By Dr. E.S. Krishnamoorthy
This exploration is deeply personal. It is in honor of my father, Dr. Krishnamurti Srinivas—a distinguished neurologist with an equally profound love for music. His dual passion for the art of healing and the art of sound serves as the inspiration for this discussion.
I am joined in this journey by Professor Michael Trimble, a world-renowned neuropsychiatrist and author of seminal works like Why Humans Like to Cry, The Intentional Brain, and his most recent offering, Death in the Opera. Over the past decade, Professor Trimble has emerged as a leading voice in the field of neuroaesthetics—the study of how art, emotion, and the brain intersect.
This blog is an attempt to distill our conversation on the rich and complex connections between music and the human brain.
The Mozart Effect: Can Music Boost Intelligence?
We begin with a phenomenon that sparked global curiosity—the Mozart Effect. In 1993, a researcher named Rauscher demonstrated that listening to Mozart’s K-448 could enhance performance on intelligence tests. The implications were so profound that it led to recommendations for infants to be exposed to Mozart from an early age.
But why does this happen? What is it about music—particularly classical compositions—that changes how our brain works?
The Human Brain and Its Musical Advantage
Unlike our primate relatives, humans have a significantly evolved temporal lobe. This region, critical to processing auditory information, is richly connected to other parts of the brain, including those involved in movement, memory, and emotion.
While chimpanzees may drum or respond to sound cues, they lack the deep connectivity and neural structures that allow for rhythmic entrainment or emotional resonance. In fact, studies have shown that even when offered music, chimpanzees tend to prefer non-Western tunes, hinting at how unique our auditory preferences are as a species.
The structure of the human brain—particularly its expanded white matter tracts like the arcuate fasciculus—gives us a neurological blueprint for processing, interpreting, and emotionally responding to music. These neural highways connect the auditory centers in the temporal lobe with the frontal regions responsible for cognition, emotion, and decision-making.
Music’s Path Through the Brain
Sound enters the brain and rapidly engages a wide network:
- Auditory Cortex: Processes pitch, timbre, and rhythm.
- Basal Ganglia: Though known for movement, it also responds to auditory patterns.
- Amygdala: Central to emotional processing—when it "speaks," the whole brain listens.
- Frontal Lobe: Integrates musical information and distributes it across networks.
Music is not just heard—it is processed, anticipated, and emotionally experienced through this
vast orchestra of brain regions.
Repetition, Ambiguity, and Emotional Pull
One of the great mysteries of music is its power to move us. Why does a recurring theme in a Bach fugue stir us so deeply?
The answer lies in the brain’s love of pattern and variation. When a musical phrase is repeated, the brain predicts what comes next. But when composers introduce slight variations, it creates ambiguity—and this surprises and engages the brain in powerful ways.
Can Music Heal the Brain?
Beyond pleasure, music can transform physiology. It can modulate:
- Autonomic functions like heart rate and respiration
- Cognitive regions through rhythmic stimulation
- Emotional centers via harmonic patterns and entrainment
This opens the door to using music as a therapeutic modality. One exciting example is the use of sonification—converting EEG signals into music, then reintroducing altered musical patterns to influence brain rhythms. Professor Trimble, along with composer Nigel Osborne, has explored this in treating conditions like epilepsy.
The Promise of Raga Music
Indian classical music, particularly the use of ragas, holds immense promise for neurotherapy. With its layered rhythmic cycles, intricate note structures, and deep cultural resonance, raga music may offer a culturally attuned and safe way to optimize brain rhythms.
Research suggests that raga music could entrain the brain’s natural electrical cycles—especially sleep and awake EEG patterns—making it a potentially transformative tool in neuro-rehabilitation and wellness.
Why We Hear with Emotion
Unlike visual stimuli, which reach the brain through reflection and complex interpretive processes, sound travels directly and quickly to our emotional centers. In fact, as babies, we respond to sound long before we understand sight. It’s our first contact with the world—and with love.
Why? Because we’re mammals. And mammals have mothers.
From the moment we’re born, we’re introduced to rhythm—rocking, swaying, and most importantly, lullabies. Across cultures, this universal act of singing to soothe and bond sets the stage for a lifelong relationship with music. We learn early that rhythm is safety, sound is comfort, and voice carries meaning beyond words.
The Right Brain, Music, and the Emotional Mind
The old idea of “right brain versus left brain” dominance is outdated, but it sparked important questions. One that still stands: is music largely processed in the right hemisphere?
While language and analytical thinking are typically housed in the left brain, music—especially pitch, harmony, and prosody (the melody of language)—engages the right hemisphere more intensely. This is the hemisphere associated with emotional expression and reception. In imaging studies, we see that the right side responds rapidly and richly to musical stimuli. If we agree that emotion is central to being human, perhaps we should consider the right brain the dominant one.
Music, the Vagus Nerve, and the Autonomic System
A fascinating area of inquiry is how music influences our autonomic nervous system, particularly the vagus nerve, which controls functions like heart rate and digestion. Can volume, pitch, or tonality trigger this system?
The answer is yes—provided the music is appropriate.
For example, music that is calming, rhythmically structured, and emotionally balanced can stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system, slowing the heart rate and encouraging relaxation. This is the physiological basis for using music as therapy. Our X-system, which I mentioned in Part 1, is designed to identify music that can entrain the nervous system into a more regulated, coherent state—like a tuning fork for the brain.
When Music Becomes Dangerous: Death in the Opera
One of my most curious explorations with Professor Trimble was into the phenomenon of sudden death in opera. Why, in so many operatic librettos, do characters die without clear medical causes? Upon analysis, we discovered that many deaths, particularly those of women at the end of operas, carried signs of autonomic instability—paleness, fainting, rapid heartbeats.
The 19th century was not only a golden age of opera but also a time when medicine was discovering the autonomic nervous system. It’s no coincidence that opera plots began to reflect this new understanding. The dramatic deaths may have been exaggerated fiction, but their biological plausibility is quite real.
Music and Memory: The Power of Emotional Recall
Many of us have experienced the phenomenon of a song taking us back—sometimes decades—into a vivid memory. This emotional resonance between music and memory is especially strong for autobiographical events: your first love, a moment of loss, a family celebration.
Music has a unique ability to trigger what scientists call “autobiographical memory,” especially when those memories are tied to strong emotions. Studies show that people frequently recall these emotional episodes with tears—a purely human trait. We cry because we feel, and we feel because we remember. In fact, humans are the only species known to shed emotional tears.
Intelligence, Emotion, and the Musical Brain
A common question we receive is about the link between intelligence and musicality. While some studies use music to assess aspects of cognitive function, the real value of music lies not in its measurable “IQ points,” but in its capacity to engage the emotional brain.
Academic musicologists often focus on the syntax of music—the structure, form, and score. But neuroaesthetics, our emerging field, emphasizes semantics: how music makes us feel. This is a crucial distinction. You don’t need to be a music scholar to be moved by music. What you need is a brain—and a heart.
Which Music Moves Us?
One participant asked if any particular genre enhances well-being and creativity. Mozart remains a central figure in this discourse—not just because of the Mozart Effect, but because of his music’s harmonic richness and structured complexity. However, the kind of music that works best can vary from person to person.
We are also studying how raga music—steeped in rhythmic precision and emotional depth—can be used for neural entrainment. With our X-system, we are building a library of music that can be mapped to brain rhythms, offering not just aesthetic pleasure but therapeutic potential.
Can Music Emerge in the Face of Degeneration?
One question asked if individuals with neurodegenerative diseases, like dementia, ever develop
newfound musical abilities. While Professor Trimble hadn’t personally encountered this in music,
he did recall poetic capabilities emerging in some patients—a different form of creative
expression. He also referred to a case documented by Oliver Sacks in Musicophilia, where a
man with a head injury began playing the piano—despite never having played before. While
anecdotal, it does raise intriguing questions about hidden potential and brain plasticity.
Music and Ecstasy: A Neurological High?
We explored whether music can transport people into ecstatic or transcendental states.
Professor Trimble confirmed it can—and likened it to the effects of certain drugs. Religious and
ritual music has long had this power, and operas, particularly those from the Romantic era, have
leveraged it dramatically. He cited Tristan and Isolde as a perfect example, where Isolde sings
herself into death through sheer emotional and musical transcendence. Music, it seems, can
open doors to states of being otherwise unreachable.
Opera, Language and Universality
Is the emotional impact of opera dependent on language—say, Italian? Professor Trimble
argued not. Opera transcends language barriers. Its emotional power often lies in the music
itself, not merely the words. Many composers like Wagner and Puccini wrote their own librettos to ensure alignment between text and music. What matters more than meaning, perhaps, is
emotional tone—something that transcends spoken language.
When Music Becomes Colour
One of the most captivating questions came from a pianist who experiences
synesthesia—seeing colours when hearing music. Professor Trimble validated her experience
as a true example of synesthesia, noting that while many people claim it, few genuinely exhibit
it. He also explained that several painters—particularly German Expressionists—are believed to
have had this ability, creating vivid visual expressions linked to sound.
Music Visualisation: Help or Hindrance?
Do visual representations of music enhance or detract from its emotional impact? For Professor
Trimble, the answer is clear: music enters the brain directly and intimately, while visuals are
more indirect. Combining the two may dilute the depth of experience music offers on its own.
Visual overlays may be interesting, but they are unlikely to enhance music’s transcendental
quality.
Singing Through Pain: A Surprising Relief
One audience member noted a personal phenomenon—when suffering from trigeminal
neuralgia, she found it easier to sing than to speak, and singing even relieved her pain.
Professor Trimble called this fascinating and worth studying in more detail, possibly linked to
neuromuscular pathways rather than auditory ones.
Rock vs. Classical: Different Frequencies, Different Effects
Does rock music, with legends like Freddie Mercury or Bob Dylan, have the same neurological
impact as Mozart or Bach? Professor Trimble acknowledged personal taste but pointed out that
for influencing the autonomic nervous system—slowing heart rate or promoting
calm—Mozart-like structured music is more effective. Loud, chaotic music may entertain, but at
the cost of hearing damage and emotional dysregulation.
Music as Medicine?
We closed this segment with one of the most powerful themes—can music be used to treat neurological or psychiatric conditions?
Professor Trimble believes it can. Music therapy is showing promise in treating aphasia, PTSD, anxiety, and even epilepsy. With tools like the X-System, it is now possible to use EEG-derived musical structures to retrain brain rhythms. But this isn’t just about playing “pleasant” music—it’s about specific frequencies and rhythms that modulate brain function.
For depression, the evidence is still emerging. Music might offer temporary relief, but sustained therapeutic impact likely lies in targeting specific neural pathways.
Conclusion
Music, the Mind, and the Mystery That Binds Them
As we bring this remarkable conversation with Professor Michael Trimble to a close, I’m left with a deeper appreciation of music—not just as an art form, but as a fundamental force that shapes our neurology, emotions, memory, and even our healing.
From the earliest lullabies sung by mothers across cultures to the ecstatic transcendence of operatic arias, music enters our brains and bodies in ways we’re only beginning to understand. We’ve explored how rhythm, harmony, and repetition can entrain brainwaves, influence the autonomic nervous system, and even reshape neurological pathways in conditions like epilepsy and PTSD. We’ve seen how synesthesia offers a rare, vivid glimpse into how deeply individual our experiences of music can be.
Music touches the amygdala, dances through the temporal lobes, lights up the frontal cortex, and resonates with our memories. It evokes tears, quiets pain, and, at times, brings us closer to something sacred—whether in a concert hall, a temple, or simply the quiet corners of our minds.
What emerged most clearly from our dialogue is this: music is not a luxury, nor is it simply entertainment. It is a vital form of human expression and connection, rooted in our evolutionary biology, and intricately wired into our brains.
This episode was dedicated to my father, Dr. Krishnamurti Srinivas—a man who loved music as deeply as he loved neurology. I hope this conversation, in its own small way, pays tribute to his belief in the inseparability of art and science, heart and mind.
Thank you for reading, reflecting, and joining us on this journey. Until next time, may you continue to find resonance in the music around you—and within you.
Share this post
