Can't get over the music of your 青年? Mice who love Beethoven hint at how our music tastes form - and how to change them

• Adolescent mice exposed to music overcame natural preference for silence

By Damien Gayle

Published: 17:34 BST, 10 October 2012 | Updated: 17:34 BST, 10 October 2012

Almost everyone thinks that the best music was 解放（する）d when they were in their teens, 示唆するing that musical tastes tend to be 始める，決める at a particular 行う／開催する／段階 of 開発.

井戸／弁護士席, now 研究 on juvenile mice has given scientists insight into why we prefer the sounds of our 青年 and, better yet, 示唆するd the 可能性 of 再開するing our minds in later life.

研究員s from Harvard University and Harvard 医療の School, Massachusetts, have 設立する that mice exposed to music in a 重要な adolescent period 打ち勝つ their natural instincts to scurry to 静かな places.

Purple 煙霧 all in my brain: Mice exposed to music as adolescents prefer it so silence - 示唆するing 哺乳動物s' 早期に 条件 can 影響（力） taste for music in later life

Compared to a 支配（する）／統制する group, those mice played music while they were 15 and 24 days old preferred to hang out in louder areas - 示唆するing there is a period of 開発 where the brain is '始める，決める' by it's aural 環境.

Even more interestingly, the 研究員s 設立する adult mice dosed with valproic 酸性の, a mood-stabilising anticonvulsant 麻薬, would return to a 明言する／公表する of preference 'plasticity' 類似の to younger mice.

Neurobiologists built an area for the mice to 調査する with two nesting areas at either end, one with music playing and the other silent, Wired 報告（する）／憶測d.

支配（する）／統制する groups of both adult and adolescent mice behaved as 推定する／予想するd when introduced to the 環境, 調査するing the area for a while before 結局 settling in the 静かな corner.

But when a 類似の group of mice were 条件d by （危険などに）さらす to music, the 研究員s 設立する that the adolescent group hung out in the noisy nest - which adult mice 避けるd even after 条件ing.

HELP! POP REALLY IS SADDER AND SLOWER THAN WHEN THE BEATLES AND ABBA TOPPED THE CHARTS

If you think pop music ain’t what it used to be, you may 井戸／弁護士席 be 権利.

研究 shows that today’s songs are slower and sadder than those of the past.

And if this dreariness wasn’t depressing enough, they also last longer.

The 研究員s, who analysed more than 1,000 攻撃する，衝突するs from 1965 to 2009, 非難する the loss of the feel-good factor on modern 行為／法令／行動するs wanting to be seen as serious and コンビナート／複合体 - and on listeners who like to think they are more sophisticated.

As a result, unambiguously uplifting songs like the Beatles’ Help! or She Loves You are few and far between.

To 条件 the rodents, 研究員s played them pieces of music - the first movements from Beethoven's symphonies number 1 and number 9, and Antonio Carlos Jobim's bossa nova classic Agua de Beber.

They 設立する that mice between 15 and 24 days old had their preference for noise altered and, when introduced to the nesting areas, ended up choosing the ones where music was playing.

The finding lends credence to the idea that we all go through a 明確な／細部 period of mental 開発 where the brain is 始める，決める by the aural 環境 we experience.

Previous 研究 have 設立する that parts of the brain can be 柔軟な again after 治療 with histone deacetylase inhibitors - 構内／化合物s which 妨げる 確かな 遺伝子s 存在 表明するd in behaviour.

One such 一般的に used 構内／化合物 is valproic 酸性の, which is used in the 治療 of epilepsy, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, migraine 頭痛s and, いっそう少なく 一般的に, major 不景気.

研究員s gave the adult mice valproic 酸性の and 設立する they '展示（する）d a strong preference for the exposed music', which they never did under controlled 条件s.

The findings raise その上の questions about mammalian brain 開発 and structure.

Eun-Jin Yang, the 熟考する／考慮する's lead author, said it's not yet known whether it's the 'timbre, 速度, 重要な, modulating frequency, rhythm, or some combination thereof' that 影響する／感情d the mice in their 実験.

But what it does seem to 証明する is that 明らかに minor 面s of a child's 開発 can lead to the 採択 of rigid behavioural traits in later life.