MUSIC: The Language of Emotion

From a simple, lonely melody to an intricate sonata, sometimes it feels like music can speak directly to your heart in a language that you don’t know but your emotions understand. And that’s because music is a language, the language of emotion.  And I mean that literally. Music has structure, progression, and syntax—just like language. The brain even processes musical syntax using the same area it uses to process language syntax. Next time you hear someone speaking emotionally, listen to the acoustic characteristics of the voice. The person will mirror music of the same emotion: fast, loud, and high for excitement and happiness, slower and softer for melancholy.
~ Ali Jennings, Ph.D. in neuroscience. University College London

Read the entire article in the current edition of Nourish and Flourish.

Article reprinted with permission, Alistair Jennings, Ph.D., American Institution of Physics.