Much about music remains shrouded in mystery, but light is being shed as brain scanning and other tools of measurement advance in their precision. A 2005 study out of Dartmouth College* used functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to investigate the physiology of brain activity when blanks are left in familiar tunes. Muting short gaps of familiar music was sufficient to trigger auditory imagery showing that the phenomenon was automatic and irresistible. Pictures (c) and (d) below show that silent gaps embedded in familiar songs induce greater activation in auditory association areas than silent gaps embedded in unknown songs.
So, when children listen repeatedly to Tuneville track A, they become very familiar with how a song ought to be. When track B introduces gaps for students to take turns filling in the blanks, the brain literally “lights up.” The bottom right image is a picture of the obligatory, irresistible urge for completion as it shows up on a MRI.
*D.J. Kraemer, C.M. Neil, Kelley, W.M. and Green, A.G., “The Sound of Silence,” Nature, Vol. 434 (2005).
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