Brain Connectivity and Human Response to Musical Aesthetics

In Summary, Musicians have more neurons in the emotional and social processing areas of their brains … music = emotional intelligence.

“Using a combination of survey data, behavioral and psychophysiological measures and diffusion tensor imaging, we found that white matter connectivity between sensory processing areas in the superior temporal gyrus and emotional and social processing areas in the insula and medial prefrontal cortex explains individual differences in reward sensitivity to music.

Our findings provide the first evidence for a neural basis of individual differences in sensory access to the reward system, and suggest that social–emotional communication through the auditory channel may offer an evolutionary basis for music making as an aesthetically rewarding function in humans.”

Source : https://academic.oup.com/scan/article/11/6/884/2223400

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