Does music really have the power to heal all ailments?
In his new collection of essays on how medicine links to everyday aspects of life, author Farokh Erach Udwadia analyses a scientific subject through the eyes of a historian and anthropologist.
by Farokh Erach Udwadia Publisher: Oxford University Press India Pages: 222 Price: Rs 695
How does one recognise and appreciate music? This involves a bit of neurology which may be familiar to the physician but not to a layperson. Music reaches the ear in the form of sound waves. These are then channelled through the ear canal to the eardrum, causing it to vibrate. The vibrations are relayed through a chain of three small bones in the middle ear. The last of these bones is the stapes, which connects to the cochlea. The cochlea is a part of the inner ear, which is connected with hearing. It is filled with fluid, which surrounds some 10 thousand to 15 thousand hair cells termed “cilia”. Vibrations of the stapes cause the sound waves to send fluid
waves within the cochlea, leading to a vibratory movement of the cilia. These cilia are now stimulated to release neurotransmitters that activate the auditory nerve, which carries nervous impulses in the form of electri- cal currents to the auditory cortex in the temporal lobe of the brain.
The above explanation holds for sound waves caused by speech, any form of noise, as also musical sound waves related to music. The further appreciation of musical sound waves was till very recently a mystery. How were sound waves produced by music appreciated as music? The discovery of new imaging procedures on the brain has helped to clarify some of these issues. Studies using MRI and positron emission tomography (PET) scans suggest that there are a number of networks, perhaps interconnected with one another, that are responsible for decoding and interpreting various aspects of music. Imaging suggests that a small area of the temporal lobe recognises pitch, which forms the basis of melody (patterns of pitch over time), chords (several pitches which sound at the same time) and harmony (two or more melodies at the same time). Another adjacent part of the brain recognises and decodes timbre. Timbre is the quality of sound, and this part of the brain can distinguish between two or three individuals singing the same note from the difference in the timbre or quality of the sung note, just as we can distinguish between different instruments playing the same note. Current research leads us to believe that the cerebellum processes rhythm, and the emotional content of music is interpreted by the frontal lobe. Music, which is strongly emotive, is believed to light up the “reward centre”, which is a region of the hypothalamus. The same centre lights up through pleasurable stimuli produced for example, by eating chocolates or drink- With incisive analysis and captivating storytelling, Thompson puts culture in the spotlight and asks why certain products and ideas achieve extraordinary popularity. Drawing on ancient history and modern headlines Thompson explores the psychology of hits and reveals how we can all become more intelligent consumers of culture. In this book, he tells the fascinating story of how culture happens—and where genius lives. ing alcohol.
Every human brain is wired to perform the complex task of appreciating music. There, however, has to be a difference between the average human brain with regard to the appreciation of music and that of musicians, particularly great musicians, composers, virtuosos and conductors of orchestral music. Their brains must be specially wired for their great musical memories, musical appreciation and interpretations. The virtuosos on the violin, piano, or any instrument can play several concertos from memory on the instrument each has mastered. How do they do so? There is no time for a great virtuoso, who often gives three performances or more in a week in different cities of the world, to practise the programme he is to play when the programme is different for each centre.
What is he to do? Incredible as it may sound, he practises the score of the music he is supposed to play within his mind; he plays it in his mind often while commuting from one city to the other. And when the musician rehearses a concerto or a sonata in his mind, he can picture, with his mind’s eye, the movement of his fingers and, if he is a violinist or cellist, also of the bow. The musical memory of great con- ductors, the maestros who conduct large orchestras, is even more incredible. They conduct whole symphonies, operas and concertos from memory. The whole score of each instrument in an orchestra of over a hundred musicians is within a maestro’s mind; he gives the right cues to the instrument that has to come into the music, he knows every nuance, every change in rhythm and time, every accelerando and diminuendo, every pianissimo and fortissimo, the music demands. He interprets and conveys the interpretation of great music with his baton, hands, eyes, and the measured movements of his head and body. I, who am reasonably musical and play—rather indifferently—a musical instrument, find this feat nothing short of miraculous. There must be a reason for this prodigious musical memory, and we must wait for science to unravel it.
At the other end of this spectrum, there are many instances where trauma or disease afflicting the brain can cause defects in musicality. It is important to take note of these if one is to better understand the relationship between music, the mind and the brain. These defects must obviously be related to changed (disrupted or new) connections within the brain about which we are more or less ignorant. The hearing of music in rare instances can give rise to motor or sensory disorders. I shall just give a few examples of what I have stated above; for a more complete discussion, I would refer the reader to Oliver Sacks’ Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain (2007) and to Macdonald Critchley and R. A. Henson’s Music and the Brain: Studies in the Neurology of Music (1977), two works from which the following information has been derived.
Every human brain is wired to perform the complex task of appreciating music. There, however, has to be a difference between the average human brain with regard to the appreciation of music and that of musicians, particularly great musicians, composers, virtuosos and conductors of orchestral music.
Extracted with permission from Tabiyat: Medicine and Healing in India and Other Essays by Farokh Erach Udwadia, published by Oxford University Press India