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David Greenberg (Department of Psychology) discusses how musical preferences are linked to thinking styles. We're exposed to music for nearly 20% of our waking lives. But much of our musical experience seems to be a mystery.

Seven minutes of meditation can reduce racial prejudice, study finds A popular meditation technique that's intended to create feelings of kindness can also reduce prejudice, according to new University of Sussex research. The study , published online in the journal Motivation and Emotion , found that just seven minutes of Loving-kindness meditation (LKM), a Buddhist practise that promotes unconditional kindness towards oneself and others, is effective at reducing racial bias.

Scientists have proved that listening to music before, during and after surgery reduces people's pain, anxiety and need for painkillers - according to the most comprehensive review of available evidence so far, published today in The Lancet. Led by Queen Mary University of London, the study team analysed the results of 73 randomised controlled trials looking at the impact of music on postoperative recovery, compared with standard care or other non-medical interventions such as massage.

An analysis of video footage shows that some operating theatre teams are negatively affected by background music, during surgery. Researchers suggest that the decision to play music during an operation should be made by the entire team, taking into account both the benefits and the risks. The study, published today (5 August) in the Journal of Advanced Nursing , suggests that communication within the theatre team can be impaired when music is playing.

Dr Matthias Mauch discusses his recent scientific analysis of the "fossil record" of the Billboard charts prompted widespread attention, particularly the findings about the three musical "revolutions" that shaped the musical landscape of the second half of the 20th century. The journey that got me here started in 1992, when I was a sheltered 12-year-old boy, growing up in a small town in Germany.

A study conducted by the Scottish SPCA and the University of Glasgow shows that music has a calming effect on dogs. The research, conducted by the charity's education and research manager Gilly Mendes Ferreira and PhD student Amy Bowman, involved testing two groups of dogs over two consecutive weeks at the Scottish SPCA's Dumbarton & West of Scotland animal rescue and rehoming centre in Milton, West Dunbartonshire.

Press release issued: 10 September 2014 The effect of movies featuring dogs on the popularity of dog breeds can last up to ten years and is correlated with the general success of the movies, according to new research from the University of Bristol, the City University of New York, and Western Carolina University.

How does a DJ mix two songs to make the beat seem common to both tracks? A successful DJ makes the transition between tracks appear seamless while a bad mix is instantly noticeable and results in a 'galloping horses' effect that disrupts the dancing of the crowd. How accurate does beat mixing need to be to enhance, rather than disrupt perceived rhythm?

If music be the food of love, play something complex Although Charles Darwin first argued that music's primary function was sexual courtship, there has been little clear evidence to prove it. Now a new University of Sussex psychology study supports his theory by showing that during the most fertile phase of their menstrual cycle, women prefer sexual mates who are able to produce more complex music.

What is it about the rhythms of some music that makes us want to get up and dance? Oxford University researchers believe they may have found part of the answer in a new study. They say that an ideal balance of rhythmic predictability and complexity explains why James Brown will get most people up and grooving, while many of us struggle to tap our feet along with experimental jazz.

World-class orchestras can be accurately identified by silent video footage of performances, but not through sound recordings, a UCL study has found. Both professional musicians and musical novices are better at identifying top-ranked orchestras from non-ranked orchestras when shown silent video footage, suggesting that such judgements are driven at least in part by visual cues about group dynamics and leadership.

Researchers have found that listeners engage with classical music more when musicians improvise. A collaboration of researchers from Imperial College London and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama examined the electrical signals in the brains of musicians and listeners. Although improvisation is not commonly associated with classical music, the new study suggests that introducing elements of improvisation into classical concerts could increase audience engagement.

The sound vibrations that make up music can make solar panels work harder, according to new research, and pop music performs better than classical. Scientists showed that high pitched sounds like those common in pop and rock music caused the greatest improvement in the solar cells' power output, increasing it by up to forty per cent.

An international team, including Oxford University scientists, has used the powerful X-ray laser at the US Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory to create atomic-scale movies of 'the ultimate spring'. Normally, when a metal is crushed suddenly, as during an impact, it deforms and buckles, with the atoms re-arranging themselves in a complex way to take up the deformed shape - and usually only small pressures allow a metal to 'bounce back' like a spring.

Researchers have devised a mathematical model which can be used to predict whether films will become blockbusters or flops at the box office - up to a month before the movie is released. Their model is based on an analysis of the activity on Wikipedia pages about American films released in 2009 and 2010.

A new research project led by the School of Social Sciences will use creative arts practices to help inform health-related policy and service development. Funded jointly by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), the 'Representing Communities' project, will use innovative research techniques to promote engagement between communities and policy makers.

New research and detailed records of over 1,000 paintings have gone online as part of an ongoing project to research over 22,000 artworks held in public collections around the UK. The National Inventory of Continental European Paintings (NICE Paintings) project is cataloguing and digitising all of the pre-1900 Continental European oil paintings in the UK's public collections and making them available to the public, alongside new supporting information.

Loud music damages your hearing ­— a warning that we're used to taking as fact. But surprisingly, little research has actually been done into how sustained exposure to loud music affects our hearing in the long term, and the results we do have are far from conclusive. A new research project taking place at the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) National Biomedical Research Unit in Hearing, based at The University of Nottingham, is the first to explicitly examine the effect of long-term exposure to loud music.

Paleolithic paintings in El Castillo cave in Northern Spain date back at least 40,800 years - making them Europe's oldest known cave art, according to new research published today in Science. The practice of cave art in Europe thus began up to 10,000 years earlier than previously thought, indicating the paintings were created either by the first anatomically modern humans in Europe or, perhaps, by Neanderthals.

A year-long study on children's music-making indicates that playing music in groups on a regular basis greatly improves a child's ability to empathise with others.