different documentary channels. Yeah,
and and uh, it's it's pretty fascinating when you do
see the brain lighting up like that because you get
(08:50):
to see where the music is entering the ear, and
it's going into the front well and temporal lobes and
then into the language processing areas, and then the visual
cortex lights up, and that's, um, that's actually really interesting
because that's your brain kind of trying to get a
visual beat on the changes in pitch and tone. So
it's looking at it in a visual way. It's perceiving
(09:12):
that as movement. Okay, So kind of like when I
see the dark forest with the lights in it exactly. Yeah,
you're already sort of imagining yourself in movement, which is
really interesting when when you're thinking about music and then
you've got your metal front cortex, and that's where if
you've heard that song before, you get all weaky or
you get sad. Okay. So this is like, for an example,
(09:34):
if I listened to a particularly sad song during a
like really depressing episode in my life and I and
I tear up listening to it again or or get
kind of weird about it if I listened to it again,
that's what's going on, right, right. Or if you're like
sitting there listening to Nick Drake and you know it's
raining outside or something along those lines. Um, but if
you're listening to something that makes you happy, then your
(09:57):
brain starts releasing dopamine. Okay, Yeah, so you've got the
reward center occupied as well. Just pretty cool. And one
of the things I think is most interesting is that
sometimes your neural firing synchronizes to the fundamental frequency of
that sound that you're picking up. Wow, So you would
be able to to look at it like a live
(10:19):
scan of the brain, and it would it would essentially
be like the visualizer on Windows Media Player, right right, Yeah,
you'd have these uh neural finds that are like or
something along these lines. Maybe maybe you wouldn't, but in
a centric millionaire could could like hire a dude to
like remain hooked up to a brain scanner and you
(10:43):
could just set the and that could be his his
visualizer visualizer, that's right. If he was going to take
it to that other level of entertainment. Yeah. Absolutely, m
I see what you're going to be doing with your
first million. Um. But all of this was pointing to
the fact that, like you said, there's a lot going
(11:03):
on the brain. There's parts that are lighting up. You've
got blood flow, you've got oxygen. And what we're beginning
to see is that music is tripping all sorts of
switches in our brain and possibly even making a smarter
if we engage in certain ways with it. And I
think you see that actually with musicians. Yeah, Yeah, there's
been some some really cool studies, UM into just you know,
(11:27):
how how musicians brains appear to work versus non musician brains.
They've done some uh they have evenen some studies where
they take they take a non musician, give them like
a year of like you know, musical lessons, seeing lessons,
what have you, and and they can see the changes
in the neural activity, right and this they could be
a terrible singer, right right. Yeah, but the fact that
(11:49):
they're exercising this part of the brain means that what
they've built up some some more muscle there, so to speak. Yeah,
it's really made me rethink. I mean, I don't know.
I really don't know how musically inclined you are, um,
I in terms of instruments, because I took piano lessons,
I took like a recorder lesson. I was in like
(12:09):
band for like trumpet and french horn. Played none of
these things well at all. I was. I was you know,
pretty uh, pretty pretty inept at times, especially with the piano.
I feel. But but I've had to rethink it because
I'm because I'm thinking, like, even though I didn't excel
at those things, it got my brain thinking in a
musical way, and maybe that benefited me in the long run,
(12:32):
right and in other ways that you might have not
even known. Yeah, um no, well I'd not really musically incline,
you know. In um college, I took my grandfather's saxophone.
It's saxophone, it's awesome, and had it restored, and I
took lessons and I was terrible, and I would try
(12:53):
to bend the notes, and my music teacher would get
really angry and just say please, just like learn the
notes and do it well. And I thought, well, surely
after six months, I can I can sound um like Coltrane, right, um.
But that didn't work out so I got discouraged. But yeah,
like you, I'm rethinking it. I'm thinking, okay, if if I,
even if I'm terrible at it, um, maybe this can
(13:16):
help me to have a thicker cortex like other musicians. Uh,
And which just basically means that you've got a lot
more activity going on your frontal cortex and the areas
of your brain that are responsible for language and planning.
And this is another cool thing about musicians. They're better
at picking out selective patterns in a room where there's
(13:36):
that might be a cacophony of sound, So they kind
of have better selective hearing, if you will. So if
you needed someone to like spy on somebody in a
busy room, hire the spy that has a musical background.
See that's why I was thinking I should continue with
saxophone lessons, because you never know when you're gonna have
to switch over a full time to that spying career,
(13:57):
right right, It's it's just a good thing to have
in your back pocket. Yeah, nobody wants to hear I'm sorry,
but I'm going to go with the bassoon player. No, yeah, no,
it's true. But but the other thing that all of
this is pointing to is of course music and children, right,
and the fact that children who study and learn music
aren't just increasing their motor skills, but they're scoring higher
(14:18):
on language tests than they show an overall improved processing
and linguistic centers of the brain. So you have to
be engaging in the music, of course, can't just be
a passive listener. But that also makes me think of
the mosartiffect. Okay, this is where you play Mozart for
an unborn child. Well, this is what Yeah, this was
the result of a study. That's that's actually that's the
(14:41):
interpretation um from the results. But the result is that
basically college students who went underwent the study that when
they listen to Mozart that for some temporal spatial testing
that they actually increased their scores. But it was temporary,
and they were bored, and they were bored, and they
(15:01):
were they were constructing things out of paper. Um, so
that was essentially the test. But people took that and
they ran with it. And like Governor Zell Miller, if
Georgia had mandated that every child born would get a
Mozart c D and so the you know, it wasn't
quite that. And I think that's the interesting to point
out that it's not just listening to music, it's engaging
(15:23):
in it that really helps benefit the brain and builds
it up quite a bit more musically. Yeah, exactly. Yeah,
And I think the most extreme case of this is
probably in some ailments that occur in the brain um
story victims Parkinson's disease along those lines, right, they're they're
(15:45):
able to actually use the music to repair damn it,
to to to rebuild the brain. And in a certain sense, yeah,
in a way, I mean Parkinson's um You know, of
course you're your motor system is going to be tripped
up with that, and so music kind of helps the
auditory system and the motor system, uh, be in concert
with each other. So if you've got a partisan patient
(16:09):
and you put on a rhythm track, that actually helps
that person to better coordinate their movements. So again, think
about the neurons, you know, firing to a certain beat
or like playing staying alive, and everybody ends up kind
of threatened instead of just walking right right. Yeah, So
during physical therapy, you know, you just have to imagine
that you're you're in the movie walking down the street,
(16:31):
You're staying a lot. This presentation is brought to you
by Intel Sponsors of Tomorrow. I have to admit, like
when I whenever I go to like a like a
concert or like a big like DJ event, and uh
(16:52):
and in the crowd is really into it. I can't
help but think of like old Viking movies where there's
like the guy on the back of the king ship
of Viking longboat like beating on the drum and everyone's
moving in tandem with the drummer. Because that's how it feels.
It's like one guy, you know, be it or you know,
one band or the DJ or whoever. It's like they're
controlling everyone and everyone is just synchronized with this beat,
(17:16):
you know. Yeah. And actually, um, people who who talk
about the auditory cheesecake, they actually point to that experience
that you're talking about and say that, uh, music is
actually a way to bring people together. It does have
an evolutionary purpose and that if you can get everybody's
neurons synchronized in a group, then you can form some
(17:40):
sort of basis of cooperation for community. Well that's instantly.
And part of this is because I'm reading rereading Name
of the Roads. I can't help but think of a
monastic community and the importance of music. Yeah, and I
imagine any like church groups, uh, etcetera, or even even
the military, I guess come to think of it, like
with the sort of thing those little songs they chant
(18:01):
while they're marching. My mom said, yeah, yeah, that one,
that that classic ballad. Um. Yeah, it's like a community
building thing. They're all sort of syncing up and becoming
one body under the music. Yeah. Yeah, So I mean
they are, Like I said, there are people who point
to that and say, there is a purpose, there's a
(18:21):
reason why all of us have this what they think
innate ability to understand music, um and to incorporate it
in our lives. And if you look at the importance
of music, especially with memory we're talking about a little
bit earlier, with the medial front cortex, that that's where
all your memories are stored. They're finding that Alzheimer's patients
(18:45):
and dementia patients are responding really well to musical therapy
because when they hear pieces of music, it actually helps
sense to sort of unlock the box, you know, crack it,
open access their memories again and actually helping them to
increase their short term and long term memory, which is
really cool. Yeah, and then you've got stroke victims who
(19:11):
they may be able to understand what you're saying, but
they can't. They the use of language is gone. They
can't express themselves. And they've been singing in some studies, Uh,
what they're trying to say phrases and in some cases
they can sing two hundred three hundred phrases. Um, they
may on a sort of road to recovery and being
(19:33):
able to eventually speak again. Yeah, so music is definitely
Are they singing what they want to say? Are they
singing things? Yeah? Yeah, yeah. Actually there's a documentary called
The Music Intuition, and they show a woman who is
going through therapy and, uh, the woman that's working with
her says, Okay, now suppose that your two year old
(19:55):
daughter is about to run down the street, what do
you say? And she sings wait for me? But she
couldn't never say wait for me, you know, So she's
regaining that ability through music. It's interesting because we were
actually talking the other day about how it might be
a little difficult if we were to do a musical
episode of the podcast. But for someone who's having to
(20:16):
reclaim their speech, like music is the the in road
to speaking again. That's interesting. Yeah, and so that's that's
again where the mystery is sort of coming in, because
you know, again, this is a fairly new field of study.
Ten years ago, people didn't necessarily know that music could
access your brain in these ways. And I'm also thinking
(20:36):
about another therapy session. This was done by neuroscientists David Soto.
He had sixty stroke victims who sustained damage to her
parietal cortex, which is related to visual and spatial processing.
And it was very unusual and that the victims lost
half of their spatial weren't awareness and some of them
(20:57):
would eat food on only one side of her mouth,
or they would shave only one side of their face. Yeah,
so their perceptions way off. So what happened is when
Soto played music that made them happy they during their therapy,
they were actually able to increase their abilities and be
(21:18):
able to perceive more. And the interesting thing about this
is that they played a couple of different pieces of music,
but the ones that were most popular for Frank Sinatra
and Kenny Rogers. I guess of the two of the
two who had the better results with the victims. Um,
I'm thinking Frank probably took more of a firm hand
(21:38):
with him. Okay, I would think so too. Fly Me
to the Moon very uplifting. Kenny Rogers, Please tell me
it was early Kenny Rodgers at least I don't know.
The fifth edition was the fifth edition that's in the
Land of Lady Gaga for me. I'm sorry, you know,
just stepped in to see what condition my condition was in.
Oh yes, okay, I didn't have that one. Oh boy, yeah,
(21:59):
that's it's as track. I bet that probably is someone
that I would hope, so yeah, well we hope. Yeah. Um,
but they thought about actually renaming it the Kenny Rogers Effect,
no joke, I'm not kidding, but um, that kind of
points to the fact that when you are happy, when
you're listening to music, you've got the release of dopamines,
(22:21):
and that when you have the release of dopamins, that
you've actually got more neural resources. So that's what they're
seeing there with the stroke victims is that it was
actually allowing them to perform a skill set that they
didn't necessarily happy for. What's interesting, they've they've also been
some some studies into how music can be used for
(22:43):
people suffering from chronic heart disease and the the results
are not set in stone on this one, um, but
they've but scientists have found that that like in a
study that had like, you know, about participants, they found
that it had a modern effect on anxiety, uh in
patients with the c h D chronic card disease. UM.
(23:06):
But the results were kind of inconsistent across the studies.
But that but that listening to music reduces heart rate,
respiratory rate, and blood pressure in other words, you know,
a calming effect on the body, which can have you know,
can be very medicinal given certain conditions such as chronic
card disease UM. And then I've also also saw a
(23:29):
few studies talking about it to use in treating depression
or or anxiety. And again it a part of it
comes down to, you know, like if anybody who's ever
like meditated to music or or used relax that used
music as a relaxation tool, you know obviously knows the
relaxing effects of music. But but but but you know
(23:51):
that very effect has a can have a clinical use
as well. They've also found that in some therapies it's
kind of like music is you know, music is a
universal language to sort of use a you know, kind
of a cliche term there. But but if you have
a person who's not very receptive to therapy um and
and and maybe not that receptive to just one on one,
(24:11):
you know, verbal communication, music can kind of break down doors.
It's it's something they can instantly get and it's less
threatening to them. So that's one of the benefits they
thought that the experts have found with music therapy, you know,
on the opposite side of the coin, I just have
to mention that I ran across the Study of Mice
and Meth. I wish that were the title of it,
(24:33):
but that's actually wasn't um of Mice and Meth. That
they took these mice and they put them on math
and then they gave some of them a quiet space,
and some of them they just blasted really loud music,
and they wanted to see if the toxicity levels would
rise with a really loud music. Very particular study. Well,
(24:54):
what they were trying to do is say, um that
if you're on meth and in you're on nightclub, that
it can actually be um, I'm much more dangerous to you.
This is the you know, what they pose it because
it enhances the toxic effects of meth the load music,
and I thought, wow, that's that's so disturbing and poor mice.
(25:15):
And I've got to say that we need to start
cataloging all of the little indignities that they have to
suffer in the name of science as we can figure
out our drug effits. Yeah. Yeah, so that you know,
like I said on the flip side there, I mean, yes,
like you said, it can be um can be very healing.
But I mean music is powerful in the sense that
(25:36):
it could illuminate um other other areas of your brain.
I shouldn't say illuminate, I should say and enhance those
parts of your brain. If you happen to be on
meth and you are a mouse out there, quick little
diversion there. So I think what all of this is
(25:57):
pointing to is that we have something called neural plasticity. Okay,
and this just means that the brain is not set
in stone, that it's there are our neural architecture can change, right, Yeah,
I mean this is like the really incredible message of
all of this is that if if you can help
uh someone who has Parkinson's, you know, get back on
(26:21):
the road. To therapy with music because it's stimulating parts
of their brain that they didn't know it could stimulate before.
What can it do to our own brains? You know,
what can we going forward to learn from us? Yeah,
and just also the message to that, like when you're
listening to music, it's like we tend to sort of
think our music something I listened to it in the background,
(26:41):
you know, or you know, it's it's playing in the car,
or you know, I I turned it on to just
chill out or rock out in the afternoon or what
you know, whatever however you do it. But but something
really deeper is going on. You know, You're it's kind
of like it's you, You're, you're you're sort of recharging
your your mind, rewriting your mind, even depending on what
you're listening to and how you listen to it, right,
(27:02):
your emotions are being provoked and you may not even
know it. Just I mean, you might be in the
elevator listening to elevator music. So you know, music, music
is manipulation too in that sense. And we're in the
day and age where we're surrounded by and you know,
I actually, you know, thankfully for me, I feel like
we're in the day and age where we have access
(27:23):
to so much music at the same time it is
it's ubiquitous. Yeah, it is everywhere, and it's just there.
There's so much great music out there. And like one
of the I think the good things about the Internet
is that you had It's like you can explore so much,
whereas like when I was in high school, had like
the worst musical taste because I had so little to
(27:43):
pull from, you know, right, Yeah, and this is interesting
to found this out that perfect pitch in Western cultures, uh,
fourteen percent of the population is represented, which is miniscule, right,
people who have perfect pitch, But in Asian cultures that
it's actually yeah, and there's warm theorist who comes at
(28:07):
it by saying that those languages are microtonal and um.
In fact, I think about it this way. Have you
ever heard Chinese opera? Yes, okay, probably the first time
you heard it, did it seem sort of jarring and
maybe even off key and no offense to people who
love it. But every time I've heard it it's starring okay, So,
(28:29):
and I think that's because we're all, you know, creating
these these neural pathways right in neural systems of understanding
of music, and so what you're exposed to is a
Westerner is probably what your preference is going to be.
And so if you, as an Asian have a microtonal language,
then what that's basically doing for you is giving you
(28:51):
a more nuanced understanding of pitch, tone, melody, rhythm. And
so the idea is that put you in a lot
better position to be able to have perfect pitch and
detect it, which is another very cool crossroads I think
of language and music and something that we have to
(29:13):
reconsider how music works with language, um in its own right. Interesting.
So it's that's sort of exciting to me. Yeah, now
I will I do have to stress. I do like
a lot of Asian music, just not not Chinese like
court orchestra type stuff. Well sure, yeah, but I get it.
(29:36):
It's not first on my playlist. Yeah, it's it's it's
a little jarring. So if you want to know more
about these topics, go to the House to Works dot
com website and check out is There a Link Between
Music and Happiness by Molly Edmonds And if you happen to,
you know, hit the video store. If you're turning into
PBS or you you just use Netflix, especially Netflix streaming.
(29:56):
You can watch the documentary The Music Instincts Aience and Song.
It is a fascinating what two hours, Yeah, and it
just it really hits. Uh. It's like some of the
stuff we've talked about, but then the whole the whole
other area too. Yeah. Bobby mcfarren is uh, I guess
you would say, uh, sort of the host of it. Yeah,
yeahs at least a co host in it. They get
(30:20):
pretty heavy into the neurological implications of of music and
and what it what it says, what it might say
in the future. Really really good, really good show. Check
it out. And music and space, music in space. Yes. Yeah.
So if you've got an earworm that you would like
to let us know about, we want to hear about it. Yeah,
(30:40):
And I'm interested to know of anybody else out there
has the situation where most of the earworms are are
non lyrical because I haven't really I don't know if
I've meant anybody that else it has that. Not that
I'm patting myself on the back back for being strange
or anything, but I just feel like other himself on
the back, but some other people have to have that too,
so yeah, absolutely let us now. You can email us
(31:03):
at blow the Mind at how stuff works dot com,
and you can also find us on Facebook and Twitter,
where you can also find us as blow the Mind.
Thanks for listening. For more on this and thousands of
other topics, visit how stuff works dot com. To learn
more about the podcast, click on the podcast icon in
the upper right corner of our homepage. The how stuff
(31:26):
Works iPhone app has a ride. Download it today on iTunes.
Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuff
Works dot com. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind.
I'm Robert lamb Um Julie Douglas, And as our wonderful
theme music fades into the background, there, Uh tell me, Julie,
what how does that music make you feel? What comes
(00:26):
to mind? I gotta tell you, Like, there's that that
sort of something that really kind of makes me feel
a little booty busting. Yeah, yeah, kind of kind of
makes me in my head not a little. It has
kind of like a kind of an i d M.
Intelligent dance music kind of sound to it. To it.
It makes me sort of think of like a a
(00:46):
dark Alison Wonderland type forest, and there's like all sorts
of weird things going on in the darkness, maybe like
flashing little points of light and there's something there's something
really amazing going on in the darkness, and uh, and
you're just kind of wondering, all my goodness, what's what's
going on out there? Like all I'm talking about is
classics shaken and you're and you've fallen down the rabbit hole.
(01:09):
I like that than another Loose Carroll reference there. Yeah, yeah, well,
I mean that's the great thing about music because it's
it's you know, And this is kind of a an
overstatement of the obvious here, but it has a profound
and varying effect on on on the listener, right, Yeah, absolutely.
I mean, do you have any earworms or there any
(01:30):
instances that you feel like with music that really sort
of grabs you by the shirt tails or oh? I
mean I I listen to music pretty constantly at work. Like,
I don't think I'd get any work done or or
be able to commute properly if I didn't have f
music going. And I've also found that, like when it
comes to it to earworms, I will I will definitely
(01:51):
get some like annoying earworms here and there, but but
most of the worms I get are more like just
the music and not the lyrics. Like even I think
a an earworm that a lot of people may suffer
from is that that Lady Gaga song the what is it?
The I don't know, Yeah, I refuse to let it
(02:12):
into my brain. Okay, well you you you're you're fortunate
this far. I mean, I I don't know. I kind
of like a part of the song, but then the
rest of it just kind of like just slams in
your head and won't let go, and then you're just
trying to shake it out. Yeah. Yeah, so that's the
problem with earworms. Yeah yeah, Yeah. For me, I've got
a couple like one that's just a benevolent earworm right
now is a Tarrangela by Robin Hitchcock. So sometimes I'll
(02:36):
wake up in the morning I can hear the harmonic
and it's nice, and then yeah, that's a good ear warm.
Most of my worms I feel are good. Okay, so
you're lucky because I've got one that's I've had for
like a decade and I can't shake. And it usually
happens like at three o'clock in the morning. I can't
go to sleep and all of a sudden, I can
hear the piano going, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't. It's
a hard not And I know there's something about that
(02:59):
song and the lyrics. So it's interesting that for you
it's it's not necessarily lyrics that are haunting you. But
but that's what music is. For me. It's both. It's
both the destroyer and the creator. Yeah, it's um. It's
also a huge energizer, Like I think it's interesting how
uh you know. The scientists pointed out that like the
(03:21):
like slower music, you're you're sad music, you're you're you're
you know, more relaxing music tends to be a lot
you know, you know, slower and slower beat going on
and then and then the faster music. You know, it
has some sort of like really you know, raxtous beat
to it that that's what gets you pumped up. Like
if you I don't know if you've ever done this,
if you've ever put on I have the tiger Oh
(03:41):
yeah this morning? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, you know sometimes
that's that's what you need to get out of the
house or you know, to to really throw yourself at
a project. Yeah yeah, I do that right before I
scale the steps eight hundred steps um near my local park.
Oh excellent, yes, yeah, well cool. Then in the fighting
spirit right and then I get it, I get it.
The adrenaline is pumping. Yeah. I also have this theory
(04:04):
that nobody can listen to Staying Alive without altering the
way they walk, you know. But that's a good thing.
That's I I think it's a good it's a great song,
and I think we should always walk Like we're listening
to that. I think about how that would change the world.
Like imagine of like like like soldiers and people in
our OTC, Like if they had to march to staying alive, Like,
it would be an entirely different scene. That's right. There
(04:24):
would be no wars, right, it would just be people
styling and looking good. See that's an't that's a good
example of how music can change your brain. Yeah. And
when we say it change the brain, I mean it's
it's really it's really amazing what it can do and
what it what it does do on like to all
of us like every day. But like first, like what
what do you think music is like? And what is
(04:46):
it to you? Bare bones? Yeah, well, I I was
thinking about it, and I kept coming up with with
kind of elaborate answers. But I actually have to just
sort of refer to Websters on this one because the
Westers is a very it's not very creative. It's you know,
the Webster's definition. It's pretty succinct, and it just says
the quote the science or art of ordering tones or
(05:09):
sounds in succession, in combination, and in temporal relationships to
produce a composition. Having unity and continuity. So it's like
it's a series of sounds that makes some sort of
sense that have like a almost almost a kind of
like a narrative flow to them, even though there are
no characters in a song unless you're going with some
(05:29):
sort of Peter and the Wolf type of motif. You know. Yeah, okay,
so you have to have rhythm, tone meter, what else? Um,
Sometimes instruments a melody a melody, right, A little air
horn drops in here and there just for sure becauzoo zoo. Yeah, yeah,
I just sneeze. Um. So I think that's the really
(05:56):
cool thing about music is that it can really be anything. Yeah.
And it cross culture is too. Yeah. I mean it's
a deep part of our cognitive architecture too. Is as
we discussed previously when we're talking about what alien how
aliens would interpret human culture and what really stands out
about who we are, like, music is a huge part
of who we are and uh, you know it changed.
It has the power to change our mood, to heighten
(06:17):
our our emotions. Um. Well, and the the thing though
that should be noted is that, um, we're not entirely
sure how music affects our brains were just now getting
some data from what the last ten years, Yeah, five
to ten. It's it's it's pretty much and continues to
be an emerging area of study. Yeah, I mean, that's
(06:38):
pretty explosive area to to look into our explicit field
right now. And you've got cognitive psychologists and linguists. Stephen Pinker,
who uh, he's just he's sort of the oh, I
don't know. I guess you would say that he's the
party pooper on this. He thinks that music is just
auditory cheesecake and it's space like an accident of evolution, like, hey,
(07:02):
guess what it gets talk and sing? Yeah, I mean
he he at least he's not a complete villain about it.
And he's kind of like, like, I understand wanting to
make more out of music than it is, but I
don't you know, that's that's his his whole argument, right,
And then you have other people on the other side
of the coin. They're like, they're saying, we've got to
make more out of this because of the findings. So
(07:22):
um so I think it's interesting to to dive into
that and look at the findings and find out how
our brains work on music and specifically, like when we're
listening to music, what's what's happening inside of our brains?
Like just to put things in perspective, Like a lot
of times, you know, people wonder is music, um, is
(07:44):
it this thing under itself or is it just like
the flip side of language? But you know, there are
parts of the brain that respond to music that don't
respond to language. And there are separate parts of the
of the brain that respond to the melody of language,
um that are different from the parts of the brain
that respond to music. So it's it's not just you know,
it's clearly doing unique things to our mind. Yeah, Like
(08:07):
if you look at a brain scan that you can
see that it's letting up like a pinball machine or
you know, as as someone had said um before in
some of the literal I was reading that it's it's
almost looks like a symphony. There are different parts of
the symphony that are queuing up and working in concert. Yeah,
and what they're looking at tends to be um um,
blood flow, oxygen flow in the brain. That those are
(08:29):
the indicators to show that there's something that there's there's
definite neural activity going on. And I think we've all
seen these brains, you know, if you haven't seen it
in a movie, you've seen it on you know, at
least channel flipping through your you know, your different documentary channels. Yeah,
and and uh, it's it's pretty fascinating when you do
see the brain lighting up like that because you get
(08:50):
to see where the music is entering the ear, and
it's going into the front well and temporal lobes and
then into the language processing areas, and then the visual
cortex lights up, and that's, um, that's actually really interesting
because that's your brain kind of trying to get a
visual beat on the changes in pitch and tone. So
it's looking at it in a visual way. It's perceiving
(09:12):
that as movement. Okay, So kind of like when I
see the dark forest with the lights in it exactly. Yeah,
you're already sort of imagining yourself in movement, which is
really interesting when when you're thinking about music and then
you've got your metal front cortex, and that's where if
you've heard that song before, you get all weaky or
you get sad. Okay. So this is like, for an example,
(09:34):
if I listened to a particularly sad song during a
like really depressing episode in my life and I and
I tear up listening to it again or or get
kind of weird about it if I listened to it again,
that's what's going on, right, right. Or if you're like
sitting there listening to Nick Drake and you know it's
raining outside or something along those lines. Um, but if
you're listening to something that makes you happy, then your
(09:57):
brain starts releasing dopamine. Okay, Yeah, so you've got the
reward center occupied as well. Just pretty cool. And one
of the things I think is most interesting is that
sometimes your neural firing synchronizes to the fundamental frequency of
that sound that you're picking up. Wow, So you would
be able to to look at it like a live
(10:19):
scan of the brain, and it would it would essentially
be like the visualizer on Windows Media Player, right right, Yeah,
you'd have these uh neural finds that are like or
something along these lines. Maybe maybe you wouldn't, but in
a centric millionaire could could like hire a dude to
like remain hooked up to a brain scanner and you
(10:43):
could just set the and that could be his his
visualizer visualizer, that's right. If he was going to take
it to that other level of entertainment. Yeah. Absolutely, m
I see what you're going to be doing with your
first million. Um. But all of this was pointing to
the fact that, like you said, there's a lot going
(11:03):
on the brain. There's parts that are lighting up. You've
got blood flow, you've got oxygen. And what we're beginning
to see is that music is tripping all sorts of
switches in our brain and possibly even making a smarter
if we engage in certain ways with it. And I
think you see that actually with musicians. Yeah, Yeah, there's
been some some really cool studies, UM into just you know,
(11:27):
how how musicians brains appear to work versus non musician brains.
They've done some uh they have evenen some studies where
they take they take a non musician, give them like
a year of like you know, musical lessons, seeing lessons,
what have you, and and they can see the changes
in the neural activity, right and this they could be
a terrible singer, right right. Yeah, but the fact that
(11:49):
they're exercising this part of the brain means that what
they've built up some some more muscle there, so to speak. Yeah,
it's really made me rethink. I mean, I don't know.
I really don't know how musically inclined you are, um,
I in terms of instruments, because I took piano lessons,
I took like a recorder lesson. I was in like
(12:09):
band for like trumpet and french horn. Played none of
these things well at all. I was. I was you know,
pretty uh, pretty pretty inept at times, especially with the piano.
I feel. But but I've had to rethink it because
I'm because I'm thinking, like, even though I didn't excel
at those things, it got my brain thinking in a
musical way, and maybe that benefited me in the long run,
(12:32):
right and in other ways that you might have not
even known. Yeah, um no, well I'd not really musically incline,
you know. In um college, I took my grandfather's saxophone.
It's saxophone, it's awesome, and had it restored, and I
took lessons and I was terrible, and I would try
(12:53):
to bend the notes, and my music teacher would get
really angry and just say please, just like learn the
notes and do it well. And I thought, well, surely
after six months, I can I can sound um like Coltrane, right, um.
But that didn't work out so I got discouraged. But yeah,
like you, I'm rethinking it. I'm thinking, okay, if if I,
even if I'm terrible at it, um, maybe this can
(13:16):
help me to have a thicker cortex like other musicians. Uh,
And which just basically means that you've got a lot
more activity going on your frontal cortex and the areas
of your brain that are responsible for language and planning.
And this is another cool thing about musicians. They're better
at picking out selective patterns in a room where there's
(13:36):
that might be a cacophony of sound, So they kind
of have better selective hearing, if you will. So if
you needed someone to like spy on somebody in a
busy room, hire the spy that has a musical background.
See that's why I was thinking I should continue with
saxophone lessons, because you never know when you're gonna have
to switch over a full time to that spying career,
(13:57):
right right, It's it's just a good thing to have
in your back pocket. Yeah, nobody wants to hear I'm sorry,
but I'm going to go with the bassoon player. No, yeah, no,
it's true. But but the other thing that all of
this is pointing to is of course music and children, right,
and the fact that children who study and learn music
aren't just increasing their motor skills, but they're scoring higher
(14:18):
on language tests than they show an overall improved processing
and linguistic centers of the brain. So you have to
be engaging in the music, of course, can't just be
a passive listener. But that also makes me think of
the mosartiffect. Okay, this is where you play Mozart for
an unborn child. Well, this is what Yeah, this was
the result of a study. That's that's actually that's the
(14:41):
interpretation um from the results. But the result is that
basically college students who went underwent the study that when
they listen to Mozart that for some temporal spatial testing
that they actually increased their scores. But it was temporary,
and they were bored, and they were bored, and they
(15:01):
were they were constructing things out of paper. Um, so
that was essentially the test. But people took that and
they ran with it. And like Governor Zell Miller, if
Georgia had mandated that every child born would get a
Mozart c D and so the you know, it wasn't
quite that. And I think that's the interesting to point
out that it's not just listening to music, it's engaging
(15:23):
in it that really helps benefit the brain and builds
it up quite a bit more musically. Yeah, exactly. Yeah,
And I think the most extreme case of this is
probably in some ailments that occur in the brain um
story victims Parkinson's disease along those lines, right, they're they're
(15:45):
able to actually use the music to repair damn it,
to to to rebuild the brain. And in a certain sense, yeah,
in a way, I mean Parkinson's um You know, of
course you're your motor system is going to be tripped
up with that, and so music kind of helps the
auditory system and the motor system, uh, be in concert
with each other. So if you've got a partisan patient
(16:09):
and you put on a rhythm track, that actually helps
that person to better coordinate their movements. So again, think
about the neurons, you know, firing to a certain beat
or like playing staying alive, and everybody ends up kind
of threatened instead of just walking right right. Yeah, So
during physical therapy, you know, you just have to imagine
that you're you're in the movie walking down the street,
(16:31):
You're staying a lot. This presentation is brought to you
by Intel Sponsors of Tomorrow. I have to admit, like
when I whenever I go to like a like a
concert or like a big like DJ event, and uh
(16:52):
and in the crowd is really into it. I can't
help but think of like old Viking movies where there's
like the guy on the back of the king ship
of Viking longboat like beating on the drum and everyone's
moving in tandem with the drummer. Because that's how it feels.
It's like one guy, you know, be it or you know,
one band or the DJ or whoever. It's like they're
controlling everyone and everyone is just synchronized with this beat,
(17:16):
you know. Yeah. And actually, um, people who who talk
about the auditory cheesecake, they actually point to that experience
that you're talking about and say that, uh, music is
actually a way to bring people together. It does have
an evolutionary purpose and that if you can get everybody's
neurons synchronized in a group, then you can form some
(17:40):
sort of basis of cooperation for community. Well that's instantly.
And part of this is because I'm reading rereading Name
of the Roads. I can't help but think of a
monastic community and the importance of music. Yeah, and I
imagine any like church groups, uh, etcetera, or even even
the military, I guess come to think of it, like
with the sort of thing those little songs they chant
(18:01):
while they're marching. My mom said, yeah, yeah, that one,
that that classic ballad. Um. Yeah, it's like a community
building thing. They're all sort of syncing up and becoming
one body under the music. Yeah. Yeah, So I mean
they are, Like I said, there are people who point
to that and say, there is a purpose, there's a
(18:21):
reason why all of us have this what they think
innate ability to understand music, um and to incorporate it
in our lives. And if you look at the importance
of music, especially with memory we're talking about a little
bit earlier, with the medial front cortex, that that's where
all your memories are stored. They're finding that Alzheimer's patients
(18:45):
and dementia patients are responding really well to musical therapy
because when they hear pieces of music, it actually helps
sense to sort of unlock the box, you know, crack it,
open access their memories again and actually helping them to
increase their short term and long term memory, which is
really cool. Yeah, and then you've got stroke victims who
(19:11):
they may be able to understand what you're saying, but
they can't. They the use of language is gone. They
can't express themselves. And they've been singing in some studies, Uh,
what they're trying to say phrases and in some cases
they can sing two hundred three hundred phrases. Um, they
may on a sort of road to recovery and being
(19:33):
able to eventually speak again. Yeah, so music is definitely
Are they singing what they want to say? Are they
singing things? Yeah? Yeah, yeah. Actually there's a documentary called
The Music Intuition, and they show a woman who is
going through therapy and, uh, the woman that's working with
her says, Okay, now suppose that your two year old
(19:55):
daughter is about to run down the street, what do
you say? And she sings wait for me? But she
couldn't never say wait for me, you know, So she's
regaining that ability through music. It's interesting because we were
actually talking the other day about how it might be
a little difficult if we were to do a musical
episode of the podcast. But for someone who's having to
(20:16):
reclaim their speech, like music is the the in road
to speaking again. That's interesting. Yeah, and so that's that's
again where the mystery is sort of coming in, because
you know, again, this is a fairly new field of study.
Ten years ago, people didn't necessarily know that music could
access your brain in these ways. And I'm also thinking
(20:36):
about another therapy session. This was done by neuroscientists David Soto.
He had sixty stroke victims who sustained damage to her
parietal cortex, which is related to visual and spatial processing.
And it was very unusual and that the victims lost
half of their spatial weren't awareness and some of them
(20:57):
would eat food on only one side of her mouth,
or they would shave only one side of their face. Yeah,
so their perceptions way off. So what happened is when
Soto played music that made them happy they during their therapy,
they were actually able to increase their abilities and be
(21:18):
able to perceive more. And the interesting thing about this
is that they played a couple of different pieces of music,
but the ones that were most popular for Frank Sinatra
and Kenny Rogers. I guess of the two of the
two who had the better results with the victims. Um,
I'm thinking Frank probably took more of a firm hand
(21:38):
with him. Okay, I would think so too. Fly Me
to the Moon very uplifting. Kenny Rogers, Please tell me
it was early Kenny Rodgers at least I don't know.
The fifth edition was the fifth edition that's in the
Land of Lady Gaga for me. I'm sorry, you know,
just stepped in to see what condition my condition was in.
Oh yes, okay, I didn't have that one. Oh boy, yeah,
(21:59):
that's it's as track. I bet that probably is someone
that I would hope, so yeah, well we hope. Yeah. Um,
but they thought about actually renaming it the Kenny Rogers Effect,
no joke, I'm not kidding, but um, that kind of
points to the fact that when you are happy, when
you're listening to music, you've got the release of dopamines,
(22:21):
and that when you have the release of dopamins, that
you've actually got more neural resources. So that's what they're
seeing there with the stroke victims is that it was
actually allowing them to perform a skill set that they
didn't necessarily happy for. What's interesting, they've they've also been
some some studies into how music can be used for
(22:43):
people suffering from chronic heart disease and the the results
are not set in stone on this one, um, but
they've but scientists have found that that like in a
study that had like, you know, about participants, they found
that it had a modern effect on anxiety, uh in
patients with the c h D chronic card disease. UM.
(23:06):
But the results were kind of inconsistent across the studies.
But that but that listening to music reduces heart rate,
respiratory rate, and blood pressure in other words, you know,
a calming effect on the body, which can have you know,
can be very medicinal given certain conditions such as chronic
card disease UM. And then I've also also saw a
(23:29):
few studies talking about it to use in treating depression
or or anxiety. And again it a part of it
comes down to, you know, like if anybody who's ever
like meditated to music or or used relax that used
music as a relaxation tool, you know obviously knows the
relaxing effects of music. But but but but you know
(23:51):
that very effect has a can have a clinical use
as well. They've also found that in some therapies it's
kind of like music is you know, music is a
universal language to sort of use a you know, kind
of a cliche term there. But but if you have
a person who's not very receptive to therapy um and
and and maybe not that receptive to just one on one,
(24:11):
you know, verbal communication, music can kind of break down doors.
It's it's something they can instantly get and it's less
threatening to them. So that's one of the benefits they
thought that the experts have found with music therapy, you know,
on the opposite side of the coin, I just have
to mention that I ran across the Study of Mice
and Meth. I wish that were the title of it,
(24:33):
but that's actually wasn't um of Mice and Meth. That
they took these mice and they put them on math
and then they gave some of them a quiet space,
and some of them they just blasted really loud music,
and they wanted to see if the toxicity levels would
rise with a really loud music. Very particular study. Well,
(24:54):
what they were trying to do is say, um that
if you're on meth and in you're on nightclub, that
it can actually be um, I'm much more dangerous to you.
This is the you know, what they pose it because
it enhances the toxic effects of meth the load music,
and I thought, wow, that's that's so disturbing and poor mice.
(25:15):
And I've got to say that we need to start
cataloging all of the little indignities that they have to
suffer in the name of science as we can figure
out our drug effits. Yeah. Yeah, so that you know,
like I said on the flip side there, I mean, yes,
like you said, it can be um can be very healing.
But I mean music is powerful in the sense that
(25:36):
it could illuminate um other other areas of your brain.
I shouldn't say illuminate, I should say and enhance those
parts of your brain. If you happen to be on
meth and you are a mouse out there, quick little
diversion there. So I think what all of this is
(25:57):
pointing to is that we have something called neural plasticity. Okay,
and this just means that the brain is not set
in stone, that it's there are our neural architecture can change, right, Yeah,
I mean this is like the really incredible message of
all of this is that if if you can help
uh someone who has Parkinson's, you know, get back on
(26:21):
the road. To therapy with music because it's stimulating parts
of their brain that they didn't know it could stimulate before.
What can it do to our own brains? You know,
what can we going forward to learn from us? Yeah,
and just also the message to that, like when you're
listening to music, it's like we tend to sort of
think our music something I listened to it in the background,
(26:41):
you know, or you know, it's it's playing in the car,
or you know, I I turned it on to just
chill out or rock out in the afternoon or what
you know, whatever however you do it. But but something
really deeper is going on. You know, You're it's kind
of like it's you, You're, you're you're sort of recharging
your your mind, rewriting your mind, even depending on what
you're listening to and how you listen to it, right,
(27:02):
your emotions are being provoked and you may not even
know it. Just I mean, you might be in the
elevator listening to elevator music. So you know, music, music
is manipulation too in that sense. And we're in the
day and age where we're surrounded by and you know,
I actually, you know, thankfully for me, I feel like
we're in the day and age where we have access
(27:23):
to so much music at the same time it is
it's ubiquitous. Yeah, it is everywhere, and it's just there.
There's so much great music out there. And like one
of the I think the good things about the Internet
is that you had It's like you can explore so much,
whereas like when I was in high school, had like
the worst musical taste because I had so little to
(27:43):
pull from, you know, right, Yeah, and this is interesting
to found this out that perfect pitch in Western cultures, uh,
fourteen percent of the population is represented, which is miniscule, right,
people who have perfect pitch, But in Asian cultures that
it's actually yeah, and there's warm theorist who comes at
(28:07):
it by saying that those languages are microtonal and um.
In fact, I think about it this way. Have you
ever heard Chinese opera? Yes, okay, probably the first time
you heard it, did it seem sort of jarring and
maybe even off key and no offense to people who
love it. But every time I've heard it it's starring okay, So,
(28:29):
and I think that's because we're all, you know, creating
these these neural pathways right in neural systems of understanding
of music, and so what you're exposed to is a
Westerner is probably what your preference is going to be.
And so if you, as an Asian have a microtonal language,
then what that's basically doing for you is giving you
(28:51):
a more nuanced understanding of pitch, tone, melody, rhythm. And
so the idea is that put you in a lot
better position to be able to have perfect pitch and
detect it, which is another very cool crossroads I think
of language and music and something that we have to
(29:13):
reconsider how music works with language, um in its own right. Interesting.
So it's that's sort of exciting to me. Yeah, now
I will I do have to stress. I do like
a lot of Asian music, just not not Chinese like
court orchestra type stuff. Well sure, yeah, but I get it.
(29:36):
It's not first on my playlist. Yeah, it's it's it's
a little jarring. So if you want to know more
about these topics, go to the House to Works dot
com website and check out is There a Link Between
Music and Happiness by Molly Edmonds And if you happen to,
you know, hit the video store. If you're turning into
PBS or you you just use Netflix, especially Netflix streaming.
(29:56):
You can watch the documentary The Music Instincts Aience and Song.
It is a fascinating what two hours, Yeah, and it
just it really hits. Uh. It's like some of the
stuff we've talked about, but then the whole the whole
other area too. Yeah. Bobby mcfarren is uh, I guess
you would say, uh, sort of the host of it. Yeah,
yeahs at least a co host in it. They get
(30:20):
pretty heavy into the neurological implications of of music and
and what it what it says, what it might say
in the future. Really really good, really good show. Check
it out. And music and space, music in space. Yes. Yeah.
So if you've got an earworm that you would like
to let us know about, we want to hear about it. Yeah,
(30:40):
And I'm interested to know of anybody else out there
has the situation where most of the earworms are are
non lyrical because I haven't really I don't know if
I've meant anybody that else it has that. Not that
I'm patting myself on the back back for being strange
or anything, but I just feel like other himself on
the back, but some other people have to have that too,
so yeah, absolutely let us now. You can email us
(31:03):
at blow the Mind at how stuff works dot com,
and you can also find us on Facebook and Twitter,
where you can also find us as blow the Mind.
Thanks for listening. For more on this and thousands of
other topics, visit how stuff works dot com. To learn
more about the podcast, click on the podcast icon in
the upper right corner of our homepage. The how stuff
(31:26):
Works iPhone app has a ride. Download it today on iTunes.
Stuff To Blow Your Mind News
Hosts And Creators
Robert Lamb
Joe McCormick
Popular Podcasts
United States of Kennedy
United States of Kennedy is a podcast about our cultural fascination with the Kennedy dynasty. Every week, hosts Lyra Smith and George Civeris go into one aspect of the Kennedy story.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com