My Music Brain

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Musical preference - does it come from nature or from nurture?

An explorative journey revels why music is so important to our lives...
A high-tech scan of his brain reveals Sting's musical genius.

Go on a voyage of how our brains process music and how our culture shapes our musical preferences – helping us understand our motives, fears, desires, and memories. At every turn and at every stage of our lives, nature and nurture forge the uniquely human obsession with music.

Combining the cutting-edge experiments of top neuroscientists and the experiences of top musicians such as Sting, Michael Buble, Feist and Wyclef Jean, this explorative journey reveals why music is so important in our lives.

It examines our collective passion for music and illuminates how the brain uses music to create human experience.

Neuroscientist Daniel Levitin has been analysing music's effect on the brain. All that was missing was a master musician to study. Step forward Sting, lending his megabrain to science.

Levitin discovers that Sting's body is in motion when he thinks about So What by Miles Davis, and that we can control our mood through music and the way it makes us move. It's a fascinating study, but when Sting talks about birds being sexually attracted to the male with the greatest song, disturbing images are conjured up.


The fMRI of Sting must have been of great interest to Dr. Daniel Levitin, musician turned neuroscientist.

In a documentary "The Musical Brain" on JUNE 28, Levitin and others explore the brain on music, looking at how the brain shapes music and how music shapes the brain.

For this documentary, Sting underwent an fMRI and viewers of the show will see how music affects his brain.

Dr. Levitin designed four MRI tests for Sting. From "The king of 'brain'" (St. Catharines Standard):

Dr. Levitin, whose dream it was to scan the brain of a great musician, designed the MRI tests. The idea was to scan Sting's brain as it was actively doing something related to music.

In the first test, Levitin asked Sting to imagine a favourite melody. Even though there was no music playing, his toes moved to some inaudible beat.

Says [documentary writer and director Christina] Pochmursky: "We respond to imagined music the same way as we respond to music we hear."

The second test involved listening to different genres of music. Tango. Jazz. Classical. Even Muzak. Levitin mapped the response of Sting's brain.

Seems the only genre that prompted a different brain reaction was Muzak. It was, quite simply, too boring for his brain.

"The brain is like a kitten," says Pochmursky. "It's always curious. It always wants something it's never seen before. Then it perks right up."

In the final test, Levitin asked Sting to compose a melody he's never thought of before. Inside the MRI, Sting hums the beginnings of a song as his brain activity is recorded.



http://natgeotv.com/uk/my-music-brain/videos/an-interview-with-sting 

http://natgeotv.com/uk/my-music-brain/videos/my-music-brain


 


Watch The Musical Brain in Educational & How-To | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

The power of music and its effect on the human mind is a fascinating topic for neuroscientists and musicians. Dr Daniel Levitin is both a neuroscientist and ex-rocker. In this documentary he shows how the brain uses music to shape human experience. Featuring insights from Grammy Award-winning musicians Sting, Wyclef Jean, Michael Buble and 4xGrammy-nominee Feist, this riveting documentary reveals how music is interpreted by those who create it and those who listen to it. Using the research findings of leading medical experts, including Dr. Daniel Levitin, the documentary examines the physical, psychological and emotional responses to music through a variety of tests on children and adults. Inspired by Dr. Daniel Levitin's book ('This is Your Brain on Music'), Sting puts his own musical mind to the test when he enters an fMRI (functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging) machine to have his brain scanned. Using state-of-the-art technology, the film demonstrates how Sting responds to various types of music - complex and simple - and what his musical brain reveals about him.