Music (perhaps) defines our humanity and explains why the human brain is what it is. Or rather, more than music itself, it could be our brain's capacity to recognise and appreciate sounds with a certain pitch. This is what appears to be demonstrated by a very recent study carried out by American scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge and the National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, published in the journal Nature Neuroscience.

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News: Our brains appear uniquely tuned for musical pitch dlvr.it/R6MH2j

♥ 54 10 giu 2019 · Apri su X →

A bizarre bet

The research grew out of a bizarre bet between the study's lead researcher Bevil R. Conway and Sam Norman-Haignere, a researcher at Columbia University, to find out whether reactions to sound differed between humans and other primates. The researchers therefore compared the brain responses of humans and macaques: what emerged, according to Conway, is that the auditory cortex of humans is more responsive than that of primates to certain types of sounds — specifically pitched sounds, present in spoken language and in music — whereas macaques are unable to recognise them.

In practice, then, Homo sapiens sapiens (us) recognise music and words, while macaques (and probably other primates too) do not, making our ability unique. According to the researchers, this would explain, for instance, why it is so difficult to train monkeys to perform purely auditory tasks. But there is more. The researchers also see it as confirmation that language and music may have played a fundamental role in the development of the human brain, making us what we are.

But did music and words really shape the human brain?

The idea that words and music shaped our brain is compelling, but is it really the case? It would be interesting to know whether the two researchers have already considered consulting a team of archaeologists and anthropologists to corroborate their findings. The development of language is, after all, just one of many hypotheses about how the brain of the genus Homo evolved.

Some argue that it is a brain that evolved for running across the savannah in dangerous situations; for others, the development of the brain would depend on the ability to map territory. For others still, our brain would be what it is because we were able to adapt to our environment by crafting complex tools.

Who knows, then, whether we can call ourselves human because we are able to recognise and appreciate music, or whether, on the contrary, we are able to recognise and appreciate music because our ancestors were able to create "objects that make sounds" and pass on to others, through a complex and articulate language, the knowledge of how to make them?