Music & the mind
         - interview with Professor Lawrence Parsons

“  How did you first become interested/involved in this field?

LP: I became interested in cognitive science and biology at university. Later, when the new technologies such as positron emission tomography (PET) became available for imaging human brain activity (via blood flow without surgery), I switched immediately to studying brain. A few years later, a colleague asked me to help out on a project measuring brain activity during piano playing. When we finished the study, I could see how much could be learned about the organisation of the brain in such investigation, and started new studies.

  From studies, it would seem that similar mechanisms in the brain respond to music as to language. Is music, therefore, in your view primarily a mechanism of communication?

LP: When the human brain was evolving to its current state (the human brain is still evolving), our hominid ancestors probably experienced music blended with dance, narrative, drama, mimicry, ritual, with all group members participating fully. These music/dance/narrative group performances were likely shared emotional states, of which communication would certainly have been part. Recent research suggests that there may be some shared or adjacent brain mechanisms supporting speech and singing. If so, it is likely because singing music and speaking language have some common requirements for neural processes (for example, rule-based hierarchical sequencing of strings of vocalised units).

  There seems to be strong links between music and the limbic/paralimbic response systems, would this account for the 'frisson' effect, ie shivers up the spine, when appreciating certain pieces of music?

LP: Music (and dance) produce a wide variety of emotional experiences, each supported by destinct patterns of activity across the neural mechanisms causing specific emotional and physical body states. Studies of those 'shiver' responses to music have shown the specific patterns of activity in the brain. However, localising the activity in brain areas for emotion and body feelings does not explain why music can causes such shivers. Indeed, it is not known exactly why music affects our emotions, although hypotheses have been proposed in an evolutionary framework. One hypothesis goes like this. We feel strong emotions for events which have strong adaptive value for us. If music helps human groups survive better because it strengthens the bonds amongst its members, then music may have adaptive value. If so, then, via evolutionary processes, music may have become associated with emotion (such as reward, pleasures, awe, beauty, etc)...”

The interview continues to discuss the latest theories on the relationship between the mind and music. Professor Lawrence Parsons is based at the University of Sheffield. His research has been concerned with functional brain organisation for music, dance, reasoning and perception, as well as the function of the cerebellum.