Sublime

This efficacy of the insula-cingulate network varies from person to person, in some functioning like a well-oiled switch, and in others like a rusty old gate. But switch it does, and if it is called upon to switch too much or too often, we feel tired and a bit dizzy, as though we were see-sawing too rapidly.

The way music is used in the Ituri forest is paradigmatic of its function everywhere. The horns may not have awakened the trees, but their familiar sound must have reassured the pygmies that help was on the way, and so they were able to confront the future with confidence. Most of the music that pours out of Walkmans and stereos nowadays answers a

I’ve already spoken of my disappointment with the usual front-speaker stacks in clubs. This incredible CNE system had no clutter on the floor, no visible wires, and sounded fantastic. The pulsing electronic music pouring out of two hundred Traynor speakers made the electro experience a physical one. People were touched by the sounds. Perhaps Trayno

When they took out the downbeat—the strong pulse that makes us tap our feet—the newborn brains could predict where it should be (just like adults in the same study). This blew me away. The ability to perceive a musical beat, observed the 2009 study, is “functional at birth.”

But for virtually all of us, music has great power, whether or not we seek it out or think of ourselves as particularly “musical.”