This Is Your Brain On Music: The Science of a Human Obsession
The understanding of how we humans experience music and why it plays a unique role in our lives is this topic of two interviews with Dr. Daniel Levitin, author of, “This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession,” recorded from his home in Montreal, Quebec, Canada in late October 2006. Professor Levitin runs the Laboratory for Musical Perception, Cognition and Expertise at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. He asserts that our brains are hardwired for music and therefore we are all more musically equipped than we think, and that music is an obsession at the heart of human nature, perhaps even more fundamental to our species than language. Professor Levitin believes that the music we end up liking meets our expectations of what we anticipate hearing, just enough of the time that we feel rewarded, and the music that we like also violates those expectations just enough of the time that we’re intrigued. In the first interview Dr. Levitin begins by describing how the human brain learns to distinguish between music and language. The second interview begins with a discussion of what happens when people listen to music they like.
www.yourbrainonmusic.com
Dr. Daniel J. Levitin recommends, “Another Day in the Frontal Lobe,” by Katrina Firlik, and, “The Human Stain,” by Philip Roth.
Barry Vogel, Esq. is the host and producer. Ignacio Ayala is the assistant producer.
As Radio Curious begins the 33d year of weekly broadcast, we're proud to be a part of the Library of Congress Audio Division. Our interviews cover a curiously wide variety of topics about life and ideas. Currently all of our half-hour, long-form interviews are from the Radio Curious archives. The website is www.radiocurious.org.
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Thank you for listening. Barry Vogel, Host and Producer
Dr. Daniel J. Levitin – "Music On The Brain" Part 2
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