The emergence of music from the Theory of Mind
It is commonly argued that music originated in human evolution as an adaptation to selective pressures. In this paper we present an alternative account in which music originated from a more general adaptation known as a Theory of Mind (ToM). ToM allows an individual to recognise the mental and emotional state of conspecifics, and is pivotal in the cultural transmission of knowledge. We propose that a specific form of ToM, Affective Engagement, provides the foundation for the emergence of music. Underpinned by the mirror neuron system of empathy and imitation, music achieves engagement by drawing from pre-existing functions across multiple modalities. As a multimodal phenomenon, music generates an emotional experience through the broadened activation of channels that are to be empathically matched by the audio-visual mirror neuron system.
Metadata
Show full item recordCollections
Related items
Showing items with similar title or keywords.
-
New insights on the role of ecology and life-history in social evolution
Avila, Piret (University of Jyväskylä, 2017)Biological altruism, defined as a behaviour that benefits others at an apparent cost to the focal individual, is found abundantly across different levels of biological organization. While kin selection has been useful for ... -
Leaps and bounds : towards an integrative theory of cultural evolution
Rissanen, Sami (2014)Tutkimuksessa pyritään yhdistämään ajatus kulttuurista eräänlaisen luonnonvalinnan alaisena Dan Sperberin näkemyksien (1) kommunikaation taustadynamiikasta tarkoitet-tujen merkityksien päättelynä niiden kontekstisidonnaisen ... -
Unequal rapidity correlators in the dilute limit of the JIMWLK evolution
Lappi, Tuomas; Ramnath, Andrecia (American Physical Society, 2019)We study unequal rapidity correlators in the stochastic Langevin picture of Jalilian-Marian–Iancu–McLerran–Weigert–Leonidov–Kovner (JIMWLK) evolution in the color glass condensate effective field theory. We discuss a ... -
The Strategic Cognition View of Issue Salience and the Evolution of a Political Issue : Landis & Gyr, the Hungarian Uprising and East-West Trade, 1953–1967
Stutz, Christian (Springer International Publishing, 2017)Why do firms facing similar stakeholder issues respond quite differently? The recently introduced strategic cognition view of issue salience and firm responsiveness (hereinafter: issue salience model) seeks to tackle ... -
Time evolution of linearized gauge field fluctuations on a real-time lattice
Kurkela, A.; Lappi, Tuomas; Peuron, Jarkko (Springer, 2016)Classical real-time lattice simulations play an important role in understanding non-equilibrium phenomena in gauge theories and are used in particular to model the prethermal evolution of heavy-ion collisions. Due to ...