Version 1
: Received: 3 October 2020 / Approved: 5 October 2020 / Online: 5 October 2020 (10:54:09 CEST)
How to cite:
di Porzio, U.; Speranza, L. Let Sing Again. Of Sounds, Songs, and Language in Humans and Birds. Preprints2020, 2020100065. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202010.0065.v1
di Porzio, U.; Speranza, L. Let Sing Again. Of Sounds, Songs, and Language in Humans and Birds. Preprints 2020, 2020100065. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202010.0065.v1
di Porzio, U.; Speranza, L. Let Sing Again. Of Sounds, Songs, and Language in Humans and Birds. Preprints2020, 2020100065. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202010.0065.v1
APA Style
di Porzio, U., & Speranza, L. (2020). Let Sing Again. Of Sounds, Songs, and Language in Humans and Birds. Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202010.0065.v1
Chicago/Turabian Style
di Porzio, U. and Luisa Speranza. 2020 "Let Sing Again. Of Sounds, Songs, and Language in Humans and Birds" Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202010.0065.v1
Abstract
In million years, under the pressure of natural selection, hominins acquired vocal learning, music, language, and intense cooperation, thanks to the efficacy of music in enhancing sociality. Thus, early in human evolution music became part of human life, a relevant activity, which required sophisticated perceptual and motor skills. It contributed to developing cultures and history, social bonding, and from the beginning of life strengthens the mother-baby relation while within the mother’s womb. Music existed in all known human cultures, although it varies in rhythmic and melodic complexity. It is art made of sounds capable of arousing emotions, evokes memories, engages multiple cognitive functions, and promotes attention, concentration, stimulates the imagination, creativity, and harmony of movement. Music and language share the same complex neural network. Music changes the chemistry of the brain activating the reward and prosocial systems, altruism, and allowing its use in therapy. This review explores "what" is music and illustrates the neural circuits that allow the production of music and language and those that transduce the sounds perceived by the ear, localize and archive them, allowing to recall them. Interestingly, songbirds share many commonalities with human music:, common neural pathways that shape vocal learning, and how they make sounds.
Keywords
Altruism; Basal ganglia; Dopamine; Emotion; Evolution; Plasticity; Social bonding
Subject
Biology and Life Sciences, Anatomy and Physiology
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
