A noteworthy new book on why human beings make and enjoy music is striking a responsive chord with readers across the nation. The book, "This Is Your Brain On Music" (Plume), by Daniel J. Levitin, explores the connection between music--its performances, its composition, how we listen to it, why we enjoy it--and the human brain.

Drawing on the latest research and on musical examples ranging from Mozart, Ella Fitzgerald and U2 to Schoenberg, Metallica and "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star," Levitin reveals how composers exploit the way our brains make sense of the world. Levitin also lets readers in on why we form emotional attachments to music we listen to as teenagers and why 10,000 hours of practice--not talent--makes virtuosos.

Taking on prominent thinkers who argue that music is nothing more than an evolutionary accident, Levitin argues that music is fundamental to our species, perhaps even more so than language. "This Is Your Brain On Music" is an ear-opening, mind-blowing investigation into an obsession at the center of human nature. In his review of the book, Oliver Sacks, M.D., called it "endlessly stimulating."