PSYB51H3 Lecture Notes - Temporal Lobe, Formant, Equal Temperament
Document Summary
Sounds from musical instruments and human vocal tracts obey the same laws of physical acoustics as all other sounds. Pythagoras who invented the pythagorean theorem, took his those numbers from music scales. Thought that the musical intervals they found most pleasing should provide the greatest insights to mathematics and the universe as a whole. When listeners hear pleasant sounding chords preceding a word, they are faster to respond that a word such as charm is positive. They are slower to respond that a word such as evil is negative. High levels of neurotransmitter serotonin ( which is targeted by many antidepressant drugs) are responsible for negative aspects of emotion and mood. When people must listen to disagreeable music, their levels of serotonin rise. When people listen to highly pleasurable music, they experience changes in heart rate, muscle electrical activity and respiration and blood flow increases in brain regions that are thought to be involved in reward and motivation.