by Tanya Thomas

In a new study, researchers have examined the biological basis of listening to music.

In the study of University of Helsinki and Sibelius-Academy, Helsinki, 31 Finnish families with 437 family members were examined. The participants of the study were 8-93 years old from professional or amateur musicians to participants with no music education.




To dissect listening habits further, active and passive listening of music were separately defined and surveyed using questionnaire. Active listening was defined as attentive listening of music, including attending concerts. Passive listening was defined as hearing or listening to music as background music. All participants were tested for musical aptitude using three music tests and a blood sample was taken for DNA analysis.

In the study the participants reported weekly average active listening to music of 4.6 hours and passive listening to music of 7.3 hours. It was noted that music education, high music test scores and creativity in music tended to add active music listening.