This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession

Published in 2006, This Is Your Brain on Music: Understanding a Human Obsession is a best-selling popular science book by Daniel Levitin. Levitin is a neuroscientist, musician, and author who holds a PhD in cognitive psychology and has significant experience in the music industry. He has authored numerous influential scientific papers and international best-selling popular science books, including The Organized Mind (2014) and Weaponized Lies (2017). In This Is Your Brain on Music, Levitin examines the connections between the fields of cognitive science and music theory, exploring themes related to musical ability, the neuropsychology of music, and the universality of music in human civilizations.

This guide refers to the 2019 Penguin Books paperback edition.

Summary

In the Introduction, Levitin provides an overview of his experience in academia and the music industry and recounts personal stories testifying to his lifelong connection with music. He outlines the book’s scope and objectives as well as some of his beliefs and theories regarding the intersection of music theory and cognitive science.

Chapter 1, “What Is Music? From Pitch to Timbre,” provides an introduction to music theory for the uninitiated. Levitin defines some central concepts and terms in the study of music, giving particularly detailed explanations of pitch (a psychological perception of the highness/lowness of notes) and timbre (the specific character of an instrument’s sound or the overall character of a musical composition). In addition, he discusses the relationship between the characteristics of music and the frequency of sound.

Chapter 2, “Foot Tapping: Discerning Rhythm, Loudness, and Harmony,” expands on some of the concepts in the previous chapter, including the role of rhythm and loudness in determining meter and how elements of music combine to affect listeners.

Levitin introduces some fundamental concepts of cognitive science in Chapter 3, “Behind the Curtain: Music and the Mind Machine.” He distinguishes between the brain and the mind and explains how perceptional and processing systems can produce sensory illusions.

Chapter 4, “Anticipation: What We Expect From Liszt (and Ludacris),” introduces the concept of schema: frameworks that the brain creates, based on experiences, that govern future expectations. In addition, this chapter outlines the broad concepts of neurobiology, explaining how the firing of neurons in different regions of the brain corresponds to different cognitive processes.

In Chapter 5, “You Know My Name, Look Up the Number: How We Categorize Music,” Levitin explains the role of categorization in music processing and introduces theories of memory, including the exemplar theory (of which Levitin is a proponent).

In Chapter 6, “After Dessert, Crick Was Still Four Seats Away From Me: Music, Emotion, and the Reptilian Brain,” Levitin recalls his encounters with Nobel Prize-winning scientists Crick and Watson and recounts their contributions to his research into the connection between emotional reactions to music and the cerebellum.

Chapter 7, “What Makes a Musician? Expertise Dissected,” focuses on musical expertise and whether ability is innate or environmental. This chapter explores the connection between practice and attainment, the neuropsychological mechanisms behind producing music, and the qualities of a good performance.

Chapter 8, “My Favorite Things: Why Do We Like the Music We Like?” aims to provide insight into people’s musical preferences. Levitin emphasizes the importance of exposure, particularly during childhood and adolescence, as a determining factor. In addition, he identifies important features of the music itself and discusses the role of its creator.

In the final chapter of the book, Chapter 9, “The Music Instinct: Evolution’s #1 Hit,” Levitin argues the case for music as an evolutionary adaptation associated with sexual selection. He acknowledges the alternative theory that music is merely a “spandrel” (or outgrowth) of speech but presents evidence and arguments that support the link between musical ability and sexual selection.