Music cognitive effects

[Ink]

So after some long few days of much socializing I was at home feeling completely drained, opened up my spotify I hadn't used for a very long time and started a playlist, the sensations as soon as I started to listen were hard to describe, it kind of felt like a major headache but it wasn't particulalry painful, it was like my brain suddenly turned on as soon as I heard the first few tones... So I have a few theories of what happened, in MBTI terms it activated my Ti-Ne again after way too much Si-Fe use? When I listen to it I became hyperactive kind of for a long while (drumming my fingers all over etc)... Does this vaguely relate to anyone at all? What could possibly go on in the brain doing this?

 

[Architect]

There are a lot of theories about how the brain behaves on music. Left-right, fMRI activations, etc. I was a professional musician once, I can't say why but I don't find a lot of stock in those explanations. Sure the brain activates in some way due to music, well so does everything else doesn't it? Kind of like saying "hey the engine revs up when I start the car". Sure ...

The one definitive thing we can say about music and the brain, it seems to me, is that it bypasses the normal cognitive pathways. It doesn't go through the reasoning part of our brain, instead through ... something else. An emotive pathway? A sensual/sense pathway? Not sure, but this is why music is described as "The Universal Language", because it seems to get around the cerebral cortex functioning in some fundamental way.

Which is probably why it is so refreshing.

 

[Milo]

Any external stimuli that is processed by the brain can start a chain of events that cause you to think about different things and act on those thoughts. It completely depends on how your brain is constructed and the belief-system that you hold, consciously or not. The music may motivate you, make you sad, make you excited, or make you think of something because of the associations your brain has constructed over your lifetime. Because of this, the response to music varies widely from person to person.

Music also does effect me, but in a different way. Rock music will get me pumped up, country makes me think of love and all that mushy stuff, etc. The more you experience, the more your associations change. I now listen to music very little since I find no joy in it anymore. I prefer listening to my own thoughts.

 

[IdeasNotTheProblem]

You assimilated an aspect of your unconscious. The recognition of music is just one of our ancestral psychological traits. Inherited from our ancestors many many years ago. I guess that it's purpose would have been to increase social cohesiveness within a tribe, boost morale, or simply ward off predators/other tribes. Certainly has some communication possibilities as well. I know there's an article on this if you were to look. I'd find one but I'm feeling lazy at the moment.

 

[Architect]

You assimilated an aspect of your unconscious. The recognition of music is just one of our ancestral psychological traits. Inherited from our ancestors many many years ago.

So you are saying that there was genetic selection for those who responded to music? What happened to the tin ear tribesmen, they got offed so they wouldn't contribute to the gene pool? Seems like a tenuous theory.

 

[IdeasNotTheProblem]

So you are saying that there was genetic selection for those who responded to music? What happened to the tin ear tribesmen, they got offed so they wouldn't contribute to the gene pool? Seems like a tenuous theory.

Haha not exactly,
Here's an article that explains much better than I had attempted.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolutionary_musicology

And for the OP.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_cognition