Bimusical Brain

“A Northwestern University scientist wanted to see how the brains of people changed when they grew up listening equally to two distinctly different cultures of music, like rock and tango. So he commissioned a study, and found that, indeed, ‘bimusical’ experience leaves a lasting impact.Patrick Wong suspected that people who grew up listening to both the Beatles and tango might develop differentlyfrom people who grew up listening to just Western music or just Latin music. Wong recruited people who grew up listening primarily to Western popular music. And then he selected another group of people—Indian Americans—who grew up listening to both Western music and the traditional music of India. The study participants listened to music inside a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)scanner, so Wong could track their brain activity. He found that people who had grown up with both Indian and Western music had a more elaborate brain system for listening than those who grew up with just Western music. Wong’s bimusicals engaged more areas of their brain when listening to music, looping in not only the auditory areas of the brain, but also its emotional regions. That led Wong tohypothesize that bimusicals may need to engage the emotional part of the brain to differentiate the two types of music. Wong isn’t saying that only bimusical people experience music emotionally. We all do that. It’s more that bimusicals may tap into that region of the brain in order to toggle between multiple musical styles.” This is a fascinating experiment, and kind of lovely—the idea that music(especially music we grow up listening to) is so intimately bound up with our emotions. Are you “bimusical”? I only know Western music, alas.
One Response to “Are You “Bimusical”? Your Brain May Show It”

We all think of ourselves as multitaskers. But the ultimate American multitaskers may be the children of foreign-born parents.Every day, these hyphenated Americans swing back and forth betweencultures — in the food they eat, the languages they speak and the music they listen to.
Take Jason Vinoles. He grew up in New York City, the son of Argentine immigrant parents. Like a lot of children of immigrants, he spoke two languages with his family.“I’d be on the phone with my parents and I’ll just switch back and forth,” Vinoles said. “If I can’t think of the word right away in Spanish, I’llsay it in English, but then keep on going with the conversation.”Vinoles’ family would also switch back and forth between other things American and Argentine: sports loyalties, cuisines and musical styles. His mom was a big fan of the Beatles.“Any time a Beatles song would come on the radio on the oldies stations, she’d come grab me and make me dance,” Vinoles said.
The same kitchen floor danceparty would also include more traditional Latino music, like the popular Mexican song, Cielito Lindo.
They’d also dance along to Madonna, followed immediately by some tango.A new study from Northwestern University focuses on this ‘bimusicality.’ The author, Patrick Wong, specializes in how the brain processes sound.Wong suspected that people who grew up listening to both the Beatles and tangomight develop differently from people who grew up listening to just Western music or just Latin music.Wong recruited people who grew up listening primarily to Western popular music. And then he selected another group of people — Indian Americans– who grew up listening to both Western music and the traditional music of India.Wong had his subjects use a dial to indicate the amount of tension they feltin the music.People tend to report that foreign music has more tension. But the people who grew up with both Western and Indian music felt low degrees of tension with both types of music. They were equally at home listening to either genre.
Wong called these people ‘bimusicals.’ The study participants listened to the music inside a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanner, so Wong...