The Sounds of Science

Sometimes a (rather lengthy) trip down memory lane is tied to music. Other times it is inextricably knotted up with it. No one hates untying knots more than I do, so I'll just let the experts handle it...

Love songs, hate songs, blues. It's all about those big experiences in life. When words matter it's because the listener can relate to either the pain or the joy with the singer. So I think that's true. A lot of what inspires music is emotion and your memory of those emotions and your anticipation about future emotions… I think it's more than repetition. I can imagine at a concert where you've got the musician up onstage, and there's a lot of intensity and the music is loud and driving and the crowd is swaying and the guy is dancing around onstage. There's a lot of stuff going on. Emotional upheaval like that is very good at storing memories. There's a very famous study from Columbia in the '60s, where they took people and gave them a shot of adrenaline, which revved them up, and then put them into a room of sad people, happy people or neutral people. If you had the injection you came out feeling the mood of the room you were in. Revving you up like that and putting you into a particular context creates emotions that are appropriate to that context. Your memories will automatically be stored more strongly because of the emotional arousal.
--Joseph LeDoux, Professor of Science at NYU's Center for Neural Science

Check out the full interview here.

Sounds about right so far. And what say you, Daniel Levitin?

...when we're imagining music, it uses the same neurons and circuits as when we're actually hearing it. They're almost indistinguishable. So when you're imagining or remembering something, it could be music or a painting or a kiss, disparate neurons from different parts of your brain get together in the same configuration they were in when you experienced it the first time. They're members of a unique set of neurons that experienced that first kiss or that first bungee jump or whatever it is that you're recalling.

Actually, it's in the word "remember"—you're re-membering them. You're making them members of this original set again. I think that's what memory is.

More of these thoughts (and sounds) on the brain and music continue in this video. And, yes, from here on out we can just assume that David Byrne is an expert on anything he damn well pleases to speak about. (For proof of this, a transcript of the fuller, hour-long conversation between Byrne and McGill University Psychology Professor Daniel Levitin can be found here.)

And finally, a short article exploring the relationship between thinking machines, encrypted pianos, and Renaissance medicine--such is the loopy genius of Bay area electro-whizzes Matmos.

Downloads--

David Byrne: The Other Side Of This Life (Luaka Bop, 2004)

Matmos: Steam And Sequins For Larry Levan (Matador, 2006)

Screw that! Analysis is a buzzkill, man--

Los Campesinos!: Don't Tell Me To Do The Maths (Arts & Crafts, 2007)

QUESTION: What memories of yours are music-related? What songs trigger nostalgia for you? Science: fascinating or buzzkill?