• Question: does music have a scientific impact on people?

    Asked by to Edward, Ian, Mathew, Naomi, sakshisharda on 17 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Edward Hughes

      Edward Hughes answered on 17 Jun 2014:

      There’s certainly evidence that people have an emotional response to music. Finding a full scientific explanation is very hard though, because neuroscience is very complicated. As far as I know, current research is conducted through psychological studies – like getting people to listen to music while completing a task, for example.

      Hopefully one day someone will know enough about how the brain works to give a more detailed answer!

    • Photo: Naomi Osborne

      Naomi Osborne answered on 18 Jun 2014:

      We know listening to music engages much of our brain – but we don’t know why it affects our emotion. Like Edward’s mentioned, our brain is the most complex organ in the body and scientists are still trying to understand it.

      What’s interesting is that music used to be studied as one of the four sciences in the Middle Ages – alongside geometry, arithmetic and astronomy!

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