Monday, November 05, 2007

Brain 'Closes Eyes' to Hear Music

From the BBC:

A US study of 20 non-musicians and 20 musical conductors found both groups diverted brain activity away from visual areas during listening tasks.

Scans showed activity fell in these areas as it rose in auditory ones.

But during harder tasks the changes were less marked for conductors than for non-musicians, researchers told a Society for Neuroscience conference.

Dr Jonathan Burdette, who led the study, said: "This is like closing your eyes to listen to music. Imagine the difference between listening to someone talk in a quiet room and that same discussion in a noisy room - you don't see as much of what's going on in the noisy room."

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