Music and the Brain

Evelyn Glennie on TED

Because my yoga class has started 30 minutes earlier than usual, Lynn and I were able to catch a lecture at Pomona College called The Musician's Guide to the Brain by Lois Svard, a pianist and professor at Bucknell.

Although I am not a scientist, I am very interested in science (living with a chemist and being the mother to a neurobiologist doesn't hurt), and one of the areas I've done a little reading in is about how being a musician shapes the brain.

Dr. Svard handed out a two-sided page of references and suggested reading and two TED talks (Evelyn Glennie and Charles Limb), so now I have my reading list cut out for me!  While I have heard about plasticity and the brain, I had not heard about mirror neurons, although I had heard that if you are watching your student play their instrument, you naturally feel how they are playing.  If they aren't breathing, you don't breathe.  If they are tense in their right arm, you sense that.  That is, you sense it if you are paying attention.