Folk music and brain scans reveal secret patterns in song

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Does singing have an evolutionary purpose? Analyzing the patterns of folk music gives researchers some insight into the differences between the spoken word and song. And brain scans separate out the time and pitch cues our minds are processing when we hear speech and song. Speech relies more heavily on temporal information processed in the left hemisphere, while singing relies more on spectral information on the right side.

Read more at: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-do-we-sing-new-analysis-of-folk-songs-finds-similarities-around-the/

🎤✏️ Allison Parshall
🎥🎞️ Carin Leong
📸 Getty Images

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Robert Zatorre "Spectro-temporal acoustical markers differentiate speech from song across cultures"

Robert Zatorre "Distinct sensitivity to spectrotemporal modulation supports brain asymmetry for speech and melody"

Duncan Geere and Miriam Quick from Loud Numbers