This is Scientific American's 60 Second Science.

I'm Diana Kwan.

Got a minute?

While listening to music, you might find yourself tapping your foot or bobbing your

heads the beat. What you might not have expected is that as you listen to your favorite tune,

the rhythms in your brain also follow along.

Brain rhythms arise when large groups of neurons fire together.

Previous studies have shown that listening to someone talk can elicit such activity.

Now research reveals that brain rhythms also synchronize with musical sequences,

and musical training can enhance this ability.

The study is in the proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Magnetoencephylography, or MEG, is a technique that measures the tiny magnetic fields

generated by brain activity.

Researchers used MEG to compare the brains of musicians and non-musicians

while the subjects try to detect small changes in pitch during short clips of classical piano music

like composers like Bach, Beethoven and Brahms.

The train musicians, not surprisingly, track the pitch changes better.

When it came to tempo, musicians and non-musicians alike sink their brains to the music,

when the music had more than one note per second. But when faced with slower

tempos, only the brains a musician synced up. Because speech and music

share similar brain networks, it's possible that musical training thus could also improve linguistic abilities.

So pick up your instrument of choice and play away. You might not feel it, but your brain waves will dance along to your favorite song.

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