How the Brain Works The Facts Visually Explained by DK (z-lib.org)

BRAIN FUNCTIONS AND THE SENSES

Perceiving Sound 76 77

Music and the brain

Music engages many areas of the brain. In

addition to processing the sounds, listening

to music triggers the memory and emotion

centers in the brain, while recalling lyrics

involves the language centers. Performing

music makes even greater demands: the

visual cortex is stimulated by reading music,

the frontal lobe is involved in planning

actions, and the motor cortex coordinates

movement. Musicians are known to have a

greater ability to use both hands because

music requires coordination of motor control,

somatosensory touch, and auditory

information. Unlike listeners, who process

music in the right hemisphere, professional

musicians use the left. They also have a

thicker corpus callosum (the region linking

the two hemispheres) and tend to have

larger auditory and motor cortices.

Mapping music

Scans show that several areas of the brain

are active when listening to music, and even

more are involved when you are playing an

instrument or dancing.

30,000

THE NUMBER OF FIBERS

THAT MAKE UP THE

AUDITORY NERVE

Amygdala (orange)

and nucleus accumbens

(dark red) are both

involved in emotional

reactions to music

Connects

hemispheres

of brain

Activated by

reading music

or watching dance

Involved in movement

and emotional

reaction to music

COR

PUS

M

O

TO

R

PR

EF

RO

NT

AL SE

NS

OR

Y

VISU

AL

CAL

LOSUM

CORTEX

HIPPOCAM

PUS

C

O

RT

EX

C

O

RT

EX

CO

RT

EX

COR

TE

X

CEREBELLUM

AUDI

TORY

Places sounds

in context of

memories and

experience

Coordinates movement

while dancing or playing

an instrument

Involved in

planning and

controlling

expression

Processes touch sensations

while dancing or playing

an instrument

Humans can detect a good range of

frequencies, but other animals can hear

things far beyond our limits. Animals such

as bats and dolphins use high frequencies

in echolocation, while elephants and

whales produce low rumbles that can

travel long distances. Humans are most

sensitive to frequencies between 2 kHz

and 5 kHz, which do not require great

intensity to be heard. Young people have

the best hearing range, from 20 Hz to

20 kHz, but there is a gradual loss of

higher frequencies with age, with older

people having a limit of around 15 kHz.

HIGHS AND LOWS

HUMAN

20 Hz–

20 kHz

ELEPHANT

5 Hz–12 kHz

FREQUENCY

BAT

2 kHz–120 kHz

DOLPHIN

75 Hz–150 kHz

DOG

64 Hz–44 kHz

MOUSE

1 kHz–10 0 kHz

Human

hearing range

100 kHz

10 kHz

1 kHz

100 Hz

10 Hz

0

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