Active imaginative listening—a neuromusical critique

The parallel study of music in science and creative practice can be traced back to the ancients; and paralleling the emergence of music neuroscience, creative musical practitioners have employed neurobiological phenomena extensively in music composition and performance. Several examples from the author’s work in this area, which began in the 1960s, are cited and briefly described. From this perspective, the author also explores questions pertinent to current agendas evident in music neuroscience and speculates on potentially potent future directions

Introduction to the Neurosciences and Music IV: Learning and Memory

The conference entitled The Neurosciences and Music-IV: Learning and Memory was held at the University of Edinburgh from June 9-12, 2011, jointly hosted by the Mariani Foundation and the Institute for Music in Human and Social Development, and involving nearly 500 international delegates. Two opening workshops, three large and vibrant poster sessions, and nine invited symposia introduced a diverse range of recent research findings and discussed current research directions. Here, the proceedings are introduced by the workshop and symposia leaders on topics including working with children, rhythm perception, language processing, cultural learning, memory, musical imagery, neural plasticity, stroke rehabilitation, autism, and amusia. The rich diversity of the interdisciplinary research presented suggests that the future of music neuroscience looks both exciting and promising, and that important implications for music rehabilitation and therapy are being discovered

La influencia de la música en la construcción del sentido de realidad en los adolescentes

El presente documento resume teóricamente algunos aspectos claves de la influencia de la música y sus diferentes representaciones, en la construcción del sentido subjetivo de la realidad en los jóvenes, resaltando los métodos más interesantes en los que la música contribuye a la generación de contenidos audiovisuales con influencias directas en el aprendizaje, interactuando constantemente con los jóvenes en la actualidad, contenidos como; videojuegos, televisión; situaciones compartidas emocionales muy fuertes en las obras como películas, series, documentales y hasta publicidades. Estos y otra infinidad de contenidos de entretenimiento están generando experiencias significativas que pueden redefinir directa o indirectamente el sentido de realidad que el joven adolescente o en los primeros años de la adultez, se está configurando el sentido de realidad. La revisión de literatura fue el método utilizado para enfatizar la búsqueda de información teórica en este estudio, de esta forma trataremos de dar respuesta a unos objetivos de investigación que guíen la búsqueda de la información académica centrándose en aquellos artículos científicos como tesis de investigación, proyectos de investigaciones e intervención, artículos de revistas científicas, entrevistas documentadas en revista, dónde hayan podido realizar un análisis a esta influencia significativa de la música en la construcción del sentido subjetivo de realidad en los jóvenes de la actualidad.This document theoretically summarizes some key aspects of the influence of music and its different representations, in the construction of the subjective sense of reality in young people, highlighting the most interesting methods in which music contributes to the generation of audiovisual content with direct influences on learning, constantly interacting with young people today, contents such as; video games, television; very strong shared emotional situations in works such as films, series, documentaries and even advertisements. These and countless other entertainment contents are generating significant experiences that can directly or indirectly redefine the sense of reality that the young adolescent or in the first years of adulthood, is configuring the sense of reality. The literature review was the method used to emphasize the search for theoretical information in this study, in this way we will try to respond to some research objectives that guide the search for academic information focusing on those scientific articles such as research theses, projects of investigations and intervention, articles from scientific journals, interviews documented in a magazine, where they have been able to carry out an analysis of this significant influence of music in the construction of the subjective sense of reality in young people today

The Manifestation of Stress and Rumination in Musicians

Here we offer a brief review of research on individual differences that are common to musicians, focusing on our own work on rumination and stress. Rumination and stress have been linked with depression and negative health outcomes. We discuss two of our published studies and two new, unpublished replications that find elevated levels of rumination and stress in musicians. Further, we review literature that finds this combination of rumination and stress might be especially toxic. Even though people frequently use music to help combat stress, musicians may not be taking advantage of their frequent exposure to music, further exacerbating the problem. Interventions aimed at alleviating stress and rumination might prove helpful to musicians

Music, memory and mechanisms in Alzheimer’s disease

This scientific commentary refers to ‘Why musical memory can be preserved in advanced Alzheimer’s disease’, by Jacobsen et al. (doi:10.1093/brain/awv135)

Enhanced amplitude modulations contribute to the Lombard intelligibility benefit: Evidence from the Nijmegen Corpus of Lombard Speech

Speakers adjust their voice when talking in noise, which is known as Lombard speech. These acoustic adjustments facilitate speech comprehension in noise relative to plain speech (i.e., speech produced in quiet). However, exactly which characteristics of Lombard speech drive this intelligibility benefit in noise remains unclear. This study assessed the contribution of enhanced amplitude modulations to the Lombard speech intelligibility benefit by demonstrating that (1) native speakers of Dutch in the Nijmegen Corpus of Lombard Speech (NiCLS) produce more pronounced amplitude modulations in noise vs. in quiet; (2) more enhanced amplitude modulations correlate positively with intelligibility in a speech-in-noise perception experiment; (3) transplanting the amplitude modulations from Lombard speech onto plain speech leads to an intelligibility improvement, suggesting that enhanced amplitude modulations in Lombard speech contribute towards intelligibility in noise. Results are discussed in light of recent neurobiological models of speech perception with reference to neural oscillators phase-locking to the amplitude modulations in speech, guiding the processing of speech

Neurophysiological and Behavioral Responses to Music Therapy in Vegetative and Minimally Conscious States

Assessment of awareness for those with disorders of consciousness is a challenging undertaking, due to the complex presentation of the population. Debate surrounds whether behavioral assessments provide greatest accuracy in diagnosis compared to neuro-imaging methods, and despite developments in both, misdiagnosis rates remain high. Music therapy may be effective in the assessment and rehabilitation with this population due to effects of musical stimuli on arousal, attention, and emotion, irrespective of verbal or motor deficits. However, an evidence base is lacking as to which procedures are most effective. To address this, a neurophysiological and behavioral study was undertaken comparing electroencephalogram (EEG), heart rate variability, respiration, and behavioral responses of 20 healthy subjects with 21 individuals in vegetative or minimally conscious states (VS or MCS). Subjects were presented with live preferred music and improvised music entrained to respiration (procedures typically used in music therapy), recordings of disliked music, white noise, and silence. ANOVA tests indicated a range of significant responses (p ? 0.05) across healthy subjects corresponding to arousal and attention in response to preferred music including concurrent increases in respiration rate with globally enhanced EEG power spectra responses (p = 0.05–0.0001) across frequency bandwidths. Whilst physiological responses were heterogeneous across patient cohorts, significant post hoc EEG amplitude increases for stimuli associated with preferred music were found for frontal midline theta in six VS and four MCS subjects, and frontal alpha in three VS and four MCS subjects (p = 0.05–0.0001). Furthermore, behavioral data showed a significantly increased blink rate for preferred music (p = 0.029) within the VS cohort. Two VS cases are presented with concurrent changes (p ? 0.05) across measures indicative of discriminatory responses to both music therapy procedures. A third MCS case study is presented highlighting how more sensitive selective attention may distinguish MCS from VS. The findings suggest that further investigation is warranted to explore the use of music therapy for prognostic indicators, and its potential to support neuroplasticity in rehabilitation programs