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  • This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession

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Daniel J. Levitin
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This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession

by Daniel J. Levitin (Author) Format: Hardcover
4.5 out of 5 stars (3,083)

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Whether you load your iPod with Bach or Bono, music has a significant role in your life—even if you never realized it. Why does music evoke such powerful moods? The answers are at last be- coming clear, thanks to revolutionary neuroscience and the emerging field of evolutionary psychology. Both a cutting-edge study and a tribute to the beauty of music itself, This Is Your Brain on Music unravels a host of mysteries that affect everything from pop culture to our understanding of human nature, including:
• Are our musical preferences shaped in utero?
• Is there a cutoff point for acquiring new tastes in music?
• What do PET scans and MRIs reveal about the brain’s response to music?
• Is musical pleasure different from other kinds of pleasure?

This Is Your Brain on Music explores cultures in which singing is considered an essential human function, patients who have a rare disorder that prevents them from making sense of music, and scientists studying why two people may not have the same definition of pitch. At every turn, this provocative work unlocks deep secrets about how nature and nurture forge a uniquely human obsession.
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  1. Print length
    320 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Dutton Adult
  4. Publication date
    August 3, 2006
  5. Reading age
    18 years and up
  6. Dimensions
    6.24 x 1.09 x 9.26 inches
  7. ISBN-10
    0525949690
  8. ISBN-13
    978-0525949695
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Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Adult/High School–Levitin's fascination with the mystery of music and the study of why it affects us so deeply is at the heart of this book. In a real sense, the author is a rock 'n' roll doctor, and in that guise dissects our relationship with music. He points out that bone flutes are among the oldest of human artifacts to have been found and takes readers on a tour of our bio-history. In this textbook for those who don't like textbooks, he discusses neurobiology, neuropsychology, cognitive psychology, empirical philosophy, Gestalt psychology, memory theory, categorization theory, neurochemistry, and exemplar theory in relation to music theory and history in a manner that will draw in teens. A wonderful introduction to the science of one of the arts that make us human.–Will Marston, Berkeley Public Library, CA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Scientific American

Everyone knows that music can calm a savage beast, rouse a marching platoon or move lovers to tears. But no one knows exactly how. Daniel Levitin, a professional musician, record producer and now neuroscientist at McGill University, explains the latest thinking into why tunes touch us so deeply. He also speculates about whether specific pathways have evolved in our brain for making and listening to music. Using brain imaging, Levitin has documented neural activation in people as they listen to music, revealing a novel cascade of excitation that begins in the auditory system and spreads to regions related to planning, expectation and language as well as arousal, pleasure, mood and rhythmic movement. "Music listening, performance and composition engage nearly every area of the brain that we have so far identifi ed and involve nearly every neural subsystem," he notes. Music’s effects on neurons are so distributed that in some cases stroke victims who can no longer decipher letters can still read music, and some impaired individuals who cannot button a sweater can nevertheless play the piano. Levitin describes new insights into these conditions as well as disorders that cause certain individuals to lack empathy, emotional perception and musicality. He and others suspect a cluster of genes may influence both outgoingness and music ability. He also posits that music promotes cognitive development. Not surprisingly, music reaches deep into the brain’s most primitive structures—including our ancient "reptilian brain" tied to motivation, reward and emotion. Music elevates dopamine levels in the brain’s mood and pleasure centers in ways similar to those triggered by narcotics and antidepressants. Levitin also explains how the neural underpinnings of auditory stimulation and mate selection reach far back in life’s evolutionary scheme. Levitin has no agenda per se, although the book is a rebuttal of sorts to scientists who say music has served no purpose other than to pleasurably stimulate auditory nerve endings. He simply explains an emerging view about the coevolution of music and the brain. To tell his tale, Levitin engagingly weaves together strands of his own life as a professional musician (who dropped out of college to form a band) with those of his transformation into a neuroscientist. To revel in Ra vel’s Boléro or Charlie Parker’s Koko, he reminds us, is to stimulate the brain in a "choreography of neurochemical release and uptake between logical prediction systems and emotional reward systems"—a ballet of brain regions "ex quisitely orchestrated."

Richard Lipkin

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Dutton Adult
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ August 3, 2006
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 320 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0525949690
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0525949695
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.21 pounds
  • Reading age ‏ : ‎ 18 years and up
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.24 x 1.09 x 9.26 inches
  • Best Sellers Rank: #137,606 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 out of 5 stars (3,083)

About the author

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Daniel J. Levitin

Daniel J. Levitin

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Daniel J. Levitin is Founding Dean of Minerva University in California. He is also the James McGill Professor Emeritus of Psychology, Neuroscience and Music at McGill University, Montreal. "This Is Your Brain on Music" , "The World in Six Songs", "The Organized Mind" "A Field Guide to Lies" (republished in paperback as "Weaponized Lies") and "Successful Aging" were all #1 best-sellers, and have been translated into 28 languages. Before becoming a neuroscientist, he worked as a session musician, sound engineer, and record producer, contributing to records by Stevie Wonder, Steely Dan, Joni Mitchell, and Blue Oyster Cult. He has published extensively in scientific journals as well as music magazines such as Grammy and Billboard. Recent musical performances include playing guitar and saxophone with Sting, Bobby McFerrin, Rosanne Cash, David Byrne, Renée Fleming, Victor Wooten, and Rodney Crowell.