Why Does Music Move Us?

The Really Big Questions–Why Does Music Move us Thursday night at 9 p.m. on West Virginia Public Radio
 

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Music exists in every culture. Does that mean it offers an evolutionary advantage? What drives humans to make music? And why does music get so deeply embedded into our lives? We’ll delve deeper into what music can teach us about the human brain – with musicians and researchers including:

• Jazz guitarist Pat Martino who lost his memory after neurosurgery and re taught himself how to play.
• Neuroscience researcher Psyche Loui at Wesleyan University who studies chills and strongly emotional responses to intense anesthetic experiences like music.
• Petr Janata from the Center for the Mind and the Brain at U.C. Davis who is interested in how we “groove” to music, the pleasurable urge to move that’s elicited by music.
• Steven Pinker, linguist and evolutionary psychologist who is famous for the line that music is not an evolutionary adaptation but “auditory cheesecake.

Learn more about what music can teach us Thursday night at 9 p.m. on West Virginia Public Radio.