Jazz musicians' brains: Where spontaneity and improvisation come from

Amygdala detects spontaneity in human behavior: Study of jazz musicians reveals how brain processes improvisations

ScienceDaily (2011-05-05) -- A pianist is playing an unknown melody freely without reading from a musical score. How does the listener's brain recognise if this melody is improvised or if it is memorized? Researchers investigated jazz musicians to discover which brain areas are especially sensitive to features of improvised behaviour. Among these are the amygdala and a network of areas known to be involved in the mental simulation of behaviour. ... > read full article