Computational models of temporal expectations

With Western, tonal music, the expectedness of any given note or chord can be estimated using various methodologies, from perceptual distance to information content. However, in the realm of rhythm and meter, the same sort of predictive capability is lacking. To date, most computational models have focused on predicting meter (a global cognitive framework for listening), rather than fluctuations in metric attention or expectations at each moment in time. This theoretical contribution reviews existing models, noting current capabilities and outlining necessities for future work

An aesthetics of touch: investigating the language of design relating to form

How well can designers communicate qualities of touch? This paper presents evidence that they have some capability to do so, much of which appears to have been learned, but at present make limited use of such language. Interviews with graduate designer-makers suggest that they are aware of and value the importance of touch and materiality in their work, but lack a vocabulary to fully relate to their detailed explanations of other aspects such as their intent or selection of materials. We believe that more attention should be paid to the verbal dialogue that happens in the design process, particularly as other researchers show that even making-based learning also has a strong verbal element to it. However, verbal language alone does not appear to be adequate for a comprehensive language of touch. Graduate designers-makers’ descriptive practices combined non-verbal manipulation within verbal accounts. We thus argue that haptic vocabularies do not simply describe material qualities, but rather are situated competences that physically demonstrate the presence of haptic qualities. Such competencies are more important than groups of verbal vocabularies in isolation. Design support for developing and extending haptic competences must take this wide range of considerations into account to comprehensively improve designers’ capabilities

Aesthetic Sensitivity

[eng] Aesthetic sensitivity is a central idea in the field of empirical aesthetics. The present research contributes a historical-critical review of its origin and development through the history of the discipline, a new theoretical approach aligned with current knowledge, novel methodological tools to investigate this and other relevant psychological constructs, and empirical evidence based on this conception that advances scientific understanding of sensory valuation.[spa] La sensibilidad estética es una idea central en el campo de la estética empírica. La presente investigación aporta una revisión histórico-crítica de su origen y desarrollo a través de la historia de la disciplina, un nuevo enfoque teórico de acuerdo con los conocimientos actuales, novedosas herramientas metodológicas para investigar éste y otros constructos psicológicos relevantes, y evidencia empírica basada en esta concepción que avanza la comprensión científica de la valoración sensorial.[cat] La sensibilitat estètica és una idea central en el camp de l'estètica empírica. La present investigació aporta una revisió històric-crítica del seu origen i desenvolupament a través de la història de la disciplina, un nou enfocament teòric alineat amb els coneixements actuals, noves eines metodològiques per investigar aquest i altres constructes psicològics rellevants, i evidència empírica basada en aquesta concepció que avança la comprensió científica de la valoració sensorial

Music in the brain

Music is ubiquitous across human cultures — as a source of affective and pleasurable experience, moving us both physically and emotionally — and learning to play music shapes both brain structure and brain function. Music processing in the brain — namely, the perception of melody, harmony and rhythm — has traditionally been studied as an auditory phenomenon using passive listening paradigms. However, when listening to music, we actively generate predictions about what is likely to happen next. This enactive aspect has led to a more comprehensive understanding of music processing involving brain structures implicated in action, emotion and learning. Here we review the cognitive neuroscience literature of music perception. We show that music perception, action, emotion and learning all rest on the human brain’s fundamental capacity for prediction — as formulated by the predictive coding of music model. This Review elucidates how this formulation of music perception and expertise in individuals can be extended to account for the dynamics and underlying brain mechanisms of collective music making. This in turn has important implications for human creativity as evinced by music improvisation. These recent advances shed new light on what makes music meaningful from a neuroscientific perspective

Emotional Responses to Multisensory Environmental Stimuli: A Conceptual Framework and Literature Review.

How we perceive our environment affects the way we feel and behave. The impressions of our ambient environment are influenced by its entire spectrum of physical characteristics (e.g., luminosity, sound, scents, temperature) in a dynamic and interactive way. The ability to manipulate the sensory aspects of an environment such that people feel comfortable or exhibit a desired behavior is gaining interest and social relevance. Although much is known about the sensory effects of individual environmental characteristics, their combined effects are not a priori evident due to a wide range of non-linear interactions in the processing of sensory cues. As a result, it is currently not known how different environmental characteristics should be combined to effectively induce desired emotional and behavioral effects. To gain more insight into this matter, we performed a literature review on the emotional effects of multisensory stimulation. Although we found some interesting mechanisms, the outcome also reveals that empirical evidence is still scarce and haphazard. To stimulate further discussion and research, we propose a conceptual framework that describes how environmental interventions are likely to affect human emotional responses. This framework leads to some critical research questions that suggest opportunities for further investigation

Neural synchronization is strongest to the spectral flux of slow music and depends on familiarity and beat salience

Neural activity in the auditory system synchronizes to sound rhythms, and brain–environment synchronization is thought to be fundamental to successful auditory perception. Sound rhythms are often operationalized in terms of the sound’s amplitude envelope. We hypothesized that – especially for music – the envelope might not best capture the complex spectro-temporal fluctuations that give rise to beat perception and synchronized neural activity. This study investigated (1) neural synchronization to different musical features, (2) tempo-dependence of neural synchronization, and (3) dependence of synchronization on familiarity, enjoyment, and ease of beat perception. In this electroencephalography study, 37 human participants listened to tempo-modulated music (1–4 Hz). Independent of whether the analysis approach was based on temporal response functions (TRFs) or reliable components analysis (RCA), the spectral flux of music – as opposed to the amplitude envelope – evoked strongest neural synchronization. Moreover, music with slower beat rates, high familiarity, and easy-to-perceive beats elicited the strongest neural response. Our results demonstrate the importance of spectro-temporal fluctuations in music for driving neural synchronization, and highlight its sensitivity to musical tempo, familiarity, and beat salience

Neuro-oscillatory tracking of low- and high-level musico-acoustic features during naturalistic music listening: insights from an intracranial electroencephalography study

Studies investigating the neural processing of musico-acoustic features have tended to do so using highly controlled musical stimuli. However, it is increasingly argued that failing to use naturalistic stimuli limits the extent to which findings from lab studies can be extrapolated to rich and varied real-world experiences. Here, we recorded electrical brain activity from 8 epileptic patients, implanted for pre-surgical evaluation with Stereo-encephalography (SEEG), while they listened to pieces from the western tonal music repertoire. We estimated the sound intensity and key and pulse clarity of the stimuli using a toolbox for automatic extraction of musico-acoustic features. We then used partial-correlation analyses to examine the patterns of neuro-oscillatory activity associated with the processing of these features. Our results showed clear tracking of sound intensity in high-gamma and alpha frequency bands in posterior superior temporal gyrus, reflecting neural firing and the transfer of auditory information from the thalamus to auditory cortices, respectively. Patterns of partial correlations, in line with our hypotheses, also suggested limbic and inferior frontal cortical tracking of tonal and rhythmic uncertainty, albeit without the robustness shown for sound intensity tracking in auditory areas. The study provides an important contribution to the existing literature in its adherence to the call for a greater use of ecologically valid stimuli in neuroscientific investigations of music listening. Our results, specifically, have implications for research on the neural processing of musical uncertainty and for future studies seeking to use intracranial EEG to examine naturalistic music processing

What can a sonic assemblage do? A biopsychosocial approach to post-acousmatic composition

Thinking and sounding are two terms which complicate one another, hence this thesis follows two trajectories each of which make an original contribution to knowledge. Part 1 (thinking sound) proposes to reground composition away from historically authoritative humanist models, instead suggesting a biopsychosocial approach for a post-acousmatic music. I elaborate a set of models and key concepts, chiefly an eliminativist account of the listener-sound relation; neurocognitively discrete musical domains and dimensions of the Kmatrix; model-based reasoning through a Reception-Interpretation-Action helix; and, mentalizing listening stances based upon dual-process cognition models. This is combined with an art-activist stance where composition is concerned with the effects that a sonic artobject exerts in its vicinity. I propose composition as experimentally concerned with generating new epistemic things through a process of assemblage and heterogeneous engineering. Part 2 (sounding thinking) discusses fixed and live compositions which initiated and respond to my proposed approach. In my practice, I focus on the disruption of specific aesthetic regimens to bring listening into attentional focus, engaging the specificity of the mnemonic traces that sound leaves. The pieces are largely concerned with sonic cultures related to Islam and the MENASA region