Ever get a tune into your head that you can’t get rid of? New research shows where in your brain you process music — and why music is such an emotional experience.
It turns out that music isn’t a left-brain or a right-brain functoin. The study, conducted by Dartmouth professor Petr Janata shows that you process music right behind your prefrontal cortex — in the front of your brain, in the center.
ãThis region in the front of the brain where we mapped musical activity,ä says Janata, ãis important for a number of functions, like assimilating information that is important to one’s self, or mediating interactions between emotional and non-emotional information. Our results provide a stronger foundation for explaining the link between music, emotion and the brain.ä
