Study finds part of human brain responding to singing

Music makes us happy. It elicits memories of all kinds. Such is the effect of music on us that Music Therapy is actually a thing in some treatment methods.

A conclusion can easily be drawn from this that music affects our brains, ofcourse in a positive manner. But does our brain respond to sound of singing in a particular way that to, say instrumental music? A new study says yes.

A new group of neurons has been found which responds selectively to the sound of singing.

The team of researchers at the University of Rochester observed effect of 165 different sounds on human brain. The electrocal activity in the brain was mapped.

The team recorded electrical activity in response to 165 different sounds. These sounds ranged from instrumental music to even dogs barking. The result obtained was then processed using an algorithm. Results obtained from fMRI scans of 30 different individuals were then combined.

The analysis of this data revealed that there were some neurons that responded to the sound of music or there were some that responded to the sound speech.

But researchers also found a group of neurons that responded selectively to sound of singing 

“These results suggest that representations of music are fractionated into subpopulations selective for different types of music, one of which is specialised for the analysis of song,” the team writes in their research paper.

The research has been published in Current Biology.