2018-03-02 listen 59

Different Brain Regions Handle Different Music Types

(Vivaldi) versus (the Beatles) . Both great.

But your brain may be processing the musical information differently for each.

That's according to research in the journal NeuroImage.

For the study, volunteers had their brains scanned by functional MRI as they listened to two musical medleys containing songs from different genres.

The scans identified brain regions that became active during listening.

One medley included four instrumental pieces and the other consisted of songs from the B side of Abbey Road.

Computer algorithms were used to identify specific aspects of the music, which the researchers were able to match with specific, activated brain areas.

The researchers found that vocal and instrumental music get treated differently.

While both hemispheres of the brain deal with musical features, the presence of lyrics shifts the processing of musical features to the left auditory cortex.

These results suggest that the brain's hemispheres are specialized for different kinds of sound processing.

A finding revealed by what you might call instrumental analysis.

Bedroom TV Linked to Kid Weight Gain

Parents, it's time to get the TV out of your kids' bedroom.

About 60 percent of all teenagers' bedrooms in the U.S. include a TV set.

Now research suggests that the mere presence of that TV in the bedroom is linked with weight gain,

... regardless of how long a youngster's eyes are glued to the small screen.

The finding comes from phone surveys of more than 6,000 kids across the country that probed for details on height, weight and television practices.

Even when the researchers controlled for factors including age, sex, socioeconomic status, video game playing and parenting style their discovery was confirmed:

a bedroom TV was clearly linked with heavier weight.

The study is in the journal JAMA Pediatrics.

The jury is still out on why the link exists.

The researchers suggest the weight gain could stem from sleep disruption since shorter sleep times are associated with putting on pounds.

Another trigger could be increased exposure to junk food ads targeting kids.

Limiting TV time requires consistent oversight.

But simply moving the TV from the bedroom is an easy fix.

It'll burn some calories too.