"We've shown this is something that has a biological effect, " says Mark Tarnopolsky, a co-author of the study and a professor of pediatrics and medicine at McMaster University Medical Center in Hamilton, Ontario.
The only avant-garde composer in a department still notorious for its conservatism (the famous troika of Denisov, Schnittke and Gubaidulina were personae non gratae during the Soviet period), Mr Tarnopolsky has been professor of composition since 1992.