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♪ (music) ♪

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These days, you hear music all the time.

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It wakes us up, motivates our workouts,

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keeps us company on our commutes.

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It doesné matter what kind of music it is,

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music itself has the ability to affect our moods and our bodies

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in all sorts of ways.

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We nod our heads, we sway, dance.

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Music can give us chills,

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even make us cry.

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Music activates every area of the brain we have so far mapped.

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In fact, there's no area of the brain we know about

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that music doesn't touch in some way.

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But what's behind all that?

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What exactly does music do to us?

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To find out, I went to a whole series of tests

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designed to measure my responses to musiC.

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I met some kids whose brains may actually be changing,

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thanks to those hours of learning, practice, and performing.

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I spoke with a therapist who used music to help former congressman [ ] learn to speak again,

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and got a glimpse inside the brain of a two-time winning artist while he played,

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all to find out how music affects us.

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♪ (music) ♪

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So what's going on when we listen to music?

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We visited the USC Brain and Creativity Institute,

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where I had my head examined, literally,

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to try to figure it out.