Researchers Map Brain Areas That Process Tunes

LeBain writes "From Science Daily: 'Researchers at Dartmouth are getting closer to understanding how some melodies have a tendency to stick in your head or why hearing a particular song can bring back a high school dance. They have found and mapped the area in your brain that processes and tracks music.' Don't tell the RIAA!"

Comments

MP3 Cortex

[Jeremiah Cornelius]

Ahhh.. This is the source of those DMCA violations.

We can have your equipment compliant with this simple, and nearly painless, compulsory surgical procedure!

Re:Excellent

[Dannon]

Already been done:

Meow meow meow meow, Meow meow meow meow....

Funny story

[mbrubeck]

This reminds me of a story that the neurologist Oliver Sacks told in one of his books (from memory, I may not have the details right):

Brain surgery is often performed with the patient conscious. A neurosurgeon once mentioned to Sacks that during a surgery he had found an area that when stimulated caused the patient to hear a certain rock song quite vividly. Sacks (who studies memory) was excited by this. He thought of all sorts of experiments that could be done to find out more about musical memory, like having the patient compare the "remembered" song to the actual recording.

Sacks asked the neurosurgeon if he had explored this any further, and the surgeon said, "No. I hate rock music." Sacks asked if the patient would be returning for any followup procedures.

"Yes, but I can't do any more experiments on that area. It was excised during the procedure."

Sacks, disappointed: "Oh, it was too close to the tumor?"

"No, I told you. I hate rock music."