This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at for further information. And he says, if any other guest musicians would like their brains scanned, he's available.Ĭopyright © 2016 NPR. He has found some people, such as Sting, are born with certain talents, and then they nurture those talents to become experts.ĬORNISH: Levitin's results were published this month in the journal Neurocase.
SHAPIRO: Daniel Levitan says this helps us understand how expertise works in the brain. LEVITIN: What this suggests is that his brain is extracting this latent information and keeping track of it. LEVITIN: Instead, what we found was that his brain activity was quite similar.ĬORNISH: Sting's brain heard a three-note pattern and other markers - something a non-musician might not pick up on.
SHAPIRO: The scientists expected very different neurons to fire in the musician's brain. (SOUNDBITE OF UNIDENTIFIED ASTOR PIAZZOLLA SONG) THE BEATLES: (Singing) Is there anybody going to listen to my story all about the girl who came to stay?ĬORNISH: And this tango by Astor Piazzolla. SHAPIRO: Levitin also tested Sting's brain on two songs that seemed dissimilar, like this Beatles song. They both have the same tempo of 132 beats per minute. LEVITIN: I don't think of those two songs as being particularly similar, but his brain did.ĬORNISH: What Sting reacted to was what most people would not. STING: (Singing) Oh, you'll never see my shade or hear the sound of my feet while there's a moon over Bourbon Street.ĬORNISH: And there were others, like "Green Onions" by Booker T. (SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MOON OVER BOURBON STREET") Among the tunes was one of Sting's own songs, "Moon Over Bourbon Street." So he used functional magnetic resonance imaging to record Sting's brain activity while Sting listened to music. SHAPIRO: Levitin tries to understand how the brain is organized, especially the musical brain. LEVITIN: I asked if he might want to have his brain scanned at the same time, and he said sure.
And after Sting read Levitin's book, he got a tour in the neuroscientist's lab. Of course, he's a longtime solo performer. He is author of "A Field Guide To Lies." And in 2006, he published the book "This Is Your Brain On Music." About a year after it came out, Levitin got a visit in his lab from one of the book's fans.ĬORNISH: Yes, Sting - English-born principal songwriter, singer and bassist for the band Police.
SHAPIRO: Levitin teaches at McGill University in Montreal. Here's someone who knows about the topic - Daniel Levitin, cognitive neuroscientist.ĭANIEL LEVITIN: I scan brains for a living. This next story is about what goes on inside the brain of a rock star.
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