Gregorian Chant: An Unexpected Tool for a Calmer, Sharper Brain

As a neurosurgeon, I’ve spent decades treating the brain like the high-performance machine it is—a three-pound gelatinous, biologic marvel running on electrochemical signals. If you had told me a decade ago that listening to monks chanting in Latin could tune up your prefrontal cortex better than a solid night’s sleep or a strict Mediterranean diet, I would have laughed you straight out of my operating room. To me, Gregorian chant was a beautiful medieval relic, perfect for echoing through old cathedrals but irrelevant to modern neuroscience.