You Are Reading the First 6 FREE Chapters (470 pages)
1.3.5
Music and Babies' Brain Development: Infants and Music
If music were not a true adaptation, it would have had to have arisen only recently. However, the evidence indicates music probably predates our own species, Homo sapiens. That is, other hominid species, now extinct, such as Homo neanderthalensis, had music.
As well, neurological evidence supports the hypothesis that modules for creating and processing music exist in the brain at birth.
Setting aside lyrics for the moment and considering music only, most people think of the melody—the tune—as the essence of a piece of music.
- Harmony without melody or rhythm just doesn’t work.
- Rhythm without melody or harmony gets tiresome after a while due to something called habituation (discussed in later chapters).
- But you can create palatable music with melody only—no harmony or regular beat (e. g., background music in film and television).
Infants perceive melodic patterns much as adults do. They respond to changes in melodic contour and changes in key like adults do, indicating genetic origins. Newborns have pre-wired neuronal circuitry to perceive the following (if you’re not familiar with some of the musical terminology below, all will be revealed in the next few chapters):
- Melodic contour in both music and speech
- Consonant intervals (Chapter 4 goes into detail about intervals)
- Rhythmic patterns in both music and speech