Brain Rhythms Sync to Musical Beat

By Diana Kwon | November 10, 2015

While listening to music, you might find yourself tapping[轻敲;轻拍] your foot or bobbing[快速摆动] your head to the beat[拍子]. What you might not have expected is that as you listen to your favorite tune[曲调], the rhythms[韵律] in your brain also follow along[跟着;随着(节奏);依照;遵从].

Brain rhythms arise when large groups of neurons[神经元，神经细胞] fire together. Previous studies have shown that listening to someone talk can elicit[抽出，引出；引起] such activity. Now research reveals that brain rhythms also synchronize with[同步；同时发生] musical sequences[音乐序列;曲目]. And musical training can enhance this ability. The study is in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences[美国国家科学院院刊].

Magnetoencephalography[脑磁图描记术;脑磁图仪], or MEG, is a technique that measures the tiny magnetic fields[微小的磁场] generated by brain activity. Researchers used MEG to compare the brains of musicians and non-musicians while the subjects tried to detect small changes in pitch[音调的(高低)变化] during short clips[短片段] of classical piano music by composers[作曲家；作曲者] like Bach[巴赫（德国作曲家）], Beethoven[贝多芬（德国作曲家）] and Brahms[布拉姆斯]. The trained musicians, not surprisingly, tracked the pitch[音高；程度] changes better.

When it came to tempo[速度;拍子], musicans and nonmusicians alike[相似的；相同的] synched[=sync] their brains to the music—when the music had more than one note[一个音符] per second. But when faced with slower tempos[节奏], only the brains of musicians synched up[同步].

Because speech and music share similar brain networks, it’s possible that musical training thus could also improve linguistic abilities[语言能力]. So pick up your instrument of choice and play away—you might not feel it, but your brainwaves[脑波] will dance along to your favorite song.

—Diana Kwon