Tunes to Defy the Headphone Ban

In an update to last week's entry, I just stumbled across an unexpected running tune. Keep the beat with your feet to Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get It On," and according to the treadmill, you'll clock 11-minute miles. That's hot. (Whether you're defying a headphone ban or not.)

Music for Your Marathon

The group that manages marathons around the country has finally figured it out: music gives athletes a competitive edge. So suddenly impressed is USA Track & Field by this fact that they've taken the unprecedented step of banning portable music players from marathons.

The ban has led to a rumpus on both sides of the issue. Old-schoolers who think music is anathema to a marathon competition, not least because of the performance boost, love the ban. New-schoolers are so devoted to their musical running partner that they're risking disqualification by defying the ban in droves.

Fortunately you remain free to wear earbuds at the gym or running around the local reservoir (for which you want open construction headphones that let you hear cars and such). Depending on your pace, your running tunes should clock in around 160-170 beats per minute and have Energizing characteristics. Build a playlist with your favorites and play it on shuffle so you can't predict the segues -- surprise adds to the energizing effect. A recent addition to my list (which I'm not admitting to my friends lapping up the new Radiohead) is "Hold My Hand" by Hootie and the Blowfish. It's the right speed to set the pace and spur endurance, and with Hootie intoning "I will run with you," the steps fly by.

You can get New York Times readers' favorite workout tunes, along with lots of comments on the headphone ban, here.

Internet Radio Day of Silence

Darn it's quiet today.

This Is Your Brain on Money

This is your brain on money: Write a check to charity, get a pleasure hit. Sell your sorry old Ford stock at a loss instead of your high-flying Google shares at a gain, and feel a deep pain in your brain that belies the fact that dumping the loser is the smart thing to do. Folks, welcome to neuroeconomics, a recent entry in the quest to link up brain structures and functions with how we are as humans.

Scientists are using MRI technology -- the same machines that have yielded much insight about how music works in the brain -- to study the brain centers involved in making money decisions. The results are standing the dismal science on its head. It turns out we might not make getting and spending choices in the rational way economists presume. Our money-related behavior may stem instead from rather irrational responses to pleasure and pain.

First, on why you'd sell Google and hold Ford: Behavioral studies show that people feel the pain of an economic loss about twice as much as the pleasure of an economic gain -- and recent research suggests it may be your brain to blame. In a study that used MRI to peek at the brains of people making gambling decisions, researchers found that as the potential for gains rose, the participants showed increased activity in the brain's dopamine systems. As the potential for losses increased, on the other hand, activity decreased. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter released not by higher thought, but by things like eating food, having sex, and taking drugs. Apparently, the prospect of losing yummy dopamine is significantly more terrible than getting more is good, and this drives our financial decisions.

Another recent study reported in the journal Science used MRIs to discover that giving money to charity lights up brain areas called the nucleus accumbens and the caudate nucleus -- pleasure centers, again, which might help explain why we give money away when any rational economic maximizer would keep it for herself.

Could we get an MRI study that introduces music into the mind-money equation? Retailers have long known that playing Energizing music makes consumers buy more, which may relate to the increased brain wave activity, confidence and drive to do that Energizing music can cause.

If your brain on money is less rational than you might like, counter by putting your brain on the right type of music. I recommend preserving your assets by doing all your online shopping and banking to the strains of Relaxing music. When it's time to do taxes or work up a budget, Focus music keeps the clear-thinking alpha brain waves flowing. But though it may make you spend more, feel free to let the Uplifting music rip when writing checks to charity. You deserve to feel good when doing good.

Don't Let Music Overload Your Multitasking Brain

The New York Times reports today on the toll that the trend towards multitasking is taking on brain performance. In a world of cell phones, instant messaging, e-mails, and multi-windowed browsers bringing millions of web sites to your desktop, serious brainwork has to squeeze in edgewise. Don't let your iPod (or other music playback device) become part of the problem.

As the Times correctly reports, music with lyrics can interfere with cognitive processing for certain tasks. So can music that is too complex, loud, or emotional, and music that you don't like. When you listen to demanding or disturbing music while also trying to think, read, or learn, you create what scientists call a dual task paradigm. You can just call it a distraction. This effect can be more pronounced when listening over headphones -- so with the wrong playlist, your iPod could make you more prone to mistakes and less efficient.

On the other hand, the right kind of music can actually help you concentrate, by blocking out other distractors and generating alpha brain waves. Just reverse the checklist above -- choose instrumental music (no lyrics) with steady pace and volume. Make sure the sound pleases you without demanding your attention. Dial down the volume until the music melts into the background and your thought process takes center stage.

• Pick: Vivaldi's Guitar Concertos are a great counter to information overload -- and all the better when performed by the legendary Romero brothers and on sale at amazon!

Spring Ahead: Music to Reset Your Sleep Clock

I'm a light junkie. I sit in the sun, keep the blinds open, drive a double-moonroofed Mini, and live in an (almost) glass house. So today, I'm delighted. Congress, in its wisdom, has saved the daylight by legislative fiat, giving us each an extra hour of luminescence every evening from now until the darkening days of fall.

But, sadly, Congress didn't see fit to also change the time the workday starts tomorrow. So somehow we all have to get to sleep at our usual bedtime tonight despite it being an hour premature and following so close on the heels of sundown.

If the excitement of seeing daylight after dinner has you still buzzing at bedtime, use music to reset your sleep clock tonight, and every night until you're back on track. Start by turning the TV off before you get ready for bed, switching to some soft music instead. Then, pick a comfortable spot -- bed or somewhere else -- to dim the lights, lie down, and listen to ten minutes of Relaxing music at a satisfying volume. Don't talk, read, or run through your to-do list. Just listen. This will slow down your brain waves and evoke the relaxation response.

• Pick: Fila Brazillia, Soft Music Under Stars on Asian Travels (Six Degrees).

If you like, you can reduce the volume and let the music keep playing until you drift off to sleep. (Make sure that all the music on your CD or playlist is soft and soothing with no jarring surprises.) Stop listening and let yourself float above the sounds. Sleep sweetly. It's the season of light!

What Your Playlist Says About You

Swapping top tunes is a time-honored way to chitchat - and it turns out that this may be more than mere talk to fill the empty air. PsyBlog posted recently about why we talk about music when we meet new people. Research says that our top ten song list provides good predictors of three out of five key personality elements, and offers info you're otherwise unlikely to get from a stranger.

The so-called Big Five personality traits are extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability, and openness. Good things to know about. According to PsyBlog, openness to experience is the trait communicated best by your top ten tunes. I haven't been able to dig up the current article, but here's an earlier article on the topic by the same authors.

By posing the question differently, researchers have also discovered that our personalities shape our musical tastes. The same five personality factors influence how we feel about tempo, rhythm, number of melodic themes, sound volume, and meter.

If you're not discussing the Billboard charts on dates and at job interviews, maybe it's time to start.