ifku Skip to content What's in a Brain Music makes me lose control MARCH 13, 2015Posted in GENERALTagged MUSIC, PERCEPTION, TIME Music makes me lose control Nautilus, you’ve done it again: an elegant post on two of my favorite topics: music and time. Time and music are inseparable – music takes place over time, and both can be very precise and mathematical. But music also reminds us how subjective time is, which is the theme of Jonathan Berger’s post. The post weaves together connections between music and temporal perception. Here are a few highlights: The tempo of music alters our behaviors – slower music encourages us to slow down and buy more drinks at a bar or spend more time in a grocery store, and familiar background music gives shoppers the impression that they spent longer in a store (though they actually spend more when novel music is played). Our musical attention span is about 4 minutes, thanks to Thomas Edison’s cylinder recordings, which maxed out at 4 minutes. Even when technology progressed to allow for longer songs, the 4-minute standard remained. When we’re deeply engrossed in something perceptual (like listening to music), the prefrontal cortex, which is crucial for introspecting and high-level cognition, becomes less active than usual, while the sensory cortex becomes more active than usual. These activation patterns likely explain the feeling of flow and timelessness that can occur while listening to music. time In the second half of the post, Berger uses Schubert’s String Quintet to illustrate how “music hijacks our perception of time.” He describes the time warp going on in one section at a time, supporting each with a clip of the audio during the part of the piece he’s describing. This was a fun “audio tour.” I found that I had to close my eyes to be able to experience the time shifts, though. This could be for a number of reasons, but one interesting possibility is that when a sound clip is embedded in a web page, the bottom right corner of the clip counts down the seconds remaining. Maybe some people can ignore the steadily decreasing numbers, but I am just so drawn to anything marking time. Why might this matter? I’d guess that a large proportion of the music-listening that people do today happens through a computer-like device (iPod, phone, computer) that exposes the listener to a ticking clock. Do we experience less of this music-induced timelessness today than in the past as a result? Or maybe songs like Time of Our Lives could be to blame? Thanks to this song for title inspiration: Share this: EmailPrintTwitterFacebookPinterest Related These are two possibilities of individuals' spatial representations of time. Image: sciencedirect.com Reflections on time In "Book Review" Image: www.time.com The Time Illusion In "Book Review" Screen shot 2014-01-25 at 1.55.55 PM Notables from Nautilus chapter: Perception In "Book Review" One thought on “Music makes me lose control” Pingback: Here’s one effective way to communicate science | Whats in a brain? Leave a Reply Enter your comment here... Post navigation BUTTS ON FIRECHECK YOUR TWEETS Search for: Search … FOLLOW BLOG VIA EMAIL Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. Email Address: Enter your email address FOLLOW RECENT BLOG POSTS Finding hope for the climate: Lessons from a community climate party When talking about cancer, metaphors matter Add climate change to the agenda during this Women’s Wave Climate change is a people problem The emergence of a new way to talk about time (in research and in real life) TOPICS Topics Select Category CATEGORIES Book Review climate Communication Education Favorites For fun General Language Methodology Neuroscience PhD TOP POSTS & PAGES Number lines in the head? Depression & its metaphors Context is everything Butts on fire Metaphor shapes thought: When, why, and how? RECENT COMMENTS PG Podcast – E… on When talking about cancer, met… Highlights of Nation… on Communicating Science Effectiv… Rose Hendricks on The emergence of a new way to… Jennifer Watkins on The emergence of a new way to… Rose Hendricks on Postcards to Voters: What the… ARCHIVES Archives Select Month Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com. Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use. To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy

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