ABSTRACT
Music is the capacity to produce, perceive, and appreciate rhythmic, melodic sounds that evoke an emotional response in oneself and others. Art is the sensitivity to, production of, and appreciation and preference for particular visual forms, figures, and color combinations over others. Fossil evidence for the artistic/aesthetics domain is somewhat older than for music. Children, especially young children, offer a glimpse into human nature insofar as traits and abilities that develop in children the world over and prior to major cultural influences, suggest a central nervous system that has been built to do certain activites and solve particular problems. Aesthetic and creative experience is part of being human; it is part of our nature. Indeed, one could argue that creativity and aesthetics are the distinguishing and signature characteristics of modern humans. Natural and sexual selection pressures have predisposed and constrained the human mind toward certain kinds of sensations and functions.
