HENRY DRYER IS A 92-year-old dementia patient
living in an assisted
living center. Henry sits alone in a wheelchair in the middle of a room, eyes
downcast, face empty. His body seems vacant too. In the documentary film
featuring him, Henry is described by famed neurologist Oliver Sacks as
“inert, maybe depressed, unresponsive, and almost unalive.”
Henry has
barely spoken to anyone in the decade he’s lived at the center. This is not
how he used to be, his daughter relates. Henry was outgoing for most of his
life, blessed with a passionate love affair for the Bible and for dancing and
singing. It was not unusual for him to spontaneously burst out into song in
public.
On this day, Henry is part of a project helping elderly people reconnect
by listening to music they love. Henry is given an iPod loaded with music.
As soon as Henry hears the music, Henry starts making a noise like a horn.
Suddenly, Henry’s eyes grow wide. His face instantly lights up, a bit
contorted. Henry grabs his wrists and starts swaying, smiling, and singing.
Henry becomes
alive
.
When the iPod is turned off, Henry doesn’t slink back into silence. He
becomes articulate,
funny and
very
enthusiastic. “Do you like music?”
someone asks off-camera. Henry answers, “I’m CRAZY about music. You
play beautiful music. Beautiful sounds!” “What was your favorite music
when you were young?” Cab Calloway, Henry responds,
then starts
scatting. He sings, “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” with accurate pitch,
wonderful emotion, and occasionally correct lyrics.
He is asked “What does music do to you?” Face still animated, arms
now gesticulating with purpose, Henry responds: “It gives me the feeling of
love. Romance! I figure right now the
world needs to come into music,
singing, you’ve got beautiful music here. Beautiful. Lovely. I feel a band of
love!”
Dr. Sacks is delighted. “In some sense Henry is restored to himself,” he
enthuses. “He has remembered who he is, and he’s reacquired his identity
for a while through the power of music.” I barely heard Dr. Sacks, because I
started tearing up. It’s one of the most moving videos I’ve ever seen.
How does music light up the brain, as it clearly did for Henry? What
effects does it have on young and old? What does listening to music do to
the brain, compared with being trained in music? Scientists have intensively
investigated these questions. In asking whether exposure to music produces
benefits in nonmusical cognitive domains, scientists have looked at
academic areas, like reading and math. They’ve
looked at general
intelligence. They’ve studied the effects of music on speech, physical
development, and mood. And now we think we have an understanding of at
least some of the effects of music on cognition.
Why “think” instead of “know”? Music research is complicated—
starting with the fact that not everyone agrees what music is, or why it
exists.
How would you define music?
Scientists aren’t sure how the brain defines music, in part because there is
no universal agreement about exactly what music is. What may be
annoying, unorganized, environmental noise to a person raised in culture A
at time point A might be rapturous, organized, beautiful
music
to a person
raised in culture B at time point B. For example, in 1971, George Harrison
of The Beatles
organized a benefit concert, called The Concert for
Bangladesh, with sitar master Ravi Shankar. Shankar tuned his instrument
before performing, an event heard over the loudspeakers by the mostly
Western audience. The crowd clapped and cheered with wild enthusiasm.
As they began to settle, Ravi addressed them: “Thank you. If you like our
tuning so much, I hope you will enjoy the playing more.”
Rap is another
example. It is clearly speech and also clearly—what? Music? Generations
don’t agree. Neither do composers. Neither do sociologists. One professor
of music and science at Cambridge defines music this way: “Musics (yes,
the author said musics) can be defined as those temporally patterned
activities, individual and social, that involve the production and perception
of sound and have no evident and immediate efficacy or fixed consensual
reference.” That’s not exactly the way everyone would describe music. The
definition of music has been so tough to determine that neuroscientist Seth
Horowitz, in his book
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