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"Levitin, Daniel J. - This Is Your Brain on Music - PTN"
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	Rating: none Quantity in Basket:none Code: 0452288525PTN Price:$11.25
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"Paperback. New. List $ 15. [Penguin Group (USA)] 322 pages. From the Publisher A fascinating exploration of the relationship between music and the mind-and the role of melodies in shaping our lives Whether you load your iPod with Bach or Bono, music has a significant role in your life-even if you never realized it. Why does music evoke such powerful moods? The answers are at last becoming clear, thanks to revolutionary neuroscience and the emerging field of evolutionary psychology. Both a cutting-edge study and a tribute to the beauty of music itself, This Is Your Brain on Music unravels a host of mysteries that affect everything from pop culture to our understanding of human nature, including: * Are our musical preferences shaped in utero? * Is there a cutoff point for acquiring new tastes in music? * What do PET scans and MRIs reveal about the brain's response to music? * Is musical pleasure different from other kinds of pleasure? This Is Your Brain on Music explores cultures in which singing is considered an essential human function, patients who have a rare disorder that prevents them from making sense of music, and scientists studying why two people may not have the same definition of pitch. At every turn, this provocative work unlocks deep secrets about how nature and nurture forge a uniquely human obsession. Los Angeles Times Book Review Levitin is a deft and patient explainer of the basics for the non-scientist as well as the non-musician.... By tracing music's deep ties to memory, Levitin helps quantify some of music's magic without breaking its spell. Salon.com Why human beings make and enjoy music is, in Levitin's telling, a delicious story. (Salon.com) Publishers Weekly Think of a song that resonates deep down in your being. Now imagine sitting down with someone who was there when the song was recorded and can tell you how that series of sounds was committed to tape, and who can also explain why that particular combination of rhythms, timbres and pitches has lodged in your memory, making your pulse race and your heart swell every time you hear it. Remarkably, Levitin does all this and more, interrogating the basic nature of hearing and of music making (this is likely the only book whose jacket sports blurbs from both Oliver Sacks and Stevie Wonder), without losing an affectionate appreciation for the songs he's reducing to neural impulses. Levitin is the ideal guide to this material: he enjoyed a successful career as a rock musician and studio producer before tu"

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