Why do high testosterone females and low testosterone males write such popular songs?
The ability for music to induce emotional states, modulate the autonomic nervous system, and make you tap your foot gives it a unique status among sensory events. No activation of any of the other sensory systems, such as touch, taste, smell, or vision, can leak into the premotor regions of your brain and produce the strong desire to move your body like it does to the beat of your favorite song. Music engages almost every part of the brain, which has evolved to analyze and respond to different musical components in different neural networks. For example, the phylogenetically ancient cerebellum, sometimes referred to as the reptilian brain, is often associated with the extraction of the beat from a song. This is interesting, in that the cerebellum maintains gait, or the constancy of timing of walking or running. The curious relationship between motion, emotion, and music has deep roots in the cerebellum, as the cerebellum is closely connected to the amygdala, which is the emotional cent
