Mark Jude Tramo during the Zócalo panel discussion, "How Does Music Change Your Brain?"
Mark Jude Tramo is the director of the Institute for Music & Brain Science, co-director of the University of California Multi-Campus Music Research Initiative—and both an associate clinical professor of neurology at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine and an adjunct professor in ethnomusicology at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music. Before speaking at a Zócalo event last March, titled “How Does Music Change Your Brain?,” he talked in the green room about the Beatles, the founding of cognitive neuroscience, and all the thing that medical students and music students have in common.
What was the last book you read?
Why Only Us? It’s a book on language evolution by [computer scientist Robert] Berwick and [linguist Noam] Chomsky.
What place on Earth where you haven’t been to would you most like to visit?
Liverpool, England, because of my inspiration and heroes, the Beatles. Or maybe Sicily—my paternal grandmother was from Sicily, and I understand it’s one of the most beautiful places.
What’s your favorite song?
I think there’s general agreement among songwriters and musicians, in terms of songwriting and performance, “Yesterday.” Since I’m biased a bit toward rock, I would say, “She Said, She Said.” Both by the Beatles. I’d also give love to David Bowie’s “Teenage Wildlife.”
What’s the best place to eat in Westwood?
Napa Grill. That’s only because they closed Jerry’s a couple of years ago.
What’s your earliest memory of hearing music?
In grandma and grandpa’s apartment in the Bronx, early ’60s or later ’50s. There was a hit song at the time called “The Great Pretender.” I sang “Ooo, ooo,” and my parents and grandparents were surprised.
What’s the biggest difference between music students and medical students?
The difference is more on the emotional side of life. The music students are driven to express their creativity and emotion as their primary motivation, and the medical students are more driven to excel or accumulate knowledge that allows them to become great scientists and physicians
Interestingly, after the student stage, it’s remarkable how similar the demands of being a scientist—and many medical students go on to develop science careers—is to developing a music career. There’s a lot of creativity involved in science. There’s the issue of you really only have a job for three to five years at a time—you get a contract from a label in music, and in science, you get a short grant. You’re really judged on your productivity, and you really have to have a hit in that three- to five-year window.
What’s the best advice you ever received?
It was from my thesis advisor David Hubel, who won the Nobel Prize for research on how brain perceives color and form and motion and depth perception. I was talking with him about the possible biases within science and neuroscience [against music]. David stopped what he was doing, looked at me, and said: Music is what’s interesting about the auditory system. Use that. Don’t run away from that. Put it up front in grant applications. That really helped motivate me to create our non-profit foundation, of which David was one of the founding board members.
What teacher made the biggest impact on you?
Mike Gazzaniga, who was a founding father of cognitive neuroscience and did some phenomenal research on split-brain patients. I got into cognitive neuroscience research because of Mike’s inspiration. His entire approach to the mind-brain connection opened my eyes.