Exploring Music’s Impact on the Brain
Music and the Brain is a Bass Connections in Brain & Society interdisciplinary course that explores the intersection of music and neuroscience. The course is taught jointly by professors Scott Lindroth of the music department and Tobias Overath from the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences.
In this video, the two professors conduct an experiment on a professional violinist that explains the science behind the brain’s ability to process music.
Jennifer Koh is among the nation’s most well-regarded musicians. A Chicago native, she made her major symphony debut at age 11 with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and has performed with dozens of professional symphonies around the world. She was recently named Instrumentalist of the Year by Musical America magazine, the oldest American magazine covering classical music.
Laying motionless on her back in the MRI machine while her brain activity was being measured, Koh was asked to imagine playing a series of classical works for solo violin by Paganini and Bach, to listen to them, or to read their musical scores. Overath then studied how Koh’s brain reacted to each.
The results, he said afterwards, showed a unique activation pattern for when she was listening, reading, and imagining playing music. However, there were also some common traits: For example, brain areas responsible for planning movements were active in all three tasks, even though Koh never lifted a finger.
“The musician’s brain is exquisitely sensitive to all aspects of music, be it listening, reading or imagining playing music,” Overath said. “Therefore, you engage a whole range of areas of your brain – it’s quite literally a whole body experience. From a cognitive point of view, but also physically, it’s incredibly strenuous.”
Overath himself is a musician: he played violin for 16 years before transitioning to the viola, which he played for many years and still picks up from time to time. He studied musicology as a college undergraduate in Germany before realizing he was more interested in the brain chemistry of how us humans perceive music rather than the technical nitty-gritty of musical composition and theory. So he became a neuroscientist, one with the perfect background for Koh’s study.
For Overath, the chance to study the working brain of a professional musician of Koh’s caliber was a rare opportunity, and his students will benefit as well. He and Lindroth will discuss the results derived from Koh’s scan in class.
“It certainly plays into the course content,” said Lindroth, a composer. “We’ll have a whole class on the ways the brain is engaged with the physical and auditory dimensions of musical performance. It’s especially wonderful that our students will have a personal connection to Jennifer from her visit to our class earlier in the semester.”
Learn more
- Read the full article by Eric Ferreri on DukeToday.
- Explore Bass Connections in Brain & Society.
- Find out how to get involved in Bass Connections.