The Wow Factor? A Comparative Study of the Development of Student Music Teachers' Talents in Scotland and Australia

For some time there has been debate about differing perspectives on musical gift and musical intelligence. One view is that musical gift is innate: that it is present in certain individuals from birth and that the task of the teacher is to develop the potential which is there. A second view is that musical gift is a complex concept which includes responses from individuals to different environments and communities (Howe and Sloboda, 1997). This then raises the possibility that musical excellence can be taught. We have already explored this idea with practising musicians (Stollery and McPhee, 2002). Our research has now expanded to include music teachers in formation, and, in this paper, we look at the influences in their musical development which have either 'crystallised' or 'paralysed' the musical talent which they possess. Our research has a comparative dimension, being carried out in Scotland and in Australia. We conclude that there are several key influences in the musical development of the individual, including home and community support, school opportunities and teaching styles and that there may be education and culture-specific elements to these influences

Processes and experiences of creative cognition in seven Western classical composers

In a qualitative study, we explored the range of reflections and experiences involved in the composition of score-based music by administering a 15-item, open-ended, questionnaire to seven professional composers from Europe and North America. Adopting a grounded theory approach, we organized six different codes emerging from our data into two higher-order categories ( the act of composing and establishing relationships). Our content analysis, inspired by the theoretical resources of 4E cognitive science, points to three overlapping characteristics of creative cognition in music composition: it is largely exploratory, it is grounded in bodily experience, and it emerges from the recursive dialogue of agents and their environment. More generally, such preliminary findings suggest that musical creativity may be advantageously understood as a process of constant adaptation – one in which composers enact their musical styles and identities by exploring novel interactivities hidden in their contingent and historical milieux

On being a memory expert witness: Three cases

I describe three legal cases in which I acted as a memory expert witness. The cases contain remarkable accounts of memories. Such memories are by no means unusual in legal cases, are often over retention intervals measured in decades, and contain details the specificity of which is highly unusual. For example, recalling from childhood verbatim conversations, clothes worn by self and others, the weather, actions that at the time could not have been understood, details that could not have been known, precise durations and calendar dates, and much more. I show how our scientific understanding of memory can help courts reach more informed decisions about such fantastical "memories" and how these memories constitute data that as researchers we should seek to understand

Reciprocal Modulation of Cognitive and Emotional Aspects in Pianistic Performances

Background: High level piano performance requires complex integration of perceptual, motor, cognitive and emotive skills. Observations in psychology and neuroscience studies have suggested reciprocal inhibitory modulation of the cognition by emotion and emotion by cognition. However, it is still unclear how cognitive states may influence the pianistic performance. The aim of the present study is to verify the influence of cognitive and affective attention in the piano performances. Methods and Findings: Nine pianists were instructed to play the same piece of music, firstly focusing only on cognitive aspects of musical structure (cognitive performances), and secondly, paying attention solely on affective aspects (affective performances). Audio files from pianistic performances were examined using a computational model that retrieves nine specific musical features (descriptors) - loudness, articulation, brightness, harmonic complexity, event detection, key clarity, mode detection, pulse clarity and repetition. In addition, the number of volunteers' errors in the recording sessions was counted. Comments from pianists about their thoughts during performances were also evaluated. The analyses of audio files throughout musical descriptors indicated that the affective performances have more: agogics, legatos, pianos phrasing, and less perception of event density when compared to the cognitive ones. Error analysis demonstrated that volunteers misplayed more left hand notes in the cognitive performances than in the affective ones. Volunteers also played more wrong notes in affective than in cognitive performances. These results correspond to the volunteers' comments that in the affective performances, the cognitive aspects of piano execution are inhibited, whereas in the cognitive performances, the expressiveness is inhibited. Conclusions: Therefore, the present results indicate that attention to the emotional aspects of performance enhances expressiveness, but constrains cognitive and motor skills in the piano execution. In contrast, attention to the cognitive aspects may constrain the expressivity and automatism of piano performances.Brazilian government research agency: Fundacao de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de Sao Paulo (FAPESP)[08/54844-7]Brazilian government research agency: Fundacao de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de Sao Paulo (FAPESP)[07/59826-4

Вплив вітамінів групи B (B1, B2, B5, B6, B10, B12) на активність ферментів системи антиоксидантного захисту і вміст продуктів пероксидного окиснення ліпідів у крові бугайців на відгодівлі

The article highlights the specifics of the effect of various doses of a complex of B vitamins (B1, B2, B5, B6, B10, B12) on the activity of critical enzymes of the body's antioxidant defense system (superoxide dismutase, catalase, glutathione peroxidase) and the content of peroxide oxidation products (diene conjugates and Malan dialdehyde) in the blood of cattle at the final stage of fattening. The research was conducted during the winter-spring stall on 12-month-old Ukrainian black-spotted dairy cows. According to the principle of analogs, five groups of experimental animals (control and four experimental) were formed, each with six heads. The experiment lasted six months. The rations for the research groups of Bugai cattle are prepared by the recommended norms, taking into account the chemical composition of the fodder of the given area, the age of the animals, live weight, and the planned average daily growth. The silage type of fattening was used for feeding the Bugai cattle. The basis of our dosage of various vitamins of group B for fattening steers of experimental groups is the appropriate percentage of the recommended doses of individual vitamins of group B for fattening pigs (10 % – D1, 20 % – D2, 40 % – D3, 60 % – D4 group). The conducted studies established that the addition of a complex of B vitamins (B1, B2, B5, B6, B10, B12) balanced in terms of nutrients and minerals and fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E to the diet of fattening bulls in appropriate doses causes an increase in activity of critical enzymes of the antioxidant defense system in the blood of fattening bulls (the activity of superoxide dismutase increases the most (by 8.9–28.4 %)) and a decrease in the content of both primary (diene conjugates) and secondary (malanic dialdehyde) products of lipid peroxidation in the blood of fattening bulls, which depends on the dose of B vitamins added to the diet (B1, B2, B5, B6, B10, B12). The most significant change in terms of morphological composition in animals third (B1 – 0.040; B2 – 0.06; B5 – 1.2; B6 – 0.25; B10 – 0.0030; B12 – 0.0006 mg/kg body weight) and fourth (B1 – 0.070; B2 – 0.10; B5 – 2.0; B6 – 0.40; B10 – 0.0050; B12 – 0.0010 mg/kg body weight) research groups, and smallest – in bull Ist (B1 – 0.015; B2 – 0.03; B5 – 0.5; B6 – 0.10; B10 – 0.0012; B12 – 0.0002 mg/kg body weight) and research group, which is associated with dose introduced to the diet of calves during the final fattening phase of B vitamins (B1, B2, B5, B6, B10, B12).У статті висвітлюються особливості впливу різних доз комплексу вітамінів групи В (B1, B2, B5, B6, B10, B12) на активність ключових ферментів антиоксидатної системи захисту організму (супероксиддисмутаза, каталаза, глутатіонпероксидаза) і вміст продуктів пероксидного окиснення ліпідів (дієнових кон’югатів і маланового діальдегіду) у крові бугайців на заключному етапі відгодівлі. Дослідження проведено у зимово-весняний стійловий період на бугайцях української чорно-рябої молочної породи віком 12 місяців. За принципом аналогів було сформовано 5 груп дослідних тварин (контрольну і 4 дослідні) по 6 голів у кожній. Дослід тривав 6 місяців. Раціони для дослідних груп бугайців складені відповідно до рекомендованих норм із врахуванням хімічного складу кормів даної місцевості, віку тварин, живої маси, планованих середньодобових приростів. Для годівлі бугайців використовували силосний тип відгодівлі. В основу нашого дозування різних вітамінів групи В для бугайців дослідних груп на відгодівлі взято відповідний відсоток від рекомендованих доз окремих вітамінів групи В для свиней на відгодівлі (10 % – Д1, 20 % – Д2, 40 % – Д3, 60 % – Д4 група). Проведеними дослідженнями встановлено, що додавання до раціону бугайців на відгодівлі збалансованого за поживними і мінеральними речовинами та жиророзчинними вітамінами А, D, E комплексу вітамінів групи В (B1, B2, B5, B6, B10, B12) у відповідних дозах викликаає підвищення активності ключових ферментів системи антиоксидатного захисту у крові бугайців на відгодівлі (найбільше зростає активність супероксиддисмутази (на 8,9–28,4%) і зниження вмісту як первинних (дієнових кон’югатів), так і вторинних (маланового діальдегіду) продуктів пероксидного окиснення ліпідів у крові бугайців на відгодівлі, що залежить від дози додатково введених до раціону вітамінів групи В (B1, B2, B5, B6, B10, B12). Найбільші зміни в активності ферментів системи антиоксидантного захисту (супероксиддисмутаза, каталаза, глутатіонпероксидаза) і у показниках вмісту продуктів  пероксидного окиснення ліпідів у крові бугайців на відгодівлі за корекції їхнього раціону комплексом вітамінів групи В (B1, B2, B5, B6, B10, B12) встановлено у тварин 3-ї (B1 – 0,040; B2 – 0,06; B5 – 1,2; B6 – 0,25; B10 – 0,0030; B12 – 0,0006 мг/кг живої маси) та 4-ї дослідних груп (B1 – 0,070; B2 – 0,10; B5 –2,0; B6 – 0,40; B10  – 0,0050; B12 – 0,0010 мг/кг живої маси), а найменші – у бугайців 1-ї дослідної групи (B1 – 0,015; B2 – 0,03; B5 – 0,5; B6 – 0,10; B10  – 0,0012; B12 – 0,0002 мг/кг живої маси), що повʼязано з кількістю введених до раціону бугайців на заключному етапі відгодівлі вітамінів групи В (B1, B2, B5, B6, B10, B12)

Melody and pitch processing in five musical savants with congenital blindness

Abstract. We examined absolute-pitch (AP) and short-term musical memory abilities of five musical savants with congenital blindness, seven musicians, and seven non-musicians with good vision and normal intelligence in two experiments. In the first, short-term memory for musical phrases was tested and the savants and musicians performed statistically indistinguishably, both signifi- cantly outperforming the non-musicians and remembering more material from the C major scale sequences than random trials. In the second experiment, participants learnt associations between four pitches and four objects using a non-verbal paradigm. This experiment approximates to testing AP ability. Low statistical power meant the savants were not statistically better than the musicians, although only the savants scored statistically higher than the non-musicians. The results are evidence for a musical module, separate from general intelligence; they also support the anecdotal reporting of AP in musical savants, which is thought to be necessary for the development of musical-savant skill

Maternal Undernutrition Significantly Impacts Ovarian Follicle Number and Increases Ovarian Oxidative Stress in Adult Rat Offspring

BACKGROUND: We have shown recently that maternal undernutrition (UN) advanced female pubertal onset in a manner that is dependent upon the timing of UN. The long-term consequence of this accelerated puberty on ovarian function is unknown. Recent findings suggest that oxidative stress may be one mechanism whereby early life events impact on later physiological functioning. Therefore, using an established rodent model of maternal UN at critical windows of development, we examined maternal UN-induced changes in offspring ovarian function and determined whether these changes were underpinned by ovarian oxidative stress. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Our study is the first to show that maternal UN significantly reduced primordial and secondary follicle number in offspring in a manner that was dependent upon the timing of maternal UN. Specifically, a reduction in these early stage follicles was observed in offspring born to mothers undernourished throughout both pregnancy and lactation. Additionally, antral follicle number was reduced in offspring born to all mothers that were UN regardless of whether the period of UN was restricted to pregnancy or lactation or both. These reductions were associated with decreased mRNA levels of genes critical for follicle maturation and ovulation. Increased ovarian protein carbonyls were observed in offspring born to mothers UN during pregnancy and/or lactation and this was associated with peroxiredoxin 3 hyperoxidation and reduced mRNA levels; suggesting compromised antioxidant defence. This was not observed in offspring of mothers UN during lactation alone. CONCLUSIONS: We propose that maternal UN, particularly at a time-point that includes pregnancy, results in reduced offspring ovarian follicle numbers and mRNA levels of regulatory genes and may be mediated by increased ovarian oxidative stress coupled with a decreased ability to repair the resultant oxidative damage. Together these data are suggestive of maternal UN potentially contributing to premature ovarian ageing in offspring

Comparing the Processing of Music and Language Meaning Using EEG and fMRI Provides Evidence for Similar and Distinct Neural Representations

Recent demonstrations that music is capable of conveying semantically meaningful information has raised several questions as to what the underlying mechanisms of establishing meaning in music are, and if the meaning of music is represented in comparable fashion to language meaning. This paper presents evidence showing that expressed affect is a primary pathway to music meaning and that meaning in music is represented in a very similar fashion to language meaning. In two experiments using EEG and fMRI, it was shown that single chords varying in harmonic roughness (consonance/dissonance) and thus perceived affect could prime the processing of subsequently presented affective target words, as indicated by an increased N400 and activation of the right middle temporal gyrus (MTG). Most importantly, however, when primed by affective words, single chords incongruous to the preceding affect also elicited an N400 and activated the right posterior STS, an area implicated in processing meaning of a variety of signals (e.g. prosody, voices, motion). This provides an important piece of evidence in support of music meaning being represented in a very similar but also distinct fashion to language meaning: Both elicit an N400, but activate different portions of the right temporal lobe

Induced pseudoscalar coupling of the proton weak interaction

The induced pseudoscalar coupling $g_p$ is the least well known of the weak coupling constants of the proton's charged--current interaction. Its size is dictated by chiral symmetry arguments, and its measurement represents an important test of quantum chromodynamics at low energies. During the past decade a large body of new data relevant to the coupling $g_p$ has been accumulated. This data includes measurements of radiative and non radiative muon capture on targets ranging from hydrogen and few--nucleon systems to complex nuclei. Herein the authors review the theoretical underpinnings of $g_p$, the experimental studies of $g_p$, and the procedures and uncertainties in extracting the coupling from data. Current puzzles are highlighted and future opportunities are discussed.Comment: 58 pages, Latex, Revtex4, prepared for Reviews of Modern Physic