First BrainMovie to a Song

This is your brain on Pink Floyd!

Currently we are looking at the brain's responses to music. Our first song was "Another Brick in the Wall" by Pink Floyd.

BrainMovie here!

The subjects eyes were closed throughout the duration of the scan, so the visual cortex is not active. We hypothesize that a song with a fair amount of visual imagery in the lyrics would activate a portion of the visual cortex, however.

As the singer hits his first note, the personal meaning area begins to activate.

Once again the personal meaning area activates as the most recognizable part of the melody begins to play, the attention area also activates during this first highly recognizable section.

We found that guitars, pianos, drums, and vocals together cause the most activation in the auditory cortex, as to be expected.

And lastly, the phrase “All and all we’re all just bricks in the wall,” gets a high brain activation response in the attention and personal meaning areas.