Food for the Soul

In a recent article for the online magazine Salon.com entitled, "This is Your Brain on Music," Farhad Manjoo examines the effect that listening to music has on our brains. Among the interesting findings detailed in the article is the following:

Your brain doesn't just come up with an internal representation of sound, it also derives meaning--in particular, pleasure--from sound. But how it does so surprises even neuroscientists. . . . [W]hen people listen to a song they like--as opposed to something that they don't like, or simply noise--one area of the brain that's activated is the cerebellum. This seemed odd: The cerebellum is, evolutionarily, one of the oldest parts of the brain, what some people call the reptilian brain; its main purpose is to coordinate the movement and timing of our bodies, and not, scientists believed, anything more sophisticated, such as the experience of emotions. But if the cerebellum wasn't involved in emotion, why was it being activated only when people listened to something that they liked--an emotional choice--rather than just anything at all?

Part of the answer to this question lies in the cerebellum's role keeping time in the brain and its ability to synchronize to the beat and flow of a piece of music, which in turn creates a positive emotional experience. Manjoo goes on to describe the effect of music on other parts of our brain:

But it's not just the cerebellum that perks up to songs. What's interesting about how our brains respond to music -- rather than, say, language -- is the large number of systems that are activated by the experience. In addition to the cerebellum, music taps into the frontal lobes (a "higher-order" region that processes musical structure), and it also activates the mesolimbic system, which Levitin explains is "involved in arousal, pleasure, the transmission of opiods and the production of dopamine."

This potentially represents another example of the harmony between science and religion. In particular, these findings provide insight into the scientific basis for the emphasis found in the Writings of the Bahá'í Faith on the importance of music. 'Abdu'l-Bahá, in particular, repeatedly praised the ability of music to bring happiness, uplift the weary, and cheer the despondent:

The musician's art is among those arts worthy of the highest praise, and it moveth the hearts of all who grieve. Wherefore. . . play and sing out the holy words of God with wondrous tones in the gatherings of the friends, that the listener may be freed from chains of care and sorrow, and his soul may leap for joy and humble itself in prayer to the realm of Glory.

And further:

The art of music is divine and effective. It is the food of the soul and spirit. Through the power and charm of music the spirit of man is uplifted.

Some interesting food for thought, and, of course, for the soul! It leads me to wonder how this source of joy can be incorporated more pervasively in our every-day lives. Your thoughts?
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