Music synchronises our brain!

Listening to music syncs our brain, but then we get bored.

There is a theory called the theory of familiarity in music. It is, as described at the end of this article, the idea of an inverted U. As we listen to music over and over again we like it more and more, but then we reach the top of the inverted U and we start to dislike it. It is thought that we get bored because we have extracted all the interest from the music. So the simpler the music the quicker we reach the top of the inverted U.

This article also looks at a study where listeners’ brains synchronised when they listened to music, but the more they listened, the more they disengaged with it (and presumably their brains were less in sync).

This type of research points to the idea that children need to hear both familiar music and unfamiliar music. It also explains why young children listen to music incessantly for a time and then suddenly the don’t like it anymore.

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