Imagined Practice: Studies Presented at the 2011 International Symposium on Performance Science on the theme of mental practice.

One of the studies presented at the 2011 International Symposium on Performance Science was conducted by the Department of Music at the University of Edinburgh in collaboration with the University of Oldenburg’s Department of Psychology, and used fMRI to investigate the ways mental imagery may improve performance. Study of elite musicians has demonstrated the efficacy of “mental practice”, and other research has established that many of the same neural regions are employed during both imagery of musical performance and actual performance.  Research has also shown that there are, however, a number of differences in the functionality of the brain during imagery and performance.  In this study, both advanced piano performance students and professional piano performers were asked to memorize a new portion of piano music for a single hand using both mental imagery and physical practice on a keyboard.  The musical excerpt used in the experiment was designed to be easy to memorize while still challenging the pianists’ motor coordination. 

            Subsequently, the pianists were scanned with an fMRI, during which they were asked to imagine the music and how it would feel to perform it. During the next scan, participants were asked to imagine the music while physically moving their fingers as if playing the selection on a real piano.  The two scans were then compared, revealing interesting similarities.  During both mental and simulated performance, similar motor regions and regions in the inferior parietal lobe were activated.  As expected, the primary motor cortex was only activated during simulated performance. Interestingly, during imagined performance the middle frontal gyrus (MFG) was activated bilaterally, whereas during simulated performance it was only activated on the left side.  This difference was interpreted as representing a shift in level of certain cognitive processes in mental practice versus performance.  This led to the hypothesis that the middle frontal gyrus is the location where the brain processes musical imagery, and could be monitored to measure the efficacy of mental practice. 

            The findings of this study were presented at the 2011 symposium at the University of Toronto in addition to the findings of various other studies under the theme of “Imagery and Performance”.  Another study, led by Philip Fine at the University of Buckingham’s Department of Psychology, endeavored to understand what musicians understand the terms “mental practice” and “score analysis” to mean.  The study surveyed sixty-five performing instrumentalists in Europe and explored professional musicians’ use of the score throughout the stages of learning and practicing. Responses were extremely varied, however several themes were present in the respondents’ answers. While respondents agreed that detailed score analysis was helpful in understanding the direction of and composer’s intentions for a given piece, they tended to agree that score analysis was less practical than mental practice. The majority of the respondents preferred mental practice away from the score using “inner hearing” and visualization of movements when preparing for a performance. 

  

Response:

            As a classical vocalist, I find the idea that mental practice could be as effective as physical practice particularly intriguing. The voice has a limited amount singing it can sustain each day without injury or deterioration, even with the best technique. Compared to instrumentalists who able to practice ceaselessly for hours on end, a singers’ capacity to physically practice is quite limited.  For this reason, if mental practice proves to be nearly as effective as physical practice, the practice time available to singers during each day will be greatly increased. Many vocal teachers and coaches are already proponents of using mental practice for text memorization and character preparation for performance. Perhaps the use of mental practice could be expanded to include practicing technical vocal skills as well.

As this fMRI study demonstrated, mental and physical practice causes the brain to react in a similar fashion. If, as the study’s conclusion posited, the middle frontal gyrus is a neural substrate for musical imagery, then future studies could monitor activity in that area to determine the most effective modes of mental practice.  In combination with the research conducted at the University of Buckingham’s psychology department, which seeks to define mental practice according to musicians, this could lead to new understandings of the most efficient and effective methods with which to prepare for performance. 

This research would be extremely useful in the field of vocal pedagogy, as instructors strive to teach their students the best use of their physical and mental practice time.  Perhaps future research will show that technical vocal skills can be improved through focused imaginary practice. This way, vocalists may be able to increase the number of times per day they are able to “sing” particular vocalises or pieces, and thus turn new skills into new habits in fewer days.

            Having reviewed these studies in light of their potential implications for the field of vocal pedagogy, I would like to know how other musicians see this research affecting their process of learning and practicing for performance. Are there techniques which instrumentalists could learn more efficiently using mental imagery? Could mentally “playing” a piece in a focused manner help musicians memorize their music more effectively?   

Bibliography:

Davidson-Kelly, Kirsteen, Sujin Hong, Janani Dhinakaran, Joseph M. Sanders, and Calcum Gray. "An fMRI study of expert musical imagery: To what extent do imagined and executed performance share the same neural substrate." Proceedings of the International Symposium on Performance Science 2011. Ed. Aaron Williamson, Darryl Edwards, and Lee Bartel. Utrecht, The Netherlands: Association Européenne des Conservatoires, Academi, 2011. Print.

Fine, Philip and Anabela Bravo.  “Rehearsal away from the instrument: What expert musicians understand by the terms ‘mental practice’ and “score analysis’.” Proceedings of the International Symposium on Performance Science 2011. Ed. Aaron Williamson, Darryl Edwards, and Lee Bartel. Utrecht, The Netherlands: Association Européenne des Conservatoires, Academi, 2011. Print.

Music and Language Processing

Article: Patel, A. (2003, June 25). Language, music, syntax and the brain. Nature Neuroscience 6,
p. 674 - 681. Retrieved from http://www.nature.com.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/neuro/journal/v6/n7/full/nn1082.html

Summary

Patel’s article proposes a similarity between syntactic processing in language and music.  He proposes that there is a significant overlap in syntax processing regions for language and music in the frontal area of the brain.  This hypothesis offers an explanation for the apparent contradiction in music and language syntax research.  While neuroimaging data shows an overlap in the processing of syntactic relations in language and music, neuropsychology shows that linguistic and musical syntax can be dissociated.  For example, in cases of Broca’s aphasia, people with a deficit in language production may still have the ability to communicate through music. Similarily, individuals showing no signs of aphasia may have an impaired perception of harmonic relations in music. 

                In contradiction to the claim by Peretz and Coltheart that the cognitive and neural relationship between music and language syntax is largely separate, Patel proposes a distinction between syntactic representation and syntactic processing.  This is on the basis that at least some of the processes involved in syntactic comprehension occur in different areas of the brain than where the syntactic representations reside.  He proposes that the mental representations of musical and language syntax are quite different from each other, but the syntactic processing of music and language is similar.

                To support his claim, he uses two theories: Gibson’s Dependency Locality Theory for language and Lerdahl’s Tonal Pitch Space Theory for music.  Gibson’s Dependency Locality Theory states that linguistic sentence comprehension involves two distinct components: structural storage for keeping track of grammatical predictions and structural integration for connecting each incoming word to a prior word on which it depends in the structure.  The neural resources required for integration increase with the distance between the new word and the beginning of the sentence.  Music syntactic processing in the Lerdahl’s Tonal Pitch Space Theory is slightly more complex since it is hierarchical, not sequential.  For example, octave frequencies related by a 2/1 ratio are perceived as the same letter name in pitch. Also, within the scale, there is a hierarchy of importance with the root, 3^rd, and 5^th degrees perceived as more stable and entire musical keys are perceived in terms of distance from one another with relative majors and minors being more stable.  Therefore, it is possible to quantify the tonal distance between any two musical chords in a sequence so the idea that mentally connecting distant elements requires more resources applies to both language and music syntax processing.

                 Patel’s Shared Syntactic Integration Resource Hypothesis (SSIRH) suggests an overlap in syntax processing regions for music and language.  He hypothesizes that these processing regions provide resources for syntactic integration, and the syntactic integration occurs in a separate region, the representation region.  Therefore, Patel proposes that the dissociations between musical and linguistic syntactic abilities in people with acquired amusia are due to damage to the representation region where long-term knowledge of harmonic relations is stored, and the processing region remains functional for speech.  Similarily, congenital amusia is described as the developmental failure to form cognitive representations of musical pitch.

Response

It is interesting what Patel hypothesizes about music processing in people with aphasia. There seem to be very little tests done so far in this specific area.  He proposes that syntactic comprehension deficits in language are related to harmonic processing deficits in music.  Therefore, SSIRH proposes that while a person with aphasia may be able to sing a melody with clear words, their ability to process harmonic changes in music is still to some extent impaired.  There does not seem to be a lot of research in this area, but if this could be proven with testing, it could be strong evidence for a relationship between music and language.  I suppose it is a sensitive area to test people with aphasia on their musical and linguistic abilities, but it seems like the results from harmonic priming, a test in music cognition that Patel suggests, could help us to further understand the relationship between music and language processing in the brain.  In my opinion, Gabby Gifford’s ability to sing with clear words despite struggling with speech after her injury, does indeed suggest a relationship between music and language processing.  If one skill can bring back another skill then it would appear that they are somehow linked. Since music is the more complex of the two, it would make sense that it would have the ability to bring back abilities in speaking.

The Positive Effects of Music Therapy on Health

Podcast: "The Positive Effects of Music Therapy on Health"

Link: http://www.loc.gov/podcasts/musicandthebrain/podcast_tomaino.html

Date: April 29, 2010

Hosted by: Steve Mencher from the Library of Congress

Guest: Concetta M. Tomaino, the executive Director for the Institute for Music and Neurologic Function and Senior Vice president for Music Therapy at Beth Abraham Family of Health Services

This podcast is from the Library of Congress Music and Brain series. Host Steve Mencher interviews Concetta Tomaino about music therapy and the positive effects it has on health. Tomaino begins by discussing how she discovered music therapy in the 1970s during her pre-med studies (she was double-majoring in music and biology), where she observed the powerful effects music had on her dementia and Alzheimer's patients. She mentioned that with the "right" songs, people with dementia who could not previously talk, came alive with memories and singing. Tomaino continues on to say that with the advent of technology in the last ten years, neuroscientists can now explain what she was observing at her clinic. She says that research now shows that music is processed through a complex system of neural networks - networks that "talk to each other" when processing music. She says that through sound, music therapists are able to reach fundamental areas of the brain through these complex neural networks.

The podcast continues with Mencher asking Tomaino if music therapy should be done with a therapist or if music can be prescribed like medicine. Tomaino responds that the best music therapy is accomplished through interactive musical therapy sessions. After seeing what activities cause a positive change in the patient, the therapist can then continue with that activity or prescribe practice tapes and recordings of a particular music that will enforce these positive changes. She says that through a combination of music and the constant repetition of a particular musical activity, the therapist can help the patient make permanent changes in his/her brain.

Mencher then asks Tomaino how music therapy could help his mother-in-law who has trouble with her gait. She explains that musical rhythm can drive the fundamental motor areas, the basal ganglia and the cerebellum, into action. Rhythm "turns" on these parts of the brain that are associated with movement and gives the patient something to synchronize his/her movement to. Tomaino says this is much easier and more natural than trying to think about how to walk.

Mencher continues on by asking about the importance of rhythm and melody in music therapy. First, Tomaino discusses that rhythm is fundamental mechanism in music and the human body. She talks about how from the time of birth, humans are wired to perceive rhythm. This is a basic mechanism that therapists can "tap" into in order to turn on neural networks. In regard to melody, Tomaino talks about its importance in discussions of music and emotion. It is in the melody of a song that is important to you, or the shape of a given melody where musical meaning is perceived and explained. She discusses how neuroscience has discovered that when people listen to music that is pleasureful and meaningful to them, certain parts of the brain turn off (the amygdala). This part of the brain that is responsible for fear is not needed during these pleasureful experiences; thus, we are able to more fully engage in and relax into the experience of listening to music. Tomaino discusses that the effect of melody, emotion and rhythm on the brain is key to music therapy.

Mencher asks a final question about how the field of music therapy has gained more attention through writers such as Oliver Sacks. He asks how Tomaino's work has been impacted by this attention. She answers that people have finally started to take the field more seriously, even scientists. She comments that only thirty-two years ago, scientists told her that music and the brain could not be studied scientifically; but now, everyone is interested in studying it, from cognitive scientists who want to understand the mechanisms with which we process music, to clinicians who want to know the neuroscience behind what they see on a daily basis, to the general public who want to know how it is that music can be so powerful. She says that with the expansion of literature from writers like Sacks, there has been a general growing inquisitiveness and more wide-spread use of music therapy.

Tomaino ends this podcast by saying "I feel reassured that the world has changed". Thirty-two years ago she knew that music had healing properties and observed this in her clinical work, but it is only now that science is reaffirming this power of music.

Reflection:

I thought that this podcast was an informative introduction to how music therapy works, as well as to how the field as developed in more recent years as a credible, scientifically-based form of therapy. I think it is absolutely amazing that music can help Alzheimer's patients come "alive", as Tomaino says. My grandmother had Alzheimer's, so I now have some more insight into the reasons why she was able to respond and remember songs I played for her, when she couldn't even remember who my grandfather was. I was also fascinated by Tomaino's discussion on rhythm and its ability to effect us at neurological level in the most primitive parts our brains (cerebellum and basal ganglia). It is interesting to know that rhythm is so engrained in us that it can be used to help people regain important motor functions.

Tomaino discusses how she has seen the healing power of music in her clinical work throughout the last thirty-two years, but that it has only been in the last ten years that her observations have been able to be explained by neuroscience. It's too bad that it has taken so long for this field to be recognized as legitimate among scientists and therapists. I do remember back to my impressions of the music therapy program at the school where I did my undergrad (about ten years ago). I knew very little about the program, but I do remember hearing daily group drumming and xylophone playing by students dressed like hippies. At the time I thought that music therapy couldn't possibly be a legitimate form of therapy, and that if anything, music therapy could only add enjoyment to a patient's life. This was my impression until I read Oliver Sacks' Musicophilia (which covered some of Tomaino's work). Now taking this course, I am even more interested in learning about music therapy. This podcast is a great introduction to the field of music therapy, a field that I hope will continue to grow and eventually become part of mainstream medicine.

Article:  Spahn, C., Echternach, M., Zander, M., Voltmer, E. & Richter, B.  Music Performance Anxiety in Opera Singers.  Logopedics Phoniatrics Vocology, December 2010, 35 (4): 175-182, UK.

Summary

A singer’s “business is emotion and sensitivity” (Janet Baker).  Singers have to create emotions in their audience, and also find “artificial” feelings related to their role, or the interpretation of their work.  On the other hand, a singer is full of his own personal emotions, and needs to deal with these while being on stage in a “role”.  The success of a singer’s career is highly dependent on how they deal with their own emotions.  Often feelings of insecurity are present in singers, since they are the only instrument that cannot hear themselves and are reliant on feedback from others.  

Musical performance for singers induces many feelings in them.  Often singers become “high” from their experience because of a release of the hormone beta-endorphin.  On the other hand, performance can lead to negative emotions, such as distress or anxiety.  This is called musical performance anxiety (MPA) and can occur on a scale from low to high.  Where it is high, it is pathological and needs to be treated.  One singer who suffered acutely from this was Enrico Caruso to such an extent that it “led everyone around him to despair”.  

Steptoe carried out a study of opera singers in five different environments- lesson, private practice, audition, dress rehearsal, performance.  In all five environments Steptoe monitored level of tension.  The best results of singing were in the environments where there was intermediate level of tension (performance) while the worst performances occurred in the environments with the greatest level of tension (dress rehearsal and audition).  Another study revealed a high state of anxiety for 18.8%   of a sample of singers, as compared to 15% in a sample of normal working adults.  

MPA functions at four different levels:

Affect:  Feelings of anxiety, tension, apprehension, dread, or panic.

Cognition:  Loss of concentration, heightened distractibility, memory failure, catastrophizing.

Behaviour:  tremour, difficulty in maintaining posture and moving naturally

Physiology:  Disturbances in breathing pattern, dry mouth, cardiovascular changes, gastrointestinal disturbances.

In terms of what happens in the brain, there are two pathways that occur.  

1. Stimulus --> Thalamus --> Amygdala --> Hypothalamus or PAG.  From the Hypothalamus hormones are produced which then affect the sympathetic nervous system.
2. Stimulus --> Thalamus.  From Thalamus --> a) Associative cortex --> Hippocampus or b) Sensory Cortex -->  Consciousness.  From the Hippocampus --> Amygdala and now follow path 1.

Essentially what is important is that one pathway is much longer and goes through parts  of the brain that the other does not.  It seems that the first pathways is associated with mere stage fright, which is low on the scale of MPA.  The second pathway is associated with high MPA.  

Study

This study looked at anxiety levels versus heart rate and blood pressure.  The heart rate and blood pressure were measured with a Somnoscreen, while the anxiety was monitored by a questionnaire.  The sample was nine musicians, seven singers and two wind players.  None of them suffered from pathological MPA.  

The results of the study were that heart rates on average were highest during the performance, and before and after the performance differed in the participants.  For the blood pressure, most participants had a higher blood pressure before and during performance, as opposed to after.  From the questionnaire, all participants had a higher anxiety state before the performance than after.  The results showed no correlation between anxiety and blood pressure/heart rate.  A possible explanation is that physiological arousal is necessary for MPA, but the presence of physiological arousal does not guarantee MPA.  Perhaps, certain performers react to physiological arousal differently- one finding it energizing, the other finding it leads to anxiety.

Treatment

This treatment is proposed from the Freiburg Institute for Musician Medicine.  It takes as its basis the cycle of MPA- perception --> thoughts and feelings -->  anxiety -->  somatic reactions -->  perception--> ...  It suggests ways of interfering with the cycle at each stage.  At the level of thoughts and feelings, it suggests positive imagination exercises as well as psychotherapy.  At the level of perception, it suggests watching successful performance videos of one’s own performance.  At the level of somatic reactions, relaxation techniques are suggested.  

They only recommend pharmaceutical therapy in a few situations, and even suggest that many of the drugs are bad for the voice.

Response

Yet again this article for me emphasizes how little we know about the brain, and how complicated the brain is!  This always amazes me and it is exciting to see how much further we could go!  Why this thought comes to mind in relation to the article is because of the study carried out in the article.   In the experiment, the only way they were monitoring anxiety scores was through a survey.  It was interesting to see that they could get hard facts about the other variables in the experiment- blood pressure and heart rate but not for anxiety.  I am used to scientific experiments being backed up by hard scientific facts and not by the opinions of the participants.  It would be interesting to see how in a similar study in fifty years, anxiety would be monitored.

I agree with the authors that the study is rather inconclusive, as heart rate and blood pressure can be affected by many things besides levels of anxiety, for example movement.  In fact, what was very interesting for me, was the one subject who seemed to suffer from more serious MPA, had completely normal blood pressure throughout the experiment.  

Something else which would have been on my “wish list” regarding the article, would be a further elaboration of the two pathways that MPA takes in the brain.  I find it fascinating that there are two pathways- one pathway faster and less conscious, and the other one slower, more conscious, and going through a larger portion of the brain (the cortex).  It is suggested that the slower one leads to pathological MPA, the other to mere “stage fright”.  I would love a further explanation of why this happens.  I wonder what the significance is of the shorter pathway skipping the cortex.  

As for the treatment suggested, I was extremely impressed with its thoroughness and multidimensional character, and how positive it aimed to be.  I was also amazed at how much dedication, work and preparation is required to carry out the treatment.  Much more challenging than popping a pill!  I believe that with true dedication, the treatment suggested could really help a singer with MPA.

This is an area of study which I would love to further look into.  I find it fascinating, complex and rather relevant as a performer and as a future teacher.  I have seen MPA within myself and many colleagues and think that knowing how to deal with it is a great tool for every performer, as well as for every voice teacher.

Can Teens’ brains predict which songs will be popular?

Reference

Berns, G. and Moore, S. (2012). A neural predictor of cultural popularity. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 22 (1), pp.154-160.

Summary

The current approaches to predicting popularity rely on standard marketing strategies such as focus groups and questionnaires. The purpose of the paper was to test whether it is possible for functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to forecast the popularity of music (cultural popularity). Past research had suggested that “activity in reward-related regions of the brain, notably the orbitofrontal cortex and ventral striatum is predictive of future purchasing decisions of the individuals who are scanned.” However, it had not been clear whether this activity in the brain of individuals can correlate to purchasing decisions of a population.

Teenagers were first asked to rank 6 musical genres. The ranking of the genres showed that the participants had tastes similar to the national population. They listened to 20 songs from each of their top 3 genres. The songs were by unknown artists from myspace.com. What they heard was a 15-s clip including either the hook or chorus of the song. Each participant went through 60 trials, two-thirds of which included a display of popularity of the song among myspace.com users. The brain scan was taken before the display of popularity. The total of sales of the songs within the three years following the scans were compared to the initial scans or brain responses.

Although the individuals’ personal opinions on the likability of the songs did not correlate with the number of units sold, their brain responses did.  The study found that the “final pathway linking the brain to album sales was mediated only thought the NACC. When these relationships were visualized, it became clear that “hit” songs did not result from a specific combination of NACC and OFC activity, but that “non-hits” were associated with a combination of both low OFC and low NACC activity.”

We should note that most of the songs that were heard did not go on to be ‘hits’, many genres were used and only 27 individuals were used, all teenagers who make up only 20% of music consumers.

OFC = Orbitofrontal cortex

NACC = ventral striatum/nucleus accumbens

Reflection

This article left me wanting more, although the topic is very attention-grabbing, it lacked in depth explanations of the results from a neuroscience perspective. More background information was necessary regarding the functions of the orbitofrontal cortex, the ventral striatum and their connections. However, I understand that the paper’s aim was more to do with marketing than science.

The authors did address several reasons that may have caused the ratings not to go hand-in-hand with the brain scans but I still think that the brain’s ability to “know” which songs are “hits” regardless of the compatibility with likability is quite remarkable.

Dangerous Music

 Krash, J. and Middleton, N. (2009) Dangerous Music, Jessica Krash and Norman Middleton: Music and the Brain. [podcast] January 29, 2009.

Link: http://www.loc.gov/podcasts/musicandthebrain/podcast_dangerousmusic.html [Accessed: October 12, 2012].

Dangerous Music

This podcast is another from the Library of Congress’ Music and The Brain series. It is an interview with Jessica Krash, musician and composer who teaches at George Washington University, and Norman Middleton, concert producer at The Library of Congress. Krash teaches a course on “dangerous music” at GWU and this is the subject of the podcast.

They begin the interview by discussing the tritone, considered by many throughout history to be a “devilish” interval. Krash explains that this may be rooted in physics, for if you take a string tuned to C and another tuned to F# (a tritone), the ratio would be √2:1. Historically the √2 has been an uncomfortable number for mathematicians and physicists; it was even forbidden on various occasions. Interesting how the sound of that ratio is also uncomfortable for our ears! Middleton mentions that diminished chords are still frowned upon in gospel music, adding to the negative connotation of the tritone today.

Continuing on the topic of Diabolis Musica, the “devil in music,” Middleton touches on urban myths linked to evil within music, including musicians selling their souls to the devil for enhanced talent. They discuss myths surrounding the Italian baroque composer Tartini, Italian violinist Paganini, and American blues musician Robert Johnson. And finally, naturally, they talk about the devil in heavy metal music. Middleton notes that heavy metal musicians use the tritone heavily in composition on purpose because they know that the interval is considered evil.

The subject takes a political turn when Krash starts discussing Jewish music in Nazi Germany during WWII. She says that the Nazi party was able to latch onto the negative reception of modern dissonance in Jewish compositions to gain public support. Germans were already uncomfortable with this new, modern sound and it was used against musicians like Schoenberg during the war. The Nazis claimed that he was destroying the triad and ruining German music, when Schoenberg saw himself as a rescuer of it. An interesting side note - the Nazi’s tolerated the same kind of modernist dissonance from the Italians and from Stravinsky in Russia.

Middleton goes on to discuss a specific instance of suicide that was motivated by rock music where two young men in Las Vegas committed suicide after listening to “Beyond the Realms of Death” by Judas Priest. They discuss the prevalence of murder and/or suicides being attributed to an individual’s reaction to rock and roll or heavy metal music.

Finally they touch on the subject of “dangerous” dance. Krash examines Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring” and the riots that occurred at the premiere of the work. She notes that the destruction of the traditional ballet hierarchy in the choreography represented a strong political statement; it was “provocative in it’s primitivism.” Middleton comments on the sensuality inherently associated with dance and notes the rules established within the three major religions - Christianity, Muslim, and Jewish – to include dance in their individual moral frameworks.

Reflection

I have always been really interested in the social implications and culture of music. I love learning about specific instances throughout history when music was condemned and/or lauded and why that was. What I enjoyed most about this interview was not necessarily the information I learned, but the way in which I reacted critically to it. I found myself, for maybe the first time, unconsciously questioning what I was listening to and constantly asking “why”?

In keeping with our class subject I was really interested in the suicide-by-music story. Naturally, it brought to mind images of Charles Manson and I began humming The Beatles’ “Helter Skelter.” I wonder why some humans have a compulsion to act aggressively and sadistically when listening to specific genres of music. Does it happen with all types of music but we just don’t think about it the same because it doesn’t cause mayhem? Is it the music itself, or the associations one may have with music? We know music evokes an emotional response – is that all that it boils down to? What’s going on in the brain when someone is listening to satanic music? Are neurons firing in the same part of your brain that processes aggression? Morals? Is there a physiological area in the brain that is associated with “evil?”

If so, can we start looking at ways in which we can use music to combat aggression? Violence? Would it be the same way in which we lower stress and anxiety? Are these things all linked anyway?