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This is Your Brain on Music The Science of a Human Obsession
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This is Your Brain on Music The Science of a Human Obsession Paperback - 2007

by Levitin, Daniel J

  • Used
  • Paperback
  • first

Neuroscientist and professional musician Levitin presents a fascinating exploration of the relationship between music and the mind--and the role of melodies in shaping our lives. Photos throughout.

Description

Plume/Penguin. Good with no dust jacket. 2007. First Printing. Paperback. 0452288525 . 7.9 X 5.2 X 0.7 inches; 322 pages .
Used - Good with no dust jacket
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Details

  • Title This is Your Brain on Music The Science of a Human Obsession
  • Author Levitin, Daniel J
  • Binding Paperback
  • Edition First Printing
  • Condition Used - Good with no dust jacket
  • Pages 352
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher Plume/Penguin, New York
  • Date 2007
  • Illustrated Yes
  • Features Bibliography, Illustrated, Index, Table of Contents
  • Bookseller's Inventory # 345081
  • ISBN 9780452288522 / 0452288525
  • Weight 0.6 lbs (0.27 kg)
  • Dimensions 8.05 x 5.25 x 0.75 in (20.45 x 13.34 x 1.91 cm)
  • Ages 18 to UP years
  • Grade levels 13 - UP
  • Library of Congress subjects Music - Psychological aspects
  • Dewey Decimal Code 781.11

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Summary

Music, Science, and the Brain are more closely related than you think.  Daniel J. Levitin, James McGill Professor of Psychology and Music at McGill University, shows you why this is. 

 In this groundbreaking union of art and science, rocker-turned-neuroscientist Daniel J. Levitin (The World in Six Songs) explores the connection between music, its performance, its composition, how we listen to it, why we enjoy it, and the human brain. Drawing on the latest research and on musical examples ranging from Mozart to Duke Ellington to Van Halen, Levitin reveals:

  • How composers produce some of the most pleasurable effects of listening to music by exploiting the way our brains make sense of the world
  • Why we are so emotionally attached to the music we listened to as teenagers, whether it was Fleetwood Mac, U2, or Dr. Dre
  • That practice, rather than talent, is the driving force behind musical expertise
  • How those insidious little jingles (called earworms) get stuck in our head
Taking on prominent thinkers who argue that music is nothing more than an evolutionary accident, Levitin poses that music is fundamental to our species, perhaps even more so than language. A Los Angeles Times Book Award finalist, This Is Your Brain on Music will attract readers of Oliver Sacks, as it is an unprecedented, eye-opening investigation into an obsession at the heart of human nature.

From the publisher

Daniel J. Levitin runs the Levitin Laboratory for Musical Perception, Cognition, and Expertise at McGill University, where he holds the Bell Chair in the Psychology of Electronic Communications. Before becoming a neuroscientist, he was a record producer with gold records to his credit and professional musician. He has published extensively in scientific journals and music trade magazines such as Grammy and Billboard.

Categories

Media reviews

Levitin is a deft and patient explainer of the basics for the non-scientist as well as the non-musician. . . . By tracing musicÆs deep ties to memory, Levitin helps quantify some of musicÆs magic without breaking its spell. (Los Angeles Times Book Review)

Endlessly stimulating, a marvelous overview, and one which only a deeply musical neuroscientist could give. . . . An important book. (Oliver Sacks, M.D.)

LevitinÆs snappy prose and relaxed style quickly win one over and will leave readers thinking about the contents of their iPods in an entirely new way. (Publishers Weekly, starred review)

Why human beings make and enjoy music is, in LevitinÆs telling, a delicious story. (Salon.com)

Citations

  • People Weekly, 10/08/2007, Page 55

About the author

Daniel J. Levitin, PhD, is a neuroscientist, cognitive psychologist, and bestselling author. He is Founding Dean of Arts & Humanities at the Minerva Schools at KGI in San Francisco, and Professor Emeritus of psychology and neuroscience at McGill University. He is the author of This Is Your Brain on Music, The World in Six Songs, The Organized Mind, A Field Guide to Lies, and Successful Aging. He divides his time between Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area.