Music and the Brain

Subject: Music and the Brain
From: GUEST
Date: 13 Dec 02 - 09:57 AM

Music lovers: Researchers find brain area that remembers tunes

Associated Press

Published Dec. 13, 2002 MUSI14

WASHINGTON -- Sounds from the radio slip into a melody and suddenly your mind skips back to an evening of moonlight and romance and happy times. It happens to everybody, but until now science was unsure just why.

A new study by researchers at Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H., suggests that recalling that melody is the job of a part of the brain known as the rostromedial prefrontal cortex. It is the part that remembers music and is even able to recognize a sour note in the midst of a familiar tune.

A team led by researcher Petr Janata of Dartmouth's Center for Cognitive Neuroscience explored the mind's memory for tunes by studying the brains of eight musicians as they listened to a bit of original music.

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, which detects the part of the brain active in response to specific stimuli, they found that the ability to recognize music is contained in a centrally located area just behind the forehead.

Janata said that part of the brain also plays a key role in learning and in the response and control of emotions.

``Our results provide a stronger foundation for explaining the link between music, emotion and the brain,'' Janata said.

In the study, published today in the journal Science, eight people who had studied music for at least 12 years listened to the music and were asked to pick out specific tones and to detect notes played by a flute-like instrument instead of a clarinet which had dominated the music. As they performed these tasks, the functional MRI tracked which parts of the brain were active.

The researchers reported that the brains of each of the subjects tracked the sounds in a slightly different way each time the music was played. This may be the reason the same music, in different times, may prompt different emotions.

Janata said the fact that the brain is naturally wired to appreciate and remember music suggests that the pleasant sounds were an important of part of the human mind from the earliest of times.

``It's not necessary for human survival, yet something inside us craves it,'' said Janata. ``I think this research helps us understand that craving a little bit more.''

Subject: RE: Music and the Brain
From: mooman
Date: 13 Dec 02 - 10:04 AM

Many thanks for the interesting post GUEST.

moo

Subject: RE: Music and the Brain
From: reggie miles
Date: 13 Dec 02 - 10:25 AM

Given this new research, I think it's prudent to offer this suggestion. If you're going to come to one of my shows or listen to me in concert it probably helps to dull the perception of your rostromedial prefrontal cortex and therefore obscure the notice of all them sour notes. Any easily purchased intoxicant will do the trick.

This public service announcement has your mind in mind.

Subject: RE: Music and the Brain
From: GUEST,Taliesn
Date: 13 Dec 02 - 12:09 PM

All very interesting so far as a direction of scientific exploration, but I'm waiting for the tests mapping the regions of the brain that are stimulated by "different genre's" of music.

Ofcourse I'm posing this based upon earlier published results that " Classical Symphonies" tend to produce the healthiest stimulation for awakening the more advanced lobes of the brain in developing infants to children.

Some will here will also immediately see where else I'm taking this. I would also like to see the mapping of the centers of the brain when listening to "Punk" , "Heavy Metal","Rap/Hip-Hop" ,and "WhiteThrashRap".
Somehow I can imagine the areas stimulated to be much further down the brainstem ,like deep doewn into the reptilian quadrant of the that brainstem.
Ofcourse the media companies whose bread & butter it is to promote the "repitilan-brainstem" music will not want that kind of research to even be explored, let alone the results to be published.

I bring this up because I stirred up quite feather-ruffler on a
3D animation messageboard of working professionals & stidents that I frequent . Most of the contributors are all video game addicts and some actual computer game producers.

The video gaming industry dwarfs the feature film industry's global revenue by many $billion$ ( $18b/U.S. in 2001) and most of the aggregious ultra-viloence , along with the above genres of music as accopmanying soundtracks, seem to dominate the market-hooks of these products.
The latest poster child of how low they can go ,so far as computer game subject matter ,is the newest hot selling title "Gand Theft Auto3: Vice City". The entire point of the gameplay is to work your way up from common street thug to Mafia or Drug Kingpin with every kind of "Clockwork Orange-style" acts of brutality as par for the course. You start out with your fists then ,as you take "jobs" earn your way to baseball bats ,automatic pistols, shotguns, uzi's,etc ( with full graphic results of their use ). all the time your mode of trnsportation is whatever vehicle you can "Car-jack" sand whatever pedestrians get in the way are collateral damage. This is designed as pure bloodsport.

Well I decided to offer the alternative opinion in daring to suggest that there be a new rating for such games; namely "LL" for "Low-life" material as the behavior encouraged in this game can "only" be judged as stimulating only the appettite for "low-life" cheap thrills.

Well the tidal wave of protest responses was , I must admit ,"delicious" to say the least because all of the "situatiational ethics" arguments came sludging out accusing me of being the agent of "anti-free speech" and "Orwellian censorship" and "cultural fascism" . Carefully "quoting" what i had "actually" said which had "nothing" to do with censorship, only "truth in labeling" , not a one was able to step up to the plate of the debate and defend why games such as "Grand Theft Auto" should *not* deserve "LL" rating proposed. Still haven't but some healthy , I think , reexamination by some of just what centers of the brain these games "feed upon" has atlast begun to bubble to the surface. Kind of like the "brutally honest "anti-smoking adverts directed at kids not to start shown on MTV.
The pithy label of it as being "The Soprano's" wihtout the bulls**t soap opera at best and pure computer generated "Snuf-porn".
Well obviuosly "that" triggered the , shall we say ,"spirited debate" for real.
( Mother Jones would be amused ;-)

The point being : Calling things as they truly are as the antidote to the arguments denouncing the critiquing of , and I know this is "the" loaded phrase here , what I choose to call "brainstem culture".
This includes the truly harrowingly violent aftermath of sporting events , Euro-soccer take notice as well. I undersand the rather prosaic "euphemistic" term "hooliganism" has found rather newly energized coinage as a direct result.

Anyway , with the potential of these magnetic resonnance brainscans being applied to discovering which music has what affects upon the brain , I'm curious to discover the spectrum of opinion on this messageboard.

So ,have at it ;-)

Subject: RE: Music and the Brain
From: Dead Horse
Date: 13 Dec 02 - 12:17 PM

Please send me, under plain wrapper, one rostromedial prefrontal cortex, size immaterial. I shall wait in on Tuesday p.m. Thank you.

Subject: RE: Music and the Brain
From: GUEST,daylia
Date: 13 Dec 02 - 12:18 PM

thanks for your most interesting post, GUEST! It reminds me of a study conducted at McGill University a few years ago where they compared the brain activity of students doing a variety of tasks. They discovered that more parts of the brain were engaged while people were reading and playing music (simultaneously) than for any other task investigated.

Guess that's why musicians are such a brilliant lot!

One question though. If being 'wired' to appreciate music was not "necessary for human survival", then why do we have it? We are the only species on earth that makes music, and there must be a reason for that. 'Mother Nature' is most efficient, biologically speaking, so why would we be given an ability we don't need?

Hey reggie - :-) :-) :-)!!!

daylia

Subject: RE: Music and the Brain
From: Ebbie
Date: 13 Dec 02 - 12:18 PM

I, for one, Taliesn, feel that you're on the right track, scary as the track is. What bothers me, however, is the knowledge that each generation seems to feel that the younger one is on a direct road to perdition- and I hate to be that knee-jerk voice.

But, honestly, I think we, as a culture, are acclimating our youngsters to brutality, at the very least.

Subject: RE: Music and the Brain
From: Amos
Date: 13 Dec 02 - 12:26 PM

Bravely done, Tal!! And stick to those guns. One piece of our cultural legacy that has been rather eroded is the quaint notion, which reqached a pinnacle in Victorian times, that there was in fact a hierarchy of values relating to the contribution to life of various kinds of acts. Degradation has become so popular, commercially, that its more insidious effects are accepted as some sort of fact of nature. While there is a lot of danger in imposing moral standards that are not comapssionate or well thought-out, a prime paradigm of which currently resides in the White House of Ignorance, that is no reason to throw every standard down the drain.

Low-life is low-life whether it is commercially successful or not.

A

Subject: RE: Music and the Brain
From: GUEST
Date: 13 Dec 02 - 01:50 PM

Actually, if we are to have truth in advertising here, then I would suggest that in addition to the "low life" levels of violence we include...what, exactly? The "high life" levels of violence perpetrated against humanity by the Nobels and Oppenheimers, the generals and political rulers of the world?

daylia, I think musicians might be smarter if they read and played music simultaneously (as the studies suggest), rather than just play music. That combination suggests it isn't the musicians who are the smartest, but the listeners who are smart enough to use music as a background for other brain-intensive endeavors.

Subject: RE: Music and the Brain
From: GUEST,Taliesn
Date: 13 Dec 02 - 03:45 PM

(quote)
"Actually, if we are to have truth in advertising here, then I would suggest that in addition to the "low life" levels of violence we include...what, exactly? The "high life" levels of violence perpetrated against humanity by the Nobels and Oppenheimers, the generals and political rulers of the world?"

Uhhh, perhaps as an intellectual exercise in a "What if" change history kind of game.....we are talking about digital gaming now remember.... but I fail to see how process of designing and crafting weapons of mass destruction would be translated into an "action game" that would have any hope of finding a market worth the invesment. Sounds more like a "role playing" game if it were ever to be actually turened into a product.
We're talking "real world" Pop-culture marketing here, now,... still on the same page so far are we?

the actually gaming appicatipon of weapons of mass destruction are less in-the-trenches down & dirty in what I call "blast & slash ,gut & trash" games , but mass warfare is still mass warfare and there just ain' t no "high-life" to be associated with it. Your playful trian of thought misses the whole point of what I was getting at by suggesting the "LL" rating.
It has to do with pointing out the level of stimulation to the brainstem that these games feed upon and reward with cheap thrills....like porn ; sex & violence crossing over far too easily when artificially stimulated.

The closest thing to perhaps a more "sophisticated " rating would mean "Martial Arts" which would give the already existing rating of "MA" a whole new meaning.
Perhaps the rating "AoF" for "Art of War" comes to mind
which , quite frankly ,*most* competitive sports are all about.
We simply don't have the losers put to death anymore. ;-)
It's simply more profitable that way.

Game over. ;-)

Subject: RE: Music and the Brain
From: GUEST
Date: 13 Dec 02 - 03:53 PM

daylia, what we humans consider music to be is not necessarily music to every other life form on the planet and the reverse can be said as well. That said, I find the communications of many animals musically pleasing sounds with exactness of tone and repetition and those same sounds may have been what prompted early man to begin his explorations into the same. Immitating the sounds of birds and other game. We refer to many sounds that different animals create as songs, like whales, birds etc.

Subject: RE: Music and the Brain
From: GUEST
Date: 13 Dec 02 - 04:37 PM

"Low life" violence = video games.

"High life" violence = Hollywood movies and mainstream television news, using PLENTY of big ba booms of mass destruction.

Malevolent male violence is malevolent male violence, whether with fists or nukes, on game boys, on Schwarzenagger DVDs, on CNN's Showdown Iraq, or on History Channel documentaries glorifying the battles and wars of the past.

You bet the gaming industry is conditioning boys to commit acts of violence with video games. And that is precisely what the Pentagon wants them to do, as it makes them easier to train to use the war technology of today and tomorrow.

You didn't think it was REALLY about 'entertainment' did you?

Subject: RE: Music and the Brain
From: GUEST
Date: 13 Dec 02 - 06:17 PM

Taliesen, I think you need to start thinking bigger, as to who owns what, and why Sony and Microsoft are so busy competing in this arena right now. Let us not forget, Microsoft just gobbled Nintendo this past September, and Sony & Microsoft/Nintendo control the market.

This is a decidedly pro-military article on the Pentagon's current use of video game recruitment efforts. It is long though, so I just provide the link & introduction:

http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2002/10/04/why_we_fight/print.html

From Salon.com:

Weapons of mass distraction
A new breed of computer games is teaching today's teenagers how to wage, and win, the war against terror.

- - - - - - - - - - - -
By Wagner James Au

Oct. 4, 2002 | You can never be the enemy, in America's Army. In this popular new game of multiplayer combat, you can log on as a U.S. soldier who must, say, invade a terrorist camp -- but if someone logs onto the opposing side, to fight you, he also plays as a U.S. soldier. It's just that from his point of view, he's defending a U.S. camp from terrorist invasion. You will always see yourself and your squad in U.S. Army uniforms, wielding U.S. weapons. Everyone who signs up to fight, then, fights as an American.

The game has become so popular with U.S. troops and Pentagon brass, says Lt. Colonel Wardynski, director of the Office of Economic and Manpower Analysis and the man who initially conceived it, that there's even talk of shipping computers to Afghanistan, so soldiers can play it from there.

"I had high hopes that it would be something pretty hot," says Capt. Jason Amerine, an Army officer who recently served in Afghanistan. A longtime gamer who counts Command & Conquer and Rainbow Six among his favorites, Amerine was not disappointed. America's Army was so realistic that for the first time, he says, "I was actually looking at it more as a soldier than even a gamer -- but it happened to be good in both ways."

But America's Army's real purpose is to be a recruiting tool, which is why the game has been made freely available since July, with new units and missions added on a regular basis. (It'll be out on CD in recruitment offices soon.) And while its impact on recruitment won't be evident until December, when July enlistees arrive for basic training, early signs, say Army spokesmen, are promising: 28 percent of Americasarmy.com visitors click through to goarmy.com, the government's official recruitment site.

The Army claims that 470,000 people have the game or are playing it now. But there is some skepticism as to whether such success will translate into more recruits. "I don't believe it is any more likely to do this than a good book or a good movie," says Henry Jenkins, director of MIT's Comparative Media Studies Program. But in terms of cost effectiveness, that might be enough. Compared to investment in traditional recruiting ads in other media, says Mike Zyda, director of the MOVES Institute, the Navy's Monterey, Calif., virtual-reality think tank that developed the project with Wardynski, the game is much cheaper.

America's Army is the first game to make recruitment an explicit goal, but it snugly fits into a subgenre of games already in vogue: the "tactical shooter," a first-person shooter that emphasizes realistic, squad-based combat. The realism factor means these games are often modeled on recent events. Next month comes NovaLogic's Delta Force: Black Hawk Down, adapted from journalist Mark Bowden's 1999 book and from Ridley Scott's film of the same name, which reenact the brutal firefight between U.S. soldiers and Somalia's bin Laden-funded militants in 1993. Before that, gamers will get to replay an earlier battle: SCi/Gotham Games' Conflict Desert Storm is loosely based on covert operations against the Iraqi defense infrastructure conducted by American Delta Force and British SAS commandos, in the days leading up to the Gulf War.

Given the warlike tenor of current events, it's not surprising that America's Army has taken fire from its left flank. An article on the liberal-left Web site Tompaine.com called it "propaganda," part of "America's escalating militarization -- designed by the Bush administration," while the Nation's Web site recently fretted over the "political implications" of its gameplay: "nonstop Army cheerleading, with frequent terrorist and Arab bashing ... What better way to reinforce [the war on terrorism's] legitimacy?"

Subject: RE: Music and the Brain
From: harvey andrews
Date: 13 Dec 02 - 07:22 PM

I think musicians might be smarter if they read and played music simultaneously (as the studies suggest), rather than just play music

We do already...we're called singer/songwriters. We do words and music.The very best combine the finest words with the best melodies.

If the music part of my brain is behind my forehead I'm glad I didn't become a centre half, or even a centre forward like poor Geoff Astle.

Subject: RE: Music and the Brain
From: GUEST
Date: 13 Dec 02 - 08:02 PM

What the world needs now are singer/songreaders? Reader/songsingers? Reading/writingsingers? Let me get back to you on that...

Subject: RE: Music and the Brain
From: GUEST,daylia
Date: 13 Dec 02 - 08:18 PM

The subjects of the study at McGill University were music students, who were playing their instruments and reading MUSIC simultaneously, as in an orchestra.

They compared the brain activity of these students with ones who were just playing instruments (not reading music at the same time), and also with others performing a variety of other tasks, musical and non-musical.
And the ones who were playing instruments WHILE READING MUSIC had the busiest brains.

So maybe it's only the musicians who can READ music that are a brilliant lot? Hmmmmmmmm

daylia

Subject: RE: Music and the Brain
From: GUEST,daylia
Date: 13 Dec 02 - 08:35 PM

Subject: RE: Music and the Brain
From: GUEST,daylia
Date: 13 Dec 02 - 08:36 PM

Subject: RE: Music and the Brain
From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull
Date: 13 Dec 02 - 08:57 PM

helkoo, you spellee brian wrong, it is Brian, brian is my hamsteer, but he is ded now, he dyed las weeejk, but i mighyt get another one soon.johm

Subject: RE: Music and the Brain
From: GUEST,daylia
Date: 13 Dec 02 - 09:06 PM

Oops! I'm a musician who reads music, and I always have trouble hitting the right 'clicky thing'. So much for the 'brilliant' hypothesis! Sorry...

I just wanted to respond to GUEST above that yes, other species on earth do have their own 'species-specific' music, most of which I enjoy very much. But we ARE the only species that creates and plays instruments, or who has evolved a system of writing our music down, recording it etc. Why would we have this ability, or be inclined to use it so extensively if we don't need it?

I think that music is indeed 'necessary for human survival", just as bird songs (mating calls) are necessary for their survival, as a species. We just don't understand how or why. Yet.

daylia

Subject: RE: Music and the Brain
From: GUEST
Date: 13 Dec 02 - 09:18 PM

Well, I actually think the whole music and intelligence/Mozart Effect stuff is pretty silly, to be honest. The so-called Mozart Effect study hasn't ever been successfully repeated. It does appear, according to more recent studies, that the development of music intelligence is most closely aligned with rote learning on a linear sort similar to math and science, not the creative arts of dance or poetic chant. So it all seems pretty iffy to me.

I believe the study the article above cites doesn't exactly tell us much. They used musicians as their subjects, and discovered that musicians, when listening actively, use the same part of the brain associated with emotions. Well, they also don't tell you that no study has shown that music activity of any sort enhances short or long term memory. Or that the official psychological definitions of short term is 10 minutes, and long term is 24 hours. So I doubt even being endowed with extra doses of rostromedial prefrontal cortex will help reggie either remember the tune, or keep in tune--sorry! But thanks for minding my mind, and the group mind. We all know what a terrible waste a mind is.

Subject: RE: Music and the Brain
From: Mr Red
Date: 13 Dec 02 - 09:19 PM

which part of the brain do drummers use.

daylia
Not one to gloat but we have trouble hitting things. **BG**

Subject: RE: Music and the Brain
From: reggie miles
Date: 14 Dec 02 - 05:28 AM

daylia, here's my take on that which you've stated above. Every year about spring time mother nature wakes from her long winter hybernations and with her a whole host of plants and animals do likewise. They rub the sleepyman from their eyes, stretch their limbs and scratch a few places they haven't thought about in a good long while. They they go about seeking members of the opposite gender with which to procreate and repopulate the planet. It's called the cycle of life, and it's been going on for about as long as I can remember. Unfortunately, mankind, that's you and me, have ended up on the short end of stick with this whole idea of making that love connection. Sure, we have opposable thumbs and a larger brain than most of the plants and animals on the planet but all it seems to do for us, with regard to this whole pairing off idea, is cause us to muck up the works. Fortunately for us there have been a few brave souls over the eons who have tried to rebalance the scales of nature in our favor. One such man was Nervous Norvus. Way back in the dim, moss covered reaches of recorded hisory, the 1950s, he wrote down his research in a song called Ape Call. Now the ape call is kind of a Tarzan yell. Yall remember how Tarzan yelled don't cha?

Way back in history, before time began,
all the real cool cats had a solid plan.
When they dug a nervous chick, they all to a man went, AAYEEAHHHHH!
Ape call, doodleeabba,
ape call, doodleeabba,
ape call, doodleeabba,
You wanna be cool man?
Go ape.

Young mighty Joe, swingin' through the trees,
was the king of everything that roosted in the leaves.
But when he caught a girl ape a hangin' in the breeze he went, AHHYEEAHHH!
Ape call, doodleeabba,
ape call, doodleeabba,
ape call, doodleeabba,
You like to be hip boy?
Go ape.

A big dinosaur was a long tall lizard,
just driftin' through the jungle like a slow blizzard.
But when gotta double take of lady lizard he just, AHHYEEAHHH!
Ape call, doodleeabba,
ape call, doodleeabba,
ape call, doodleeabba,
You wanna be sharp cat?
Go ape.

A pterodactyl was a flyin' fool,
just a breeze flappin' daddy from the old school.
But a mama dactyl could sure make him drool. AHHYEEAHHH!
Ape call, doodleeabba,
ape call, doodleeabba,
ape call, doodleeabba,
Don't be a square Joe.
Go ape.

Old papa tiger was the boss of the Nile,
just a sports model cat with a solid style.
He was old king cool till a girl tiger smiled. Then he, AHHYEEAHHH!
Ape call, doodleeabba,
ape call, doodleeabba,
ape call, doodleeabba,
Beezorts daddy-oh!
Go ape.

Adam was the first boy in the land,
a big Malirooney daddy with an iron hand.
But when little Evie said, "Hi man!" AHHYEEAHHH!
Ape call, doodleeabba,
ape call, doodleeabba,
ape call, doodleeabba,
Don't be a cube Rube!
Go ape.

You've got to remember to ape call today! AHHYEEAHHH!

Now just in case the ape call alone doesn't help, you can always try the optional chest thumping maneuver and if the two of those moves don't get it done try to clad yourself in some sort of animal print loin cloth. I'm told that any combination of these three techniques are guaranteed to land you a date for the prom, perhaps not the dreamboat you wished for but a date nevertheless.

My work here is done.

PS, I have had entire rooms full of people ape calling along with me on this one, and it's a beautiful thing. I'll be listening.

Subject: RE: Music and the Brain
From: GUEST,daylia
Date: 14 Dec 02 - 08:43 AM

AAHHHYEEEAHHH - thump thump - AAHHHYEEAHHH - thump thump - AAHHYEEAHHH -thump thump - AAHHHYEEEAHHH - Oooooo this is so PRIMAL!

Even has RHYTHM, bumpin and grindin - kinda like that love connection thing. Maybe better! Man, those apes know wondrous things our big brains have forgotten ...

Thanks reggie - gotta go ape now!

Is is spring yet? Who cares!!! AAHHYEEEAAHHH - thump thump - AAHHYEEAHH - thump thump - (scratch scratch) - AAHHYEEEAAHHHHEEEYAAEEEEOOOOOOOOOOOO

Subject: RE: Music and the Brain
From: Pied Piper
Date: 14 Dec 02 - 11:00 AM

Guest.
Any one who thinks science and mathamatics depend on "rote" learning has obviously never had the disciplin to study them.PP

Subject: RE: Music and the Brain
From: GUEST,daylia
Date: 14 Dec 02 - 11:20 AM

Subject: RE: Music and the Brain
From: GUEST,daylia
Date: 14 Dec 02 - 11:47 AM

Sorry again! I've had this computer only a few weeks and I'm trying to learn it 'by ear'. I may just give in a go buy a book like "Computers for Dummies" soon ...

Thought this makes some interesting points about the effect of studying music on the brain and on behavior. It was distributed by the Canadian Federation of Music Teacher's Associations several years ago.


                  SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT

    A highly gifted young pianist after her New York debut, was building a successful career in concertizing, lecturing and teaching. This was brought to an abrupt halt by World War II. When an invitation came to join a War Agency in an undefined capacity she stated that quite frankly, she didn't know what help that she, as a musician, could be in such an organization. The Director, who knew her background, said: "Then let me tell you what you would bring to this, or any other business organization:

First, as a musician you have a highly developed memory, and a                            memory for details.

Second, you are fully adjusted to working in a room by yourself for long periods with complete concentration.

Third, you have learned how to analyse and to work out in detail, problems connected with a piece of work.

Fourth, your mental and muscular coordination of eye, ear, mouth, hands and feet can be surpassed by few.

Fifth, you have learned to organize your time to meet deadlines.

   These are all qualities so valuable that when adapted to any worthwhile purpose, put you years ahead of the average academic graduate.

   This is reality is what you are giving your child when you give music training, in addition to awakening him/her to the soul-satisfying beauty within."

I'm sure I've read clinical documentation of the positive effects of music study on memory. I'll post them if I can find them.

daylia

Subject: RE: Music and the Brain
From: reggie miles
Date: 14 Dec 02 - 12:28 PM

daylia, LOL!

Subject: RE: Music and the Brain
From: GUEST,daylia
Date: 14 Dec 02 - 07:14 PM

Re GUEST above

"It isn't the musicians who are the smartest, but the listeners who are smart enough to use music as a background for other brain-intensive endevours."

At the risk of belabouring the issue, I'd like to point out that the subjects of the study at McGill included GRADUATE STUDENTS PERFORMING NEUROSURGERY. Now, THAT'S a 'brain-intensive endevour', GUEST!
Yet the music students who were playing music and reading music simultaneously were discovered to have more parts of their brain active than even the brain surgeons performing surgery!

Just had to make that clear. I didn't do justice to that study the first time I tried to describe it, and it's been 'driving me APE' all day. (scratch).

AHHHYEEEAAHHHH

Subject: RE: Music and the Brain
From: reggie miles
Date: 15 Dec 02 - 12:33 AM

I heard that.

Subject: RE: Music and the Brain
From: GUEST,daylia
Date: 15 Dec 02 - 05:52 PM

Did it stimulate your rostromedial prefrontal cortex? Think it's giving me an itch in mine ... scr scra ... can't quite find it ... scr scra ...

Subject: RE: Music and the Brain
From: Wolfgang
Date: 14 Dec 04 - 07:31 AM

A short paper and a short link list to that theme

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: Music and the Brain
From: Mooh
Date: 14 Dec 04 - 10:19 AM

Yeah, it's kinda weird. After several strokes had rendered my Dad mute and mostly incapable of caring for himself, he was able to struggle to his feet in church and sing, from memory, most of what was sung. We weren't sure if he could read anymore, though he'd sit for hours at least leafing through books and magazines, but song would open his mouth when nothing else could. He spent his last couple of years that way. Maybe one or two spoken words per day or week, but congregational singing gave him voice. An ironic end for a humble clergyman.

After a stroke and a blood clot, my Mom has become a strange combination of child and raging granny, simultaneously silly, playful, and insightfully outspoken. She wobbles over to her piano and plays a bit still, though her hands aren't capable of much anymore, and she'll openly sing, in a kind of croak, her favourite songs. While she spent months recuperating in hospitals and nursing homes after her stroke, she listened to CBC radio day and night...I believe it saved her life.

If my brain ever refuses music I hope I'm either dead or too adled to know what I've lost.

Peace, Mooh.