New spin on a very old idea. One of the three types of music in the Pythagorean Harmony of the Spheres is Musica Humana, or the internal music of the human body. See Boethius, De Musica.

My husband has Parkinson's Disease and this story is going to the PD group we lead. It's hopeful and helpful and do-able. He went on new meds recently and I noticed he was humming and singing a bit to himself. People may think that Parkinson's Disease is one of continual decline but with neuro-rehabilitation in addition to meds, people are recovering abilities they thought were gone. Dance and music can help.

If listening to music with complex rhythms and contrapuntal harmonies such as Mozart and Bach can stimulate the brain to think better, as some claim, then there could there be other types of music which could make you stupid. Any ideas?

The joy of Humanism is experienced when one realizes the joy of human discoveries. These joys from a science of naturalism cannot be matched by any joys found in supernaturalism. And these discoveries are important because of their ability to predict natural behavior. Something that is alien from supernaturalism.

Love this.

I love this research, but I wish there had been a citation of the work in Nature by Mickey Hart (former drummer for the Grateful Dead) and Dr. Adam Gazzaley of UCSF. They did an incredible demo at SXSW; the video is definitely worth watching.

OMG I imagine my brain cells all jumping up and dancing to the sound of Little Eva:

Everybody's doing a brand new dance now
(Come on, baby, do the Loco-motion)
I know you'll get to like it if you give it a chance now
(Come on, baby, do the Loco-motion)

My little baby sister can do it with ease
It's easier than learning your ABCs
So come on, come on, do the Loco-motion with me

You gotta swing your hips now
Come on, baby, jump up, jump back
Well, I think you got the knack, whoa, whoa

Now that you can do it let's make a chain now
(Come on, baby, do the Loco-motion)
A chuga chuga motion like a railroad train now
(Come on, baby, do the Loco-motion)

Do it nice and easy now, don't loose control
A little bit of rhythm and a lotta soul
Come on, come on, do the Loco-motion with me

Yeah yeah yeah yeah
Move around the floor in a Loco-motion
(Come on, baby, do the Loco-motion)
Do it holding hands if you do get the notion
(Come on, baby, do the Loco-motion)

There's never been a dance that's so easy to do
It even makes you happy when you're feeling blue
So come on, come on, do the Loco-motion with me

You gotta swing your hips now
That's right, you're doing fine
Come on, baby
Mmm, jump up, jump back
You're looking cool
Mmm, jump up, jump back

My brain has no rhythm. according to my wife my feet have none also.

I need help keeping my rhythm. It's rough by myself.

Rhythm -frequency, is only one of many 'relational properties registrable by man and his uniquely human _deliberative capability_:

[DEFINITION - [NOTE: qualia, here (quale: singular), are first-order properties]

_RELATIONAL_ (noun): a second-or-higher-order property which
qualifies in a generally comparative way the relationship of a same
or lower-order property common to two (or more) 'elements' of the
configuration space: (eg) left- right/up-down/front-back/ness or
in/outside-ness of one thing with respect to another; like/unlikeness, mirroring/chirality, more/less-ness, absence (vs presence) of material/body physical properties: temperature, chemistry, pressure, magnetism/gravity, momentum, color, force, speed, sound, taste, smell, texture, dry/wetness et cetera; and at 'higher levels of vertebrate development'; now- then- and next-ness of state, for example, and shape or geometric pattern, and repetition/rhythm and 'musicality'; temperament as in 'anger', 'attention' and even 'immeasurable degrees of (such as) honesty and fairness' et cetera -and changeability of relationals with time and space as a relational itself as in 'the arts eventually and mathematics too'.
cogitans/bezanis

At the risk of being a 'downer', this is yet another step on the downward staircase from hard news to 'driveway moments'. I've hesitated to repeat what others have posited until now, but there is this 'softening' that almost seems intentional demographic marketing---as PBS does now with their interminable 'yoga and brain nutriition' quasi-infomercials.

Look, I enjoy National Geographic and kids shows that show 'amazing connections!' as much as the next guy. But you've only got 2 hrs every day and there's a HUGE world out there to cover. All these silly 'lists'... "Songs that make my butt move!" etc... belong on some sort of Life Style channel. Not on your flagship news program.

I just wrote a blog post about a week ago about this topic -- inspired by a couple of extraordinary experiences, and NPR's own piece on waltzes! http://www.jcsmusicsbest.blogs...

Poems are thought to have helped the poet recall the contents of the poem in a time before writing allowed us to store memories externally. I wonder if this particular mechanism of rhythm and the workings of the brain might be at play in this process.

My brain must be out of time, perhaps I need an internal metronome.

I wonder how this might relate to the article here under 13.7 by Tania Lombrozo on neuroscience. Is this a further indication that our mental processes are more mechanical than metaphysical?

http://www.npr.org/blogs/13.7/...

I thought just a out my process and rhythm sink in can't be.