♪ (music) ♪
These days, you hear music all the time.
It wakes us up, motivates our workouts,
keeps us company on our commutes.
It doesné matter what kind of music it is,
music itself has the ability to affect our moods and our bodies
in all sorts of ways.
We nod our heads, we sway, dance.
Music can give us chills,
even make us cry.
Music activates every area of the brain we have so far mapped.
In fact, there's no area of the brain we know about
that music doesn't touch in some way.
But what's behind all that?
What exactly does music do to us?
To find out, I went to a whole series of tests
designed to measure my responses to musiC.
I met some kids whose brains may actually be changing,
thanks to those hours of learning, practice, and performing.
I spoke with a therapist who used music to help former congressman [ ] learn to speak again,
and got a glimpse inside the brain of a two-time winning artist while he played,
all to find out how music affects us.
♪ (music) ♪
So what's going on when we listen to music?
We visited the USC Brain and Creativity Institute,
where I had my head examined, literally,
to try to figure it out.