UNDERSTANDING MUSICAL PREDISPOSITION
THROUGH CONDITIONING, HABITUAL &
PREFRENCE MECHANISM IN BRAIN.
Key Words : Music Predispositions, cognitive response, Perceptive response, Motivational centers ,cognitive reserve
written by Prof B.Sai Kiran Kumar Consultant neurofeedback trainer BCIA USA, Adithya Malluri
Psychologist and certified Neurofeedback trainer Presidency college, Bangalore
The Permeation and processing of music in the human brain
has always been a mystery because of the effect it produces.
Musical predispositions have a significant role in elucidating
these processes. Our affinity towards a particular sound is
associated with repetitive sequences of a particular melody
played, which conditions the brain to understand musical
sequences of similar origin. This explains a reward based
interest created towards a particular melody causing the
listener to memorize and also reciprocate the sequence
through mirror neuron related mechanism.
The adult brain understands melodies and starts registering
the sequences played in the form of a patterned architecture
in the brain. The subsequent stimulation is the activation of
motivational centers in the brain in creating cortical cells
associated memory networks for a particular tune. Through
consistent conditioning of these melodies, the listener’s
ability to identify the finer details of the respective melody is
alleviated thus creating recognition of any dissonance in the
particular sequence played. This can be explained through
jingles of advertisements when illustrated with different
context equated with music. Some of the other important
factors that help in the following process include recognition
of pitch, contour of the sound, duration and interval
processing. Musical predispositions determine the inclination
of the listener to particular form of sound thereby creating
neural network synchrony.
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When a synchrony associated with neural networks is created,
the regulatory pathways of memory and reward networks are
strengthened. In some situations, these reward mechanisms
can enhance the cognitive reserve and help in coping stressful
situations. Musical perception has a stronger coherence in
improving the brain’s activity and hence metaphorically it
is referred to as “auditory cheesecake experience” when a
rewarding tone is played.
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2. Blacking,J.(1995)Music,Culture,andExperience.
London:UniversityofChicagoPress.
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Thedevelopmentofmusicperceptionandcognition.InD.
Deutsch(ed.) The Psychology of Music. San Diego, CA:
Academic Press, pp. 603–25.
4. https://shapeamerica.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/106
71315.1978.10615514#.Xl_HsKgzbzY – positive effect of music on
physical performance
5. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/
abs/10.1177/0305735605050650- postive effect of music at
workplace