Music, emotion and a common human brain? Maybe.

This is an amazing clip that demonstrates a kind of universality of human experience. I think it’s too quick to conclude that every human is hardwired for the pentatonic scale. But it’s evidence nonetheless.

And it merits further research. Similarly with emotion. In some sense, humans are hardwired for emotions. But to what degree, with what amount of variability and with what kind of social cultural differentiation? These are important questions and the history of science tells us that we should be very wary of universalized conclusions based on a too little evidence. The history of science tells us that we are often too quick to say what is “normal”.

But this exhibition from the World Science Festival, from the panel on “Notes & Neurons: In Search of the Common Chorus” is truly worth a watch.

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