At the 2012 Neuroscience Banquet, I had the fortune of listening to Gary Marcus give his talk on the evolution of music and language. His talk ranged from the evolution, in general, and transcended towards the parallels between understanding language and understanding music. After reading his book in class all semester, it was an enriching experience to finally attend a talk of his and learn more about his interesting explanations behind two concepts that greatly affect everyone's lives.
As Dr. Marcus started talking about the basis of evolution and how language has developed within our species, he made many interesting connections to his book Kluge where he writes about how language evolved to "get the job done" but not in the most ideal way. In the same way that the human spine could have been better engineered to reduce many problems and work more efficiently, language has many problems, but turned out to stand the test of natural selection.
As he continued to move from language to music, he hit on some key points that really opened my eyes to the connections between neuroscience and everyday life. In my opinion, one of the most interesting parts of the talks was where Marcus explained how dopamine is responsible for our love of music. Since hearing music that fulfills our expectations and hearing new music for the first time both produce an influx of dopamine in our system, it is easy to see why music has evolved the way it has.
One of the most important benefits of learning class-related material outside of class is the chance to connect it to everyday life. After attending this talk, there was a lot of new information that Dr. Marcus had presented which connected parts of our lives to the neuroscience that most of us have been focusing on our entire collegiate careers. It was an honor hearing such a respected member of the science I hope to one day contribute to speak, and I am glad that I had the opportunity to connect aspects of his talk to both my classes and my life.
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