Pleasurable music selects for enhanced music memory, hence music emotions: The evolutionary forces laid bare
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Date
2021-12-16
Authors
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Journal ISSN
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Publisher
Ohio State University. Libraries
Abstract
We have a phenomenal memory for music and seem highly motivated to remember pleasurable music. Since emotions greatly enhance memory, perhaps music evoked emotions are responsible for our substantial music memory. This makes music an evolutionary difficulty because of that consumed memory plus music's strong pleasures drive resource consuming behaviors that appear not useful to survival. Why should music evoked emotions, which enhance memory, exist and be so pleasurable? We introduce a new evolutionary framework for music where an important mechanism has been overlooked: Trait elaboration for sensory exploitation of a sensory preference. The theory shows that music selection developed cognitive neural capacities that are directly reusable for providing language. Music is not a fitness indicator, but it is attractive which makes evolution run.
Description
Keywords
evolution, emotions, memory, dance, language
Citation
Future Directions of Music Cognition (2021), pp. 119-124