Speak to me, melody

Music, more than any other art form, can raise the human spirit to the heights of joy or plunge it into the depths of sorrow. Yet, the power of music to influence our emotions, regardless of age or cultural background, has left philos ophers, scholars and musicians baffled; perhaps unsurprisingly, given the inevitable subject ivity of the phenomenon (Fig 1). In the late twentieth century, biologists finally joined the fray to try to identify and decipher the molecular mechanisms that define music as a creative and cognitive activity. Indeed, music raises a range of challenging bio logical questions. For example, why is our brain apparently ‘hardwired’ for music, for both its perception and creation, despite the apparent absence of any obvious evolutionary benefits? Why do we like some types of music and dislike others, and why does this differ between individuals? Is there a genetic component to musical aptitude and how might it work? Such questions now bring together researchers from diverse fields including genetics, developmental bio logy, neuroscience and music cognition, in an attempt to divine the intimate nature of music.