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Author to explore 'obsession with music' in new Daily Herald book club

A new book club concept that will connect readers and authors will open with a writer who explores the science of the human “obsession” with music.

Daniel J. Levitin, author of “This is Your Brain on Music,” will be the first speaker in the Daily Herald's Author's Circle Book Club, a collaboration with the McAninch Arts Center at the College of DuPage. Levitin, a professor of psychology and behavioral neuroscience at McGill University in Montreal, will speak at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 14, at the arts center, 425 Fawell Blvd., Glen Ellyn.

M. Eileen Brown, assistant vice president and director of strategic marketing and innovation, said the Daily Herald and the McAninch Arts Center will bring in best-selling authors such as Levitin throughout the year for book club events.

“The Author's Circle Book Club is a natural fit for the Daily Herald because reading and discussing what you've read is at the cornerstone of what we do,” Brown said. “Partnering with the McAninch Arts Center is another natural fit. Getting authors here is a wonderful way to expand the conversation by bringing readers and writers together to discuss the important concerns and ideas of our time, learning from one another along the way.”

Readers can join the Author's Circle Book Club for free at events.dailyherald.com. Members get a 20 percent discount on tickets to all Author's Circle events and a chance to win VIP tickets to meet the authors. Those who sign up by April 5 will be entered in a drawing to receive one of 20 free pairs of tickets to Levitin's presentation, which costs $16 for adults and $12 for students.

“I am thrilled about launching this collaboration between the McAninch Arts Center and Daily Herald,” said MAC Director Diana Martinez. “Having the opportunity to meet these best-selling authors and learn about them and engage with them brings a whole new perspective to the book club concept and is also a unique opportunity for book clubs to engage with us.”

As the club's first featured author, Levitin said he looks forward to sharing his research on the connections between music and the brain.

The Daily Herald talked with Levitin about what makes music so enjoyable, so individual and so intertwined with emotion. Here is an edited version of that conversation.

Q. Why is the experience of music so unique to each individual?

A. It begins in the womb. Around the age of 16 weeks, the auditory system of the infant is fully functional. They're hearing sounds in the world and their developing brains are processing them and extracting order and structure. By the time of birth, the infant already knows something about the structure of music.

Then there's taste, just like how some people like spicy food or some people like bland food. We don't know exactly where individual taste factors come from, but they could lead someone to like up-tempo music versus slow songs or country-western versus hip-hop.

Q. How does the experience of music vary with age?

A. Around the age of 12, our musical tastes begin to form and somewhat solidify over the next few years. This period is roughly between 11 and 15, but occasionally it opens up into the early 20s. That seems to be the music people want to hear the rest of their lives — if not that, at least something that sounds like it or builds on it.

It has to do with the change in the pattern of the way neuro-connections are made in the teen years. In the first decade of life, the primary goal of the brain is to make as many connections as possible. Starting around age 12, the primary mission of the brain shifts from making new connections to pruning out the ones that weren't used, tidying up the system.

We glom on to the music that we hear at that age. It's exciting to us. Plus, pubertal growth hormones are telling us everything in our life is very important. Then the other thing is we're entering a period of self-discovery and self-identification. We realize “I don't have to like what my parents like; I can form my own tastes.” All of that points to this idea that music isn't just absorbed, but people have a sense of discovery.

Q. How does music evoke emotion?

A. Music activates the limbic system, which includes the emotional centers of the brain. Through that, it can stimulate feelings of fear or peacefulness, calm. It can affect chemicals in the brain such as epinephrine or adrenaline, which arouses us. It can stimulate the production of prolactin, which soothes us.

Because music is so highly structured, it sets up a system of expectations for us. Our brain is trying to figure out what comes next. A lot of the emotional reaction comes from whether the composer meets those expectations or surprises us.

Q. Why can some people study better with music than others?

A. It appears as though no one is able to study well to music. Music interferes with studying. But the people who listen while studying find it pleasurable. They're confusing the pleasure of it with the effectiveness of it. But if you're engaged in an activity that is repetitive, like driving a car, music helps to raise your level of neural arousal to help you concentrate.

Q. What are you studying now?

A. I'm looking closely at the neurochemistry of music to understand what chemical systems in the brain govern musical pleasure. I'm looking at mathematical models of musical structure and studying a family of math equations that account for rhythmic structure across 400 years of music.

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