CANR

• The Changing Mind: A Neuroscientist's Guide to Ageing Well - 2021 Penguin, New York, NY
• I Heard There Was a Secret Chord: Music as Medicine - 2024 W. W. Norton & Company, New York, NY

• Daniel J. Levitin website - https://www.daniellevitin.com/

  Daniel J. Levitin is an award-winning neuroscientist, musician, and best-selling author. His research encompasses music, the brain, health, productivity and creativity.

  Levitin has published more than 300 articles, in journals including Science, Nature, PNAS, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and The Wall Street Journal. His research has been featured over 1800 times in the popular press, including 17 articles in The New York Times, and in The London Times, Scientific American, and Rolling Stone. He is a frequent guest on NPR and CBC Radio and has appeared on Good Morning America, The Today Show, CBS This Morning, and CNN. His TED talk is among the most popular of all time.

  He is the author of four New York Times bestselling books: This Is Your Brain On Music, The World in Six Songs, The Organized Mind and Successful Aging, as well as the international bestseller A Field Guide to Lies. A popular public speaker, he has given presentations on the floor of Parliament in London, to the U.S. Congress, Microsoft, Google, and Amazon. He has consulted for a number of companies including Apple, Booz-Allen, Microsoft, the United States Navy, Sonos, Philips, Sony, Fender, and AT&T.

  Dr. Levitin earned his B.A. from Stanford in Cognitive Science, his M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology with a Ph.D. minor in Music Technology from the University of Oregon, and completed post-doctoral training at Stanford University Medical School and UC Berkeley in Neuroimaging and Perception.

  As a musician (tenor saxophone, guitar, vocals and bass), he has performed with Mel Tormé, David Byrne, Rosanne Cash, Sting, Bobby McFerrin, Victor Wooten and Tom Scott. Levitin has produced and consulted on albums by artists including Stevie Wonder, Steely Dan, Joni Mitchell and on the films Good Will Hunting and Pulp Fiction, and has been awarded 17 gold and platinum records.

  Levitin taught at Stanford in the Departments of Computer Science, Psychology, History of Science, and Music, and has been a Visiting Professor at Dartmouth, and UC Berkeley. He is currently the Founding Dean of Arts & Humanities at the Minerva Schools at the Keck Graduate Institute, San Francisco, California, and James McGill Professor Emeritus of Psychology, Neuroscience and Music at McGill University.

• Department of Psychology, McGill University website - https://www.mcgill.ca/psychology/daniel-j-levitin

  Daniel J. Levitin
  Academic title(s):
  Professor
  James McGill Professor Emeritus

  Contact Information:

  Office: 2001 McGill College
  Phone: 514.398.6114
  Email: daniel.levitin[at]mcgill.ca

  Mailing Address:
  Department of Psychology
  2001 McGill College, 7th floor
  Montreal, QC
  H3A 1G1

  Daniel J. Levitin
  Link(s):
  Personal Homepage
  Biography:
  Research Area:
  Behavioural Neuroscience

  Research Summary:
  Cognitive neuroscience of music; quantitative methods for analyzing acoustic (and time-series) information.

  Selected References:
  Sanders, R. H. & Levitin, D. J. (2020). Towards an Understanding of Control of Complex Rhythmical ‘Wavelike’ Coordination in Humans. Brain Sciences, 10(4), 215.

  Levitin, D. J. (2019). Medicine's Melodies: Music, Health and Well-Being. Music and Medicine, 11(4), 236-244.

  Levitin, D. J. (2019). Absolute Pitch. In P. J. Rentfrow & D. J. Levitin (Eds.), Foundations of music psychology: Theory and research. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

  Levitin, D. J, Grahn, J. A., London, J. (2018). The Psychology of Music: Rhythm and Movement. Annual Reviews in Psychology, 69, 51-75.

  *Mallik, A., *Chanda, M-L., & Levitin, D. J. (2017). Anhedonia to music and mu-opioids: Evidence from the administration of naltrexone. Scientific Reports, 7, 1-8.

  *Klemp, N., McDermott, R., *Duque, J., *Thibeault, M., *Powell, K., & Levitin, D.mis-takes. Éducation & Didactique, 10(3), 105-120.

  Levitin, D. J. & Grafton, S. T. (2016). Measuring the representational space of music with fMRI: a case study with Sting. Neurocase, 22(6), 548-567 DOI: 10.1080/13554794.2016.1216572

• Sharp - https://sharpmagazine.com/2022/12/15/cannabis-music-neuroscience-interview-daniel-levitin/

  Music, Cannabis, and Neuroscience: Dr. Levitin Helps Us Connect the Dots
  Justin Mastine-Frost December 15, 2022

  No matter where you land on the generational spectrum, the connection between cannabis and music is something we’re mostly all familiar with. In decades past, it was the hippies, the punks, the grunge kids, the degenerates of society — getting high and listening to music was seen as part of their (and in some cases our) way of life.

  Thankfully, modern society has mostly moved on from this stigma. With legalization in numerous parts of the world, even many of those with a staunch and conservative outlook on cannabis consumption have crossed the fence, whether due to sheer curiosity or for purely medicinal purposes.

  Dr. Daniel J. Levitin, on the other hand, has devoted much of his career to the science behind it all . As an award-winning neuroscientist, musician, and best-selling author, his research encompasses music, the brain, health, productivity and creativity — all of which have varying degrees of connection to cannabis, if you think about it.

  Daniel J Levitin this is your brain on music book
  Earlier this year, we sat down with Dr. Levitin during a rather unorthodox event put on by Canopy Growth — one of the world’s largest cannabis companies, based right here in Ontario. The premise was simple; enjoy an assortment of cannabis-based beverages, partake in a Q&A roundtable with Dr. Levitin about the connection between the brain, music, and cannabis, and then head off to a concert to interpret elements of that discussion for oneself.

  This initial interaction proved to be rather enlightening, so we followed up with Dr. Levitin for a bit of a deeper dive.

  How and when did your neuroscience research turn towards cannabis? Can you walk us through the sequence of events, so to speak?

  I became interested in cannabis research in 1976 after reading a book on psychopharmacology that I found at the Stanford bookstore. There are a lot of scientific questions to ask about the effects of cannabis on the brain: how it can modulate mood, creativity, sleep and wakefulness, and so on. But I’d always been fascinated by memory: why do we remember some things and not other things, and how are memories stored in the brain? At the same time, I knew from my own experiences that cannabis could thrust me into the present, with all of my focus on the here-and-now. What a wonderful state to be in — people meditate for years to get to that place. This gets to questions of different conscious states.

  I was taking a neuropsychology class with Karl Pribram and for my term paper, I wrote about the effect of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol on memory, and Karl had suggested that the reason that cannabis created such a focus on the present was because it temporarily shut down some of the pathways to memory that might cause us to dwell on the recent past. For my paper, I had to create a plausible neural model of how this might work.

  The next semester I started working in his lab. Studying cannabis and memory back then was quite primitive compared to what we can do today because back then, we didn’t have neuroimaging tools like MRIs and PET scans, and we knew a great deal less about how memory works. I spent much of the last 25 years trying to learn more about the cognitive neuroscientific basis for memory storage and retrieval. I’m still interested in all the other questions, but I haven’t got ’round to them yet.

  The disruption of short-term memory thrusts listeners into the moment of the music as it unfolds and they are able to narrow in on one thing, in this case the music or even with greater granularity such as being able to focus on just one instrument at a time. People on cannabis tend to hear music from note to note — a bit like the Zen ideal of living in the present.

  Dr. Levitin, on how cannabinoids impact the human experience of music
  How much has your research and direction changed since the legalization of cannabis in Canada?

  My research hasn’t changed that much since the legalization of cannabis, although in two recent studies we conducted on how people adapted to and coped with the COVID-19 lockdown, we found that many people who consumed cannabis products, alongside other strategies, navigated the isolation and loneliness well.

  In layman’s terms, can you summarize the neurological effects of cannabis and how they affect a person’s experience with music/sound/performance/creativity in general?

  Cannabis does two things that impact music listening. Many people don’t know this, but your brain produces cannabinoids all on its own — we have a whole cannabinoid system that regulates appetite, pain-sensation, mood, and memory through cannabinoid receptors. When we ingest cannabis, it activates those receptors. We are simply facilitating neural pathways that already exist.

  Whether those cannabinoids come from eating or drinking them or are generated by our brains internally, they stimulate the brain’s natural pleasure centres and narrow the focus of short-term memory. The disruption of short-term memory thrusts listeners into the moment of the music as it unfolds and they are able to narrow in on one thing, in this case the music or even with greater granularity such as being able to focus on just one instrument at a time. People on cannabis tend to hear music from note to note—a bit like the Zen ideal of living in the present.

  Additionally, cannabis helps block out the internal chatter in your mind so instead of thinking about what you’re going to make for dinner and going through your to-do list you’re able to focus on the music.

  Because all the disparate elements of music are woven together you can focus on them all at once. In well constructed songs, the rhythm supports the melody, and both support the lyrics. The focused attentional state that cannabis facilitates helps us to see the connections between these, to take them in all at once, to get lost in the beauty, complexity, danceability, joy, sadness, or any other reaction the music evokes in us—sometimes all at once.

  As to creativity, cannabis is one of many ways to help us enter the brain’s “default mode network,” or what I call the “daydreaming network.” This is where we tie together ideas that we haven’t tied together before—and that is really the essence of what creativity is.

  Can you break down what elements of this effect are variable from person to person, versus which ones are more consistent? Though cannabis will hit different people in different ways, I presume there are consistencies from a physiological/physical perspective?

  Each of our brains is different from everyone else’s. Physically, no two brains are alike. And no two people, not even identical twins, have the same set of experiences. So it’s impossible to say how anything will affect an individual, and even within the individual, whether it will affect them consistently the same way. I normally drink green tea every morning and it wakes me up. This morning, after my cup, I felt tired and so I went back to sleep. Tomorrow I expect it will work again but there are so many factors that go into creating our different conscious and attentional states, such as how well you slept last night, what you ate, whether or not you exercised—even the barometric pressure (if it’s too low, your blood pressure could also drop).

  I took classes in psychology and became fascinated by how one can study something as varied and squishy as human behaviour, and study it in a rigorous, scientific way.

  Dr. Levitin, on delving into the world of neuroscience
  Though societal perspective has changed dramatically with legalization, what would you say are the most common misconceptions about the human experience with cannabis that persist today?

  I’m not the best person to ask about common misperceptions about cannabis. I think you’d need to talk to a sociologist or someone who broadly studies changing attitudes and opinions. When I was a kid, we were told that cannabis was dangerous. That’s a misconception that many people still have and it’s obviously false. There’s a misperception that it can reduce motivation, but if that were so, how else can you explain Willie Nelson having given more than 2500 concerts?

  Musician, neuroscientist, author…. What path came first, and how did the others fall into place?

  Hah! Thank you for this question. I’d say they were all there all the time, at least as far back as I can remember. I started playing the piano when I was 4 or 5. I always wrote little songs and stories, and science had always been a big part of my life — you know, the chemistry set at age 10, experiments with magnets and optics, that sort of thing. Neuroscience as we now know it wasn’t a major field of study when I was in college — I took classes in psychology and became fascinated by how one can study something as varied and squishy as human behaviour, and study it in a rigorous, scientific way. Neuroscience per se came along later, when I did my first neuroimaging study during my post-doctoral training at Stanford.

  You’ve worked with a ton of incredible artists/musicians over the years. Is there anyone left that you’re still itching to work with in some capacity?

  I have been tremendously lucky. As I write this, I’m on an airplane on my way to Greensboro, North Carolina where I get to perform with one of my favourite singer/songwriters of all time Rosanne Cash. I’ve been able to work, in some capacity, with all of my musical heroes who are still alive. The last three would be Neil Young, Paul McCartney, and the band Pomplamoose.

• Wikipedia -

  Daniel Levitin

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  From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  Daniel J. Levitin

  Levitin in 2015
  Born December 27, 1957 (age 66)
  San Francisco, California, U.S.
  Nationality American, Canadian
  Alma mater Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  Berklee College of Music
  Stanford University (B.A., 1992)
  University of Oregon (MSc, 1993; PhD, 1996).
  Known for Levitin effect, This Is Your Brain on Music, The World in Six Songs, The Organized Mind, A Field Guide to Lies, Successful Aging (published as The Changing Mind in the U.K.)
  Awards See "Awards" section
  Scientific career
  Fields Music cognition, cognitive neuroscience of music, cognitive psychology
  Institutions
  McGill University
  Stanford University
  Dartmouth College
  University of California at Berkeley
  Minerva University
  Interval Research Corporation
  Academic advisors Roger Shepard, Michael Posner, Douglas Hintzman, John R. Pierce, Stephen Palmer
  Notable students Regina Nuzzo, Susan Rogers
  Website daniellevitin.com levitinlab.com
  Daniel Joseph Levitin, FRSC (born December 27, 1957) is an American-Canadian cognitive psychologist, neuroscientist, writer, musician, and record producer.[1] He is the author of four New York Times best-selling books, including This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession, (Dutton/Penguin 2006; Plume/Penguin 2007) which has sold more than 1 million copies.[2]

  Levitin is a James McGill Professor Emeritus of psychology, behavioral neuroscience and music at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada; a Founding Dean of Arts & Humanities at Minerva University; and a Distinguished Faculty Fellow at the Haas School of Business, University of California at Berkeley. He is the Director of the Laboratory for Music Perception, Cognition, and Expertise at McGill.[3] He is a former member of the Board of Governors of the Grammys, a consultant to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a fellow of the Association for Psychological Science, a fellow of the Psychonomic Society, and a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (FRSC). He has appeared frequently as a guest commentator on NPR and CBC. He has published scientific articles on absolute pitch, music cognition, neuroanatomy, and directional statistics.[4][5]

  His five books have all been international bestsellers, and collectively have sold more 3 million copies worldwide: This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession (2006),[6][7][8] The World in Six Songs: How the Musical Brain Created Human Nature (2008), The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload (2014), A Field Guide to Lies: Critical Thinking in the Information Age (2016) and Successful Aging (2020).

  Levitin also worked as a music consultant, producer and sound designer on albums by Blue Öyster Cult, Chris Isaak, and Joe Satriani among others;[9] produced punk bands including MDC and The Afflicted; and served as a consultant on albums by artists including Steely Dan, Stevie Wonder, and Michael Brook;[10][11] and as a recording engineer for Santana, Jonathan Richman, O.J. Ekemode and the Nigerian Allstars, and The Grateful Dead.[12] Records and CDs to which he has contributed have sold more than 30 million copies.[11][13]

  Biography and education
  Born in San Francisco,[14] the son of Lloyd Levitin, a businessman and professor, and Sonia Levitin, a novelist. Daniel Levitin was raised in Daly City, Moraga, and Palos Verdes, all in California.[15] He graduated after his junior year at Palos Verdes High School and attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he studied applied mathematics; he enrolled at the Berklee College of Music before dropping out of college to join a succession of bands, work as a record producer, and help found a record label, 415 Records. He returned to school in his thirties, studying cognitive psychology/cognitive science first at Stanford University where he received a BA degree in 1992 (with honors and highest university distinction) and then to the University of Oregon where he received an MSc degree in 1993 and a PhD degree in 1996. He completed post-doctoral fellowships at Paul Allen's Silicon Valley think-tank Interval Research, at the Stanford University Medical School, and at the University of California, Berkeley.[15] His early influences include Susan Carey, Merrill Garrett, and Molly Potter and his scientific mentors include Roger Shepard, Karl H. Pribram, Michael Posner, Douglas Hintzman,[16] John R. Pierce,[17] and Stephen Palmer.[18] He has been a visiting professor at the University of California, Berkeley, Stanford University, Dartmouth College, and Oregon Health Sciences University.

  As a cognitive neuroscientist specializing in music perception and cognition, he is credited for fundamentally changing the way that scientists think about auditory memory, showing through the Levitin Effect, that long-term memory preserves many of the details of musical experience that previous theorists regarded as lost during the encoding process.[19][20][21][22] He is also known for drawing attention to the role of cerebellum in music listening, including tracking the beat and distinguishing familiar from unfamiliar music.[20]

  Outside of his academic pursuits Levitin has worked on and off as a stand-up comedian and joke writer, performing at the Democratic National Convention in San Francisco with Robin Williams in 1984, and at comedy clubs in California;[23] he placed second in the National Lampoon stand-up comedy competition regionals in San Francisco in 1989, and has contributed jokes for Jay Leno and Arsenio Hall, as well as the nationally syndicated comic strip Bizarro. Some comics were included in the 2006 compilation Bizarro and Other Strange Manifestations of the Art of Dan Piraro (Andrews McMeel).[24][25]

  Music
  Levitin began playing piano at age 4. He took up clarinet at age 8, and bass clarinet and saxophone at age 12.[26] He played saxophone (tenor and baritone) in high school; at age 17 he performed on baritone with the big band backing up Mel Tormé at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium.[27] He began playing guitar at age 20 and has been a member of bands including The Alsea River Band (lead guitar), The Mortals (bass), Judy Garland [band] (bass), The Shingles (lead guitar), Slings & Arrows (bass), JD Buhl (bass and guitar). He also played on recording sessions for Blue Öyster Cult, True West, and the soundtrack to Repo Man.

  He continues to perform regularly and has played saxophone with Sting, Ben Sidran, and Bobby McFerrin, played guitar with Rosanne Cash, Blue Öyster Cult, Rodney Crowell, Michael Brook, Gary Lucas, Victor Wooten, Steve Bailey, Peter Case, Peter Himmelman, Lenny Kaye, Jessie Farrell, and David Byrne; and appeared on vocals with Renée Fleming, Neil Young and Rosanne Cash.[28][29] In the fall of 2017 he toured the West Coast with singer-songwriter Tom Brosseau.

  He began writing songs at age 17. His songwriting has been praised by a number of top songwriters including Diane Warren, and Joni Mitchell, who said, "Dan is really good at what he does, and creates rich images with his words and music."[30]

  He released his first album of original songs, Turnaround, in January 2020 with a performance with his own band at the Rockwood Music Hall in New York City, followed by seven shows with Victor Wooten's Bass Extremes band in Los Angeles, Oakland, and Phoenix, and a performance of one of the album's songs "Just A Memory" with Renée Fleming, Victor Wooten and Hardy Hemphill sponsored by John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.[31]

  Music producing and engineering
  Daniel Levitin

  Background information
  Birth name Daniel Joseph Levitin
  Born December 27, 1957 (age 66)
  Origin San Francisco
  Genres Rock, new wave, punk, jazz, folk rock, country
  Occupation(s) Producer, Engineer, Musician
  Instrument(s) Tenor saxophone, guitar, bass, vocals
  Years active 1980 to present
  Labels 415 Records, Columbia Records, Sony Music, Warner Bros. Records, Infrasonic Records, TwinTone Records
  In the late 1970s, Levitin consulted for M&K Sound as an expert listener assisting in the design of the first commercial satellite and subwoofer loudspeaker systems, an early version of which was used by Steely Dan for mixing their album Pretzel Logic (1974). After that he worked at A Broun Sound in San Rafael, California, reconing speakers for The Grateful Dead for whom he later worked as a consulting record producer. Levitin was one of the golden ears used in the first Dolby AC audio compression tests, a precursor to MP3 audio compression.[15] From 1984 to 1988, he worked as the director, then vice president of A&R for 415 Records in San Francisco, becoming the president of the label in 1989 before the label was sold to Sony Music.[32][citation needed] Notable achievements during that time included producing the punk classic Here Come the Cops by The Afflicted (named among the Top 10 records of 1985 by GQ magazine); engineering records by Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers, Santana, and the Grateful Dead; and producing tracks for Blue Öyster Cult, the soundtrack to Repo Man (1984), and others.[33] Two highlights of his tenure in A&R were discovering the band The Big Race (which later became the well-known soundtrack band Pray for Rain), and he had the opportunity to sign M.C. Hammer but passed.[34]

  After 415 was sold, he formed his own production and business consulting company, with a list of clients including AT&T, several venture capital firms, and every major record label.[35] As a consultant for Warner Bros. Records he planned the marketing campaigns for such albums as Eric Clapton's Unplugged (1992) and k.d. lang's Ingénue (1992). He was a music consultant on feature films such as Good Will Hunting (1997) and The Crow: City of Angels (1996), and served as a compilation consultant to Stevie Wonder's Song Review: A Greatest Hits Collection (1996), and to As Time Goes By (2003) and Interpretations: A 25th Anniversary Celebration (1995; updated and released as a DVD in 2003) by The Carpenters. Levitin returned to the studio in 2002, producing three albums for Quebec blues musician Dale Boyle: String Slinger Blues (2002), A Dog Day for the Purists (2004), and In My Rearview Mirror: A Story From A Small Gaspé Town (2005), the latter two of which won the annual Lys Blues Award for best Blues album.[36] He helped Joni Mitchell with the production of her three most recent albums, Shine, Love Has Many Faces: A Quartet, A Ballet, Waiting to Be Danced, and Starbucks' Artist's Choice: Joni Mitchell.

  In 1998, Levitin helped to found MoodLogic.com (and its sister companies, Emotioneering.com and jaboom.com), the first Internet music recommendation company, sold in 2006 to Allmusic group. He has also consulted for the United States Navy on underwater sound source separation, for Philips Electronics, and AT&T.[37] He was an occasional script consultant to The Mentalist from 2007 to 2009.

  Writing career
  Levitin began writing articles in 1988 for music industry magazines Billboard, Grammy, EQ, Mix, Music Connection, and Electronic Musician, and was named contributing writer to Billboard′s Reviews section from 1992 to 1997. He has contributed to The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The New Yorker,[38] and The Atlantic.[39]

  Levitin is the author of This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession, (Dutton/Penguin 2006; Plume/Penguin 2007) which spent more than 12 months on the New York Times[40] and the Globe and Mail bestseller lists. In that book, he shares observations related to all sorts of music listeners, telling for instance that, today, teenagers listen to more music in one month than their peers living during the 1700s during their entire existence. The book was nominated for two awards (The Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Outstanding Science & Technology Writing and the Quill Award for the Best Debut Author of 2006), named one of the top books of the year by Canada's The Globe and Mail and by The Independent and The Guardian,[41] and has been translated into 20 languages. The World in Six Songs: How the Musical Brain Created Human Nature (Dutton/Penguin 2008) debuted on the Canadian and the New York Times bestseller lists,[42] and was named by the Boston Herald and by Seed Magazine as one of the best books of 2008. It was also nominated for the World Technology Awards.

  The Organized Mind was published by Dutton/Penguin Random House in 2014,[43] debuting at #2 on the New York Times Bestseller List[44] and reaching #1 on the Canadian best-seller lists.[45] A Field Guide to Lies was published by Dutton/Penguin Random House in 2016, and released in paperback in March 2017 under the revised title Weaponized Lies. It appeared on numerous best-seller lists in the U.S., Canada and the U.K.,[46][47] and is the most acclaimed of Levitin's four books, receiving the National Business Book Award,[48] the Mavis Gallant Prize for Non-Fiction, the Axiom Business Book Award, and was a finalist for the Donner Prize.

  Successful Aging: A Neuroscientist Explores the Power and Potential of Our Lives was published by Dutton/Penguin Random House in January 2020 and debuted at #10 on the New York Times bestseller list[49] in its first week of release, and at #2 on the Canadian bestseller list, and stayed on the Canadian bestseller lists for more than six months. It was named an Apple Books book-of-the-month and Next Big Idea Club selection. It was published by Penguin Life in the U.K. as The Changing Mind: A Neuroscientist's Guide to Ageing Well; it debuted at #5 on the Sunday Times Bestseller List.[50] It was named by the Sunday Times as one of the best books of 2020[51]

  In popular culture
  In The Listener TV series, actor Colm Feore says his performance of the character Ray is based on Daniel Levitin.[52]

  Levitin consulted on the legal strategy used by Jimmy Page and Led Zeppelin to defend copyright infringement claim against his song Stairway To Heaven.[53][54]

  Media appearances
  From September 2006 to April 2007 Levitin served as a weekly commentator on the CBC Radio One show Freestyle. Two documentary films were based on This Is Your Brain on Music: The Music Instinct (2009, PBS), which he co-hosted with Bobby McFerrin, and The Musical Brain (2009, CTV/National Geographic Television) which he co-hosted with Sting. Levitin appeared in Artifact, a 2012 documentary directed by Jared Leto. His television and film appearances have reached more than 50 million viewers worldwide.[55]

  Levitin had a cameo appearance in The Big Bang Theory at the invitation of the producers, in Season 8, Episode 5, "The Focus Attenuation". He appeared in the opening scene, sitting at a table in the Caltech cafeteria over Sheldon's right shoulder. In January 2015 he was a guest on BBC Radio 4's Start the Week program alongside cognitive scientist Margaret Boden.[56]

  In 2019–2020 he was a script consultant and on-air guest for Season 8 of National Geographic's Brain Games. In 2020, he appeared in Stewart Copeland's Adventures in Music series on BBC 4,[57] discussing the evolutionary basis of music and the neuroscience of music.

  Awards

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  Finalist, Donner Prize (2017), A Field Guide to Lies.
  Winner, National Business Book Award (2017), A Field Guide to Lies.
  Silver Medal, Axiom Business Book Awards, Ethics category (2017), A Field Guide to Lies.
  Winner, Mavis Gallant Prize for Non-Fiction (2016), A Field Guide to Lies.
  Finalist, Los Angeles Times Book Prize (2006), This Is Your Brain on Music, Best Book on Science and Technology.
  Cine Special Jury Prize for Arts & Culture, The Music Instinct (Daniel Levitin, co-host, co-writer and chief scientific consultant), 2010, Washington, D.C.
  Banff World Television Festival, Rockie Award Nominee, The Music Instinct (Daniel Levitin, co-host, co-writer and chief scientific consultant), 2010.
  First place, Pariscience Film Festival, The Music Instinct (Daniel Levitin, co-host, co-writer and chief scientific consultant), 2009.
  Winner, Gemini Award, Best Sound in an Information/Documentary Program or Series, The Musical Brain (Daniel Levitin, host and scientific consultant), 2009.
  Hugo Television Award, Science/Nature Documentary, 45th Chicago International Film Festival, The Musical Brain (Daniel Levitin, host and scientific consultant), 2009.
  European Acoustics Association (EAA) Award for Outstanding Scientific Results Published in Acta Acustica United With Acustica (with co-recipients C. Guastavino, J-D Pollack, D. Dubois and B. Katz), 2008.
  Nominee, Quill Award, Best Debut Author (2006), This Is Your Brain on Music.
  Awarded sixteen RIAA gold and platinum records.[58]
  Stevie Wonder, Song Review: A Greatest Hits Collection
  Eric Clapton, Unplugged
  Steely Dan, Can't Buy A Thrill
  Steely Dan, Countdown to Ecstasy
  Steely Dan, Pretzel Logic
  Steely Dan, Katy Lied
  Steely Dan, The Royal Scam
  Steely Dan, Aja
  Steely Dan, Gaucho
  Steely Dan, Two Against Nature
  Steely Dan, Gold (Steely Dan album), expanded edition
  Steely Dan, A Decade of Steely Dan
  K.d. lang, Ingenue
  Midnight Oil, Diesel and Dust
  Chris Isaak, Heart Shaped World
  The Crow: City of Angels (soundtrack)
  Best Film Soundtrack award, Sundance Film Festival, 1985, for Architects of Victory
  Gold Medal, Venice Film Festival, 1985, Film Soundtrack Production, for Architects of Victory
  Lys Award, Best Blues Album, 2005, Dale Boyle: In My Rearview Mirror: A Story From A Small Gaspé Town
  Lys Award, Best Blues Album 2004, Dale Boyle and the Barburners: A Dog Day for Purists
  "Top 100 Papers in Cognitive Science" by the Millennium Project for "Absolute Memory for Musical Pitch," Perception and Psychophysics, 1994.
  Selected publications
  Books
  The Billboard Encyclopedia of Record Producers (1999). New York: Watson-Guptill Publications, E. Olsen, C. Wolff, P. Verna, Editors; D. J. Levitin, associate editor.
  Foundations of Cognitive Psychology: Core Readings (2002), Cambridge, MA: M.I.T. Press
  Foundations of Cognitive Psychology: Core Readings, Second Edition (2010), Boston: Allyn & Bacon/Pearson Publishing
  This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession, (2006), New York: Dutton/Penguin. (released in the U.K. and Commonwealth territories by Atlantic, 2007). (appeared on the New York Times Bestseller List both in hardcover and paperback)
  The World in Six Songs: How the Musical Brain Created Human Nature (2008), New York: Dutton/Penguin and Toronto: Viking/Penguin. (New York Times bestseller)
  The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload (2014), New York: Dutton/Penguin Random House and Toronto: Allen Lane/Penguin Random House and London: Viking/Penguin Random House.
  A Field Guide to Lies: Critical Thinking in the Information Age (2016), New York: Dutton/Penguin Random House; Toronto: Allen Lane/Penguin Random House; London: Viking/Penguin Random House
  Successful Aging: A Neuroscientist Explores the Power and Potential of Our Lives (2020), New York: Dutton/Penguin Random House; Toronto: Allen Lane/Penguin Random House; London: Penguin Life.
  Scientific articles (selected)
  Levitin, D. J.; Grafton, S. T. (2016). "Measuring the representational space of music with fMRI: a case study with Sting". Neurocase. 22 (6): 548–567. doi:10.1080/13554794.2016.1216572. PMID 27687156. S2CID 3985554.
  Chanda, M. L.; Levitin, D. J. (2013). "The neurochemistry of music". Trends in Cognitive Sciences. 17 (4): 179–193. doi:10.1016/j.tics.2013.02.007. PMID 23541122. S2CID 14608078.
  Sridharan, D.; Levitin, D. J.; Menon, V. (2008). "A critical role for the right fronto-insular cortex in switching between central-executive and default-mode networks". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 105 (34): 12569–12574. Bibcode:2008PNAS..10512569S. doi:10.1073/pnas.0800005105. PMC 2527952. PMID 18723676.
  Langford, D. J.; Crager, S. E.; Shehzad, Z.; Smith, S. B.; Sotocinal, S. G.; Levenstadt, J. S.; Chanda, M. L.; Levitin, D. J.; Mogil, J. S. (2006). "Social Modulation of Pain as Evidence for Empathy in Mice". Science. 312 (5782): 1967–1970. Bibcode:2006Sci...312.1967L. doi:10.1126/science.1128322. PMID 16809545. S2CID 26027821.
  Levitin, D. J.; Cook, P. R. (1996). "Absolute memory for musical tempo: Additional evidence that auditory memory is absolute". Perception & Psychophysics. 58 (6): 927–935. doi:10.3758/bf03205494. PMID 8768187.
  Discography
  J.D. Buhl, Remind Me. Driving Records/CD Baby, 2015. (Producer and Engineer).
  Diane Nalini, Songs of Sweet Fire. 2006. (Mixing Engineer, Production Consultant).
  Dale Boyle, In My Rearview Mirror: A Story From A Small Gaspé Town. 2005. (Production Consultant)
  Dale Boyle and the Barburners, A Dog Day for the Purists. 2004. (Producer).
  Dale Boyle and the Barburners, String Slinger Blues. 2002. (Producer).
  The Carpenters. As Time Goes By. A&M Records/Universal, 2000. (Consultant on song selection, liner notes writer.)
  Various Artists. Original motion picture soundtrack, Good Will Hunting. Hollywood/Miramax Records, 1998. (A&R Consultant. )
  Stevie Wonder discographyStevie Wonder. Stevie Wonder Song Review: A Greatest Hits Collection. Motown, 1996. (Consultant on song selection. Liner notes writer.)
  Steely Dan, Gold, Decade, Gaucho, Aja, The Royal Scam, Katy Lied, Pretzel Logic, Countdown to Ecstasy, Can't Buy A Thrill, MCA, 1992. (Consultant on CD Remastering.) [source?]
  kd lang, Ingénue, Reprise, 1992. (Consultant.)
  Eric Clapton, Unplugged, Reprise, 1992. (Consultant.)
  Chris Isaak, Heart Shaped World, Warner Brothers, 1989. (Engineering (Asst), Sound Design (Soundscape)).
  Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers, Rockin' and Romance, Twin/Tone (U.S), Sire (U.K.), 1986. (Engineer).
  The Furies, Fun Around The World, Infrasonic, 1986
  Rhythm Riot, Rhythm Riot, EP, Infrasonic, 1987*True West, Drifters, Passport/JEM Records, 1985. (co-producer).
  The Big Race, "Happy Animals," from the Soundtrack of the Paramount Film Repo Man, 1985. (Producer, Engineer)
  The Afflicted, Good News About Mental Health, Infrasonic, 1984. (Producer)
  International P.E.A.C.E. Benefit Compilation, R Radical Records, 1984 (Producer of tracks by The Afflicted and MDC), reissued 1997 New Red Archives/Lumberjack Mordam Music Group
  Filmography
  Film
  Year Film Role Notes
  1984 Repo Man Self, musician
  1997 Close To You: Remembering the Carpenters Self, Consultant to the producers PBS
  1998 The Carpenters: Harmony and Heartbreak Consultant to the Producers A&E Biography
  2009 The Music Instinct Self, writer, consultant PBS Nova
  The Musical Brain Self, Writer; Consultant CTV/National Geographic
  2012 Artifact Self
  What Makes a Masterpiece Self BBC 4

The Changing Mind: A Neuroscientist's Guide to Ageing Well

Daniel Levitin

Penguin, 528pp. 18.99 [pounds sterling]

Increasingly, with the rapid growth in the number of people diagnosed with Alzheimer's and other kinds of dementia, the journey towards the end of life is presented as a battle we ought to be spared. After a period of denial about a poorly relative, people might only get a crash course in reality at A&E when the doctor pulls them to one side and asks in confessional tones, "Have you considered a Do Not Resuscitate notice?"

But the prognosis for old age need not be so stark, argues Daniel Levitin, who begins his study of the ageing brain with the poet Dylan Thomas's musings on death and his command to his sickly father to, "Rage, rage against the dying of the light." Nonetheless, The Changing Mind is not a defiant call to arms that casts old age as an occupying force that will inevitably barge into all our lives. Rather, it is a manual for living.

The subtitle, "a neuroscientist's guide to ageing well", hints at the cautious optimism evident in Levitin's use of elderly outliers. Two of the most sprightly are Julia "Hurricane" Hawkins who at 102 set a world record for age-ioo+ sprinting when she ran 60 metres in 24.79 seconds, and the master cellist Pablo Casals, who, when asked why at the age of 80 he kept practising, answered, "Because I want to get better." But exceptionalism surely only proves that the best most people can hope for in old age is that things will get worse, "but more slowly".

Levitin is particularly exercised by how the intersection of the social world and our genes impacts on our personalities. Pressingly, why do some elderly people retain their interest in discovering new things? One active area of research focuses on the connection between novelty-seeking genes and dopamine regulation. The loss of dopamine is often identified in numerous neurological symptoms that present with old age.

Drawing insights from developmental neuroscience and individual-differences psychology, Levitin attempts to challenge received notions of the incremental deficits that accompany the ageing brain, by offering a seductive alternative narrative. It's now known, for instance, that the brain is "plastic"; following injury, it can rewire itself to compensate for lost functionality.

But "plasticity" is also a feature of the ageing brain. Levitin reconnects old age with wisdom, since, as we age, our brains become better at pattern matching and abstraction "to extract common points from prior experience ... to make predictions about what is likely to happen next".

Wisdom, of course, is dependent on memory, and Levitin reminds us of the importance of recall in determining our sense of self. He reflects on research first conducted by Frederic Bartlett in the 1930s about the unreliability of memory. Retrieving memories is an active process that subtly changes the remembrance of an incident with each renewed recollection.

The Changing Mind is a hybrid of dutiful academic writing and popular science, but one of its strengths is the use of cultural references to illuminate its truths (invoking the emotional trigger of remembrance, for instance, in Joni Mitchell's songs). The science behind the faultiness of memory underscores what has often been movingly rendered by novelists. In William Maxwell's So Long, See you Tomorrow, for example, the protagonist, struggling to distinguish a memory of an experience from the recollection of a photo associated with it, concludes: "in talking about the past, we lie with every breath we draw".

But why do the elderly find that some memories are easier to retrieve than others? At the highest level memory is divided into implicit (for example, remembering how to play an instrument without thinking about it), and explicit (memories, including those which are episodic, resulting from a particular incident "imprinted with an emotional resonance"). In the brain the medial temporal lobe, and particularly the hippocampus, are crucial for forming some kinds of explicit memory (but not for implicit memory), and it's these regions that decay and shrink with age and Alzheimer's. This is why a disoriented elder might not remember you but can still play the piano.

Old age is inevitably accompanied by a general slowing of cognitive function caused by the thinning of the protective myelin sheaths that surround axons or nerve fibres, leading to disturbances, misfiring and slowing in thought transmission. There's a further assault from the accelerating shrinkage of brain volume; critically, the first areas in line for the reduction are the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus, which may account respectively for unexpected and uncontrolled emotional outbursts and an inability to keep track of "butterfly thoughts".

As we cross into our forties, Levitin points out, "Our brains spend more time contemplating our own thoughts vs taking in information from the external environment." Cognitive reserve--from the benefit of more education and intelligence - can "insulate against the damaging effects of ageing". But what else can be done? The news is not unremittingly bleak. We can eat more fish, or at least include essential fatty acids in our diets. But there's no point relying on the kind of brain training touted by advocates of sudoku; all sudoku improves is your ability to play sudoku. Levitin does, though, make a case for the benefits of virtual learning--that the immersive experience of virtual reality can transport and possibly prepare you for unimagined futures.

His numerous discursive passages essentially reinforce the same message: free yourself from whatever stops you trying new things. By which he means, quoting the psychologist Carol Dweck: "Accept those [inhibiting] thoughts and feelings and work with and through them."

The occasional tonal shift of The Changing Mind towards a self-help guide may seem a poor fit for those more inclined towards the brutality of fact evident in Leonard Cohen's reflections on old age: "a million candles burning for the help that never came". Cohen's description resonates, I imagine, with many elderly people who are increasingly ignored by relatives who see little reward from attempting to communicate with them. But in this passionate and intelligent study, Levitin offers hope and argues that no one need "go gentle into that good night".

Colin Grant is the author of "Homecoming: Voices of the Windrush Generation" (Jonathan Cape)

Caption: Plastic fantastic: our brains are ever-changing

Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2020 New Statesman, Ltd.
http://www.newstatesman.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
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Grant, Colin. "How not to go gently." New Statesman, vol. 149, no. 5509, 28 Feb. 2020, p. 47. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A617802255/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=452cc352. Accessed 27 June 2024.

Successful Aging

By Daniel J. Levitin

It's no secret that our brain is a complex thinking machine. But in addition to our thoughts, a huge number of other processes are controlled by our brains, which evolve and change as we age. In Successful Aging: A Neuroscientist Explores the Power and Potential of Our Lives (Dutton, $30, 9781524744182), Daniel J. Levitin (This Is Your Brain on Music) outlines the brain's development throughout our lifespan and explains how a few tweaks here and there can improve our prospects, particularly in the later stages of life.

Levitin's decades of knowledge as a neuroscientist provide the backbone of this sizable (at 500-plus pages) book. Focusing on three main topics--development, choices and longevity--he explains the synergy between our brains and everything they encounter, from our social interactions, genetics and environment to activities such as eating, sleeping and exercise. But beyond the facts and statistics (although there are plenty of interesting ones), Levitin personalizes his writing, providing dozens of case studies and examples from his research, as well as his own experiences.

Although the aging process can ravage the brain, Levitin demonstrates that this is by no means the only possible outcome. He stresses that "aging is not simply a period of decay, but a unique developmental stage that--like infancy or adolescence--brings with it its own demands and its own advantages." He reaches back into childhood to highlight the factors that affect our brain later in life and explains how our responses and subsequent behaviors are modified along with our aging bodies. He also covers the most recent research on everything from psychedelic drugs to the length of telomeres (nucleotide sequences at each end of a chromosome), drilling down to what's science fiction and what's reality.

With more and more of the population living longer, Successful Aging is a timely and relevant guide that will appeal to all age groups, giving us the motivation to keep our minds active and engaged.

Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2020 BookPage
http://bookpage.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
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Diamond, Becky Libourel. "Successful Aging." BookPage, Jan. 2020, p. 23. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A609585275/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=6858b74b. Accessed 27 June 2024.

Levitin, Daniel J. SUCCESSFUL AGING Dutton (Adult Nonfiction) $30.00 1, 7 ISBN: 978-1-5247-4418-2

An enthusiastic review of old and new research into the means of extending life.

Neuroscientist Levitin (Emeritus, Psychology and Neuroscience/McGill Univ.; A Field Guide to Lies: Critical Thinking in the Information Age, 2016) emphasizes "that it is the interactions of genes, culture, and opportunity that are the biggest determinants of the trajectory our lives take; how our brains will change; and whether or not we'll be healthy, engaged, and happy throughout the lifespan." He adds that since our years are divided into what he calls "healthspan" and "diseasespan," we should aim to prolong the former. As background, he devotes more than half the text to a fine overview of brain function, human physiology, and psychology that supports his point. Good genes are necessary but not sufficient; upbringing and environment play an essential role, and both work best if one takes advantage of opportunities. Real science books have minuscule audiences compared with books that promise the secrets of perfect health; Levitin, a genuine scientist, aims to enjoy the best of both worlds. Some of his breathless prescriptions are old favorites--happy people live longer; eat mostly plants; have lots of friends; don't retire--but he relies heavily on legitimate science, so readers will encounter life-extenders supported by studies (although not in humans) such as calorie restriction, metformin, and rapamycin, as well as long-in-the-tooth favorites like antioxidants and fish oil, which he advocates for while admitting that recent studies are not impressive. Warning against popular nonsense, the author nevertheless includes a generous selection of nutrients, lifestyles, and pharmaceuticals supported by little more than reasonable theories or obsessively health-conscious colleagues. Levitin seems to underestimate his skill as an educator, and he has written a lucid explanation of brain and body function. His longevity advice has plenty of competition, especially David Sinclair's Lifespan, but this book's breadth is impressive.

Excellent popular science in the service of fending off aging.

Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2019 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
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"Levitin, Daniel J.: SUCCESSFUL AGING." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Oct. 2019. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A601050537/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=c1dce99d. Accessed 27 June 2024.

Successful Aging: A Neuroscientist Explores the Power and Potential of Our Lives. By Daniel J. Levitin. Jan. 2020. 544p. Dutton, $30 (9781524744182); e-book, $14.99 (9781524744199). 612.8.

Perhaps the necessary first step towards achieving a high-quality, healthy long life is a simple attitude adjustment. Shed the somber view that aging is an inevitable failure of the body and mind. Instead, cultivate a positive perspective, since optimism actually forecasts longevity. Neuroscientist and psychologist Levitin supplies some background science and recommends many behavioral modifications that may increase healthspan, the length of life in which an individual enjoys good health. Topics include chronobiology (the body's internal clocks and rhythms), cognitive impairment and dementia, diet, diminished senses (visual impairment, hearing loss), effects of aging on the brain, emotions, exercise, memory, and pain. Choices can be hard, and lifestyle changes are especially difficult to implement in advanced age. When is it no longer safe for you to drive? When should you stop getting up on a ladder to change a light bulb? Levitin believes the most important factors in predicting how well we might age are conscientiousness, our childhood experiences, exercise (especially outdoors), and social interactions. His most sage suggestion, nestled at the end of the book, is timeless: "Practice gratitude for what you have."--Tony Miksanek

Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2019 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
Miksanek, Tony. "Successful Aging: A Neuroscientist Explores the Power and Potential of Our Lives." Booklist, vol. 116, no. 7, 1 Dec. 2019, p. 23. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A609538710/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=0aa62dff. Accessed 27 June 2024.

Levitin, Daniel J. I HEARD THERE WAS A SECRET CHORD Norton (NonFiction None) $32.50 8, 27 ISBN: 9781324036180

A leading researcher delves into the unique healing powers of music.

Most people have certain pieces of music that improve their mood or make them tap their foot. Levitin, a respected neuroscientist and cognitive psychologist with a long list of academic and artistic qualifications, has been studying this phenomenon for years, using MRI and other advanced technologies to find out what is going on inside the brain. He delved into this area in his books This Is Your Brain on Music and The World in Six Songs, and this book extends and updates his research. Listening to music activates certain areas of the brain, and the aim is to use that increased stimulation to help areas that have been damaged by illness or are malfunctioning to produce depression or other mental problems. Levitin has had significant success using music as a form of treatment, although he acknowledges that there is still much about neuroanatomy that is unknown. Using it for movement problems has been the area that has shown the most promise, and the chapter on treating Parkinson's disease is illustrative of what can be achieved. There has also been success with treating PTSD, helping sufferers reconnect with their pre-trauma identities. The author emphasizes that there are no magic bullets, and not everyone responds. Moreover, each patient has to find a piece of music--or a genre or style--that speaks to them. Nonetheless, Levitin is convincing in his argument that this area potentially offers an alternative or supplement to pharmacological methods. Informative and enjoyable, this book is for anyone interested in how the practice of medicine is expanding, and it's a must-read for fans of the author's previous books on music and the brain.

Levitin's story is a fascinating piece of work, written with authority, empathy, and occasional humor.

Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2024 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
"Levitin, Daniel J.: I HEARD THERE WAS A SECRET CHORD." Kirkus Reviews, 1 June 2024, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A795674015/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=6f0a01db. Accessed 27 June 2024.

Grant, Colin. "How not to go gently." New Statesman, vol. 149, no. 5509, 28 Feb. 2020, p. 47. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A617802255/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=452cc352. Accessed 27 June 2024. Diamond, Becky Libourel. "Successful Aging." BookPage, Jan. 2020, p. 23. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A609585275/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=6858b74b. Accessed 27 June 2024. "Levitin, Daniel J.: SUCCESSFUL AGING." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Oct. 2019. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A601050537/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=c1dce99d. Accessed 27 June 2024. Miksanek, Tony. "Successful Aging: A Neuroscientist Explores the Power and Potential of Our Lives." Booklist, vol. 116, no. 7, 1 Dec. 2019, p. 23. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A609538710/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=0aa62dff. Accessed 27 June 2024. "Levitin, Daniel J.: I HEARD THERE WAS A SECRET CHORD." Kirkus Reviews, 1 June 2024, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A795674015/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=6f0a01db. Accessed 27 June 2024.

• Publishers Weekly
  https://www.publishersweekly.com/9781324036180
  Word count: 255

  I Heard There Was a Secret Chord: Music As Medicine
  Daniel J. Levitin. Norton, $32.50 (432p) ISBN 978-1-324-03618-0
  Playing and listening to music soothes the agitated mind, stimulates memory, and improves physical coordination, according to this exuberant treatise from neuroscientist Levitin (This Is Your Brain on Music). Drawing on experiments conducted in his lab—the brain produces endogenous opioids when listening to music, his students found—and his experience as a professional guitarist and producer, Levitin delves into the burgeoning field of music therapy. Music, he writes, promotes the mind’s default mode network of high neural connectivity and stimulates facets of brain function from motor control and memory to focus and emotional control. As a result, research suggests, music may diminish anxiety and depression, reduce blood pressure, improve walking and speech in Huntington’s disease patients, lessen Alzheimer’s symptoms, and even help to bridge seemingly uncrossable social divides (at a 2009 Esalen Institute workshop Levitin attended, Israeli and Palestinian participants wrote a song together that called for the removal of walls between the West Bank and Israel, swaying some Israeli hardliners that the wall was antithetical to peace). Enriching lucidly explained neuroscience with ebullient musical appreciation (a Billy Pierce saxophone solo is “in turns thrilling, heartbreaking, bustling, radiant, and always, always moving forward”), Levitin makes a persuasive case for music’s therapeutic potential that gives due to its medical promise without undercutting its mysteries. The result is a fascinating take on the tuneful raptures of the mind. (Aug.)

• Library Journal
  https://www.libraryjournal.com/review/i-heard-there-was-a-secret-chord-music-as-medicine-1808157
  Word count: 224

  PSYCHOLOGYI Heard There Was a Secret Chord: Music as Medicineby Daniel J. LevitinNorton. Aug. 2024. 432p. ISBN 9781324036180. $32.50. PSYCHCOPY ISBN Neuroscientist Levitin (emeritus, Minerva Univ. and McGill Univ.; Successful Ageing: Getting the Most Out of the Rest of Your Life) is also a musician who has devoted much of his attention to the role of music—classical, folk, popular—in various therapies and how it impacts the human brain. In his latest book, he investigates the neuroanatomy of music and how it relates to memory and attention. He also offers insight into what he calls the brain’s default modes: introspection and meditation. His book takes a look—in a brilliantly creative yet solidly evidence-based light—at the part music can play in the treatment of movement disorders. He also explores other health issues that music can help: Parkinson’s disease, trauma-induced and other mental illnesses, memory loss, dementia, Alzheimer’s, strokes, and other types of pain and neurodevelopment disorders.VERDICT This fascinating and valuable title gives readers insight into the many neurological benefits of music. Most readers can easily identify what kind of music calms them, provokes creative sparks, or helps get them through strenuous exercises but until they read this, they may not know why music has that power or that it can be great medicine too.Reviewed by Marcia Welsh , Jul 01, 2024

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