Born to be wild

Another downside might be Harvey's unfathomable liking for Cliff Richard, but this is balanced by a feel for the quality music he plays with his band, Chain Reaction (you can see them on YouTube - their Born to be Wild is great).

Music, for Harvey, allows us to "momentarily forget our isolation and mortality. We forget the brutal high beam of consciousness that transfixes us, that reminds us that one day we will no longer be." Without this counterweight of music, we may not have been able to deal with this high beam.

People think of music as art, not as a core element of human cognitive life, he says. It is often only a voluntary add-on in schools. "If in fact you buy the idea that there is a rational, evolutionary basis for retaining two strands of communication, as counterbalances to each other, and that this was important when we evolved - we still have it, we still respond to it, it is still a critical part of life - what is odd then is that neurologists don't use music in their armamentarium. When you have people who are depressed, who have an affective mood problem, why wouldn't you use music to help evaluate their mental state?

"Music needs to be put into the mainstream of cognitive neuroscience. There is no question that musical therapy works but to many it seems sort of 'alternative'. As a scientist, I want to try and persuade the science profession that this is not alternative - it is real. When it comes down to it, the subtext is that without music there might not have been a successful modern mind."