What is it about rock and roll music that makes those listening want to move? The beat, of course. But, what is it about the human brain that makes it so responsive to beat and rhythm? After all, this reaction isn’t that common in nature. Monkeys, for example, can’t be trained to tap to a beat, while some birds do respond.
For the last few years, Aniruddh Patel has been trying to find a model system to study the human response to a musical beat as a way to explore brain interactions between the auditory and motor systems during beat perception. It isn’t just because he likes working with Snowball, the sulfurcrested cockatoo, who has been seen by millions on YouTube. It’s largely due to curiosity about the universal power of music to drive rhythmic movement in human listeners.
This power has been shown to help Parkinson’s disease patients to walk, though the mechanisms behind this effect remain unknown. Patel’s work with Snowball complements the neuroimaging research he and his colleagues are conducting with humans, to unravel the brain mechanisms of musical beat perception.
As long as he can remember, Patel has been passionate about two things: biology and music. He was able to pursue at least one of his passions in college, earning a bachelor’s degree in biology from Virginia. As a senior, while taking a class in behavioral biology, he began thinking about studying the biology of human music. He quickly learned how little was known about this topic at the time, but that didn’t dissuade him. He went on to study evolutionary biology under E. O. Wilson at Harvard. Wilson encouraged his unusual interests.
Working with Wilson and with scholars from a range of disciplines, including linguistics, neuroscience, and music psychology, Patel learned about the neurobiology of auditory communication and wrote his thesis, “A Biological Study of the Relationship between Language and Music.” His scholarship helped usher in a new field of study, the neurobiology of music.
Patel’s 1998 brain imaging work showed for the first time that the processing of musical grammar overlaps with the processing of language grammar in the brain. This was an early clue that the neurobiology of music could provide some insight into language disabilities and maybe even point to a way to heal them. Patel’s work has thus contributed to a recent rise of interest in music-based treatments to help stroke victims re-learn language skills.
For example, it has been shown by other researchers that having such patients produce simple phrases by singing is often more effective than the traditional therapy of having them repeat the spoken phrases, suggesting that portions of the brain responsible for processing music can take over when language areas of the brain have been damaged.
Patel says that the study of the neuroscience of music is in its early stages. He is excited to be in this field because it offers the chance to study the connections between culture and biology and to do empirical work that spans linguistics, music psychology, animal behavior, and other areas of science and social science. He thinks that the next interesting area of study will be the two-way interaction between brain and culture, exploring how musical experience shapes the brain and influences mental abilities such as language and attention both in normal people and in neurological patients.
Patel enjoys spending time with his family, especially taking his two children to Legoland, the zoo, and the beach.
Patel is scheduled to deliver his Nobel Conference lecture at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 4. Click here for more information about this year’s Nobel Conference.
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