Music Provides Great Value to the Brain

"Our brains are hardwired to respond emotionally to music. The author illustrates this concept through the story of a man whose brain does not respond emotionally to music. His condition is called musical anhedonia, and it affects roughly 5 percent of people. Tests of this man's brain reveal the cause of his condition. He lacks strong neural connections—the hardwiring between the hearing (auditory) system and the emotional (limbic) system in his brain."

"95 percent of people do respond emotionally to music, and this response is hardwired into our brains through our genes, so it must be important. So important, in fact, that it promotes the most important goals of evolution: our survival and procreation as a species."

"The human brain pays close attention to the near future. It constantly makes predictions based on past experience about what will happen next. This ability is valuable because an organism can more effectively prepare an appropriate response to an event if that event can be predicted. Like any skill, prediction improves with practice, and music helps the brain practice this ability."

Most people experience emotional responses to music due to neural connections between auditory and limbic systems in the brain. Musical anhedonia, affecting about 5 percent of the population, occurs when these neural connections are weak. Understanding why humans like music requires exploring its evolutionary value. Since 95 percent of people respond emotionally to music through genetic hardwiring, this trait must serve important evolutionary purposes related to survival and reproduction. The prediction model suggests music helps the brain practice forecasting future events based on musical structure and past experience, a skill valuable for organism survival.

Read at Psychology Today