Article 5TFRM Mapping the Musical Mind: Interesting Patterns of Brain Activity Emerge During Musical Analysis Exer

Mapping the Musical Mind: Interesting Patterns of Brain Activity Emerge During Musical Analysis Exer

by
martyb
from SoylentNews on (#5TFRM)

upstart writes:

Mapping the musical mind: Interesting patterns of brain activity emerge during musical analysis exercises:

"In the field of neuroscience, it is well established that there are areas of the brain that deal specifically with language, and even specialized regions that correspond to different parts of language processing such as grammar or syntax," said [Professor Kuniyoshi L.] Sakai. "We wondered if training under the Suzuki method might lead to activity in such areas, not when using language, but when engaging with music. Our study reveals this is indeed the case."

For their investigation, the team enlisted 98 Japanese secondary school students classified into three groups: Group S (Suzuki) was trained from a young age in the Suzuki method, Group E (Early) was musically trained from a young age but not in the Suzuki method, and Group L (Late) was either musically trained at a later age, but not in the Suzuki method, or were not musically trained at all. All the students had their brains scanned by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), which produced dynamic 3D models of their brains' activity. During this time, they were given a musical exercise to identify errors in a piece of music played to them. The musical pieces played had errors in one of four musical conditions: pitch, tempo, stress and articulation.

[...] "One striking observation was that regardless of musical experience, the highly specific grammar center in the left brain was activated during the articulation condition. This connection between music and language might explain why everyone can enjoy music even if they are not musical themselves," said Sakai.

[In the early 1980s, when the field was very young, IBM was known to hire musicians for programming positions. I wonder how many Soylentils have music-related backgrounds? --martyb.]

Journal Reference:
Kuniyoshi L. Sakai, Yoshiaki Oshiba, Reiya Horisawa, et al. Music-Experience-Related and Musical-Error-Dependent Activations in the Brain, Cerebral Cortex (DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhab478)

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