The human brain is hardwired for music.  The rhythms of the brain and body—your neurons firing, your breathing, your heartbeat—are all part of that hardwiring, and they all are activated an engaged when we listen to music.  It is why you naturally and unconsciously tap your foot or bop your head to music.

But it is more than our brains just being activated and engaged: Recent research shows that our brains actually change and synchronize with the music we hear—filling in beats during rhythmic pauses and even reshaping its functional organization in response to the music.  Remember those neurons and synapses—the high speed traffic in our heads?  Well, apparently the music we listen to actually changes the roads and the cars traveling on them inside our brains.

William Congreve, in 1697, declared that “music soothes the savage beast.”  But I think that requires a caveat—savage music can also incite the savage beast.  It all depends on what we’re listening to. 

Yesterday’s riddle: How could the two girls be born of the same mother at the same time and yet not be twins?  They’re two of three siblings in a set of triplets.

Now for today’s riddle:

Two men are in a desert, miles from any town or village. They are both physically fit.  Both have backpacks on. However, one of them is dead. The one who is alive has a red backpack that is open; the one who is dead has a blue backpack that is closed. What is in the dead man’s blue backpack?