I was pretty sure of this, but always good to have some background to support it. Rockin' you are going to be even more popular when this news gets out!! Readers, better start the search for your Music Major, I think they are going to be in short supply. Oh did I mention I once took tuba lessons for a couple of weeks??
BY By Richard Alleyne, Science Correspondent The Telegraph UK On Line Edition
Music really could be the food of love, according to new research
For having a trained ear for music can be just as much of an advantage in a romantic relationship as in the concert hall, it found.
Anyone searching for a lover with that elusive quality of being a "good listener" should pick someone who has gone through musical tuition, said the results of the academic study.
They are, literally, better listeners and the ability that allows them to pick out a tune also means they can pick out 'emotion' in the human voice better than most.
The study, reported in the European Journal of Neuroscience, claims they can spot subtle messages in speech which, to the untrained ear, may simply go undetected.
Dana Strait, lead researcher at Northwestern University in Illinois, USA, said: "Quickly and accurately identifying emotion in sound is a skill that translates across all areas, whether in the classroom, boardroom or bedroom."
For the test, the 30 volunteers were strapped to electrodes to measure the reaction of their brainstems.
Wearing headphones they were asked to watch a nature film in a foreign language with subtitles in order to keep various senses occupied.
Then a tiny blast of a baby's cry, lasting for a fraction of a second, was played through the headphones while their brainstem reaction was monitored.
It found the brains of those with musical training locked on to the complex parts of the sound which contain the emotion.
