Music and Memories

Have you ever formed associations of music with memories.? Like a song reminds me of my friend because she sings it to me and similarly a song can remind you of the happy time when all friends were together, sang and listened to it repeatedly on a school trip? Or a song that used to play on the car's radio while you ride to school daily? Or a song that reminds you of someone who said something similar to you? All such songs have become special to me because of it reminds me of special people or hearty occasions. A recent study shows the memories and emotions that people associate with familiar songs are a part of the brain where the wiring for memories and thoughts about music appears to be linked.

"What seems to happen is that a piece of familiar music serves as a soundtrack for a mental movie that starts playing in our head. It calls back memories of a particular person or place, and you might all of a sudden see that person's face in your mind's eye," study author Petr Janata, associate professor of psychology at the Center for Mind and Brain at the University of California, Davis, said in a news release issued by the school. "Now we can see the association between those two things -- the music and the memories." Read On

Source: Health Day

This also reminds me how much I don't like the ring tone that's plays when the driver is here to pick me up for work in the morning. Some may feel this way about their alarm tones.