The Big Questions Science Still Can’t Fully Answer

A few notes from an old song can do what a photograph sometimes cannot. They can bring back a porch, a dance hall, a first car, a kitchen radio, or someone’s voice from another room. Music engages brain systems tied to emotion, memory, attention, movement, and reward, including dopamine-related pathways that respond to pleasure and anticipation. Rhythm can pull the body along before a person decides to tap a foot. Harmony and melody can create expectation, then satisfy it or delay it.