CynthiaWunsch
Blog Results 1 to 15 of 47 Previous Next Wednesday, November 19, 2008Why Only Classical Music Decreases Seizure ActivityResearch from Hughes, JR and JJ Fino: The goal of this study was to determine distinctive aspects of Mozart music that may explain the "Mozart Effect," specifically, the decrease in seizure activity. As many as 81 musical selections of Mozart, but also 67 of J.C. Bach, 67 of J.S. Bach, 39 of Chopin and 148 from 55 other composers were computer analyzed to quantify the music in search of any distinctive aspect and later to determine the degree to which a dominant periodicity could be found. Long-term periodicity (especially 10-60 sec, mean and median of 30 sec), was found often in Mozart music but also that of the two Bachs, significantly more often than the other composers and was especially absent in the control music that had no effect on epileptic activity in previous studies. Short-term periodicities were not significantly different between Mozart and the Bachs vs. the other composers. The conclusion is that one distinctive aspect of Mozart music is long-term periodicity that may well resonate within the cerebral cortex and also may be related to coding within the brain. ... Read More (371 words)Saturday, November 15, 2008Classical Music on your MindFrom this study : The trion model was developed using the Mountcastle organizational principle for the column as the basic neuronal network in the cortex and the physical system analogy of Fisher's ANNNI spin model. An essential feature is that it is highly structured in time and in spatial connections. Simulations of a network of trions have shown that large numbers of quasi-stable, periodic spatial-temporal firing patterns can be excited. Characteristics of these patterns include the quality of being readily enhanced by only a small change in connection strengths, and that the patterns evolve in certain natural sequences from one to another. With only somewhat different parameters than used for studying memory and pattern recognition, much more flowing and intriguing patterns emerged from the simulations. The results were striking when these probabilistic evolutions were mapped onto pitches and instruments to produce music: For example different simple mappings of the same evolution give music having the "flavor" of a minuet, a waltz, folk music, or styles of specific periods. A theme can be learned so that evolutions have this theme and its variations reoccurring more often. That the trion model is a viable model for the coding of musical structure in human composition and perception is suggested. It is further proposed that model is relevant for examining creativity in the higher cognitive functions of mathematics and chess, which are similar to music. An even higher level of cortical organization was modeled by coupling together several trion networks. Further, one of the crucial features of higher brain function, especially in music composition or appreciation, is the role of emotion and mood as controlled by the many neuromodulators or neuropeptides. The MILA model whose underlying basis is zero-level representation of Kac-Moody algebra is used to modulate periodically the firing threshold of each network. Our preliminary results show that the introduction of "neuromodulation" into the dynamics of a few coupled trion networks greatly enhanced the richness of the music. Neuromodulation plays a very important role in cognitive processes. I discuss many aspects of cognitive processes such as, leaning and memory, innervation of cortical functions and coordination between music and emotions. ... Read More (667 words)Wednesday, November 12, 2008Mozart and EpilepsyFrom this source : <quote> In 23 of 29 patients with focal discharges or bursts of generalized spike and wave complexes who listened to the Mozart piano sonata K448 there was a significant decrease in epileptiform activity as shown by the electroencephalogram (EEG). Some individual patients showed especially striking improvement. In one male, unconscious with status epilepticus, ictal patterns were present 62% of the time, whereas during exposure to Mozart's music this value fell to 21%. In two other patients with status epilepticus continuous bilateral spike and wave complexes were recorded 90-100% of the time before the music, suddenly falling to about 50% 5 minutes after the music began. The fact that improvement took place even in a comatose patient demonstrates again that appreciation of the music is not a necessary feature of the Mozart effect. </quote> ... Read More (308 words)Monday, November 10, 2008Music and RefugeesToday is Bloggers Unite for Refugees day, so I thought I'd post some stuff I've run into over the years about different countries and their policies on accepting musicians. This may be a resource for musical and artistic refugees and I hope that someone finds it interesting, useful, and perhaps it could lead to some thinking on larger levels. As we have seen from my earlier post on social capital, often music is what can unite a group of people. In some drastic circumstances, we have seen that music is often the only resource a community has to keep them together. ... Read More (1188 words)Saturday, November 8, 2008Classical Music and EpilepsyNovember is Epilepsy Awareness Month in the USA and so just as I did with autism, this month I will devote a majority of posts to focusing on the research on epilepsy. Notice: In rare cases, musicogenic seizures have been reported. As with all the health research I write about, please consult your doctor before applying any of this research to your own circumstances! ... Read More (527 words)Wednesday, November 5, 2008Learning Piano Decreases Anxiety in SeniorsFrom this study : The study followed various health measures in 130 people during 1998. The experimental group consisted of 61 retirees taking group keyboard lessons in Florida over a period of two 10-week semesters. The health measures were administered before the lessons and after each semester. The control group included 69 retirees in Michigan not receiving group keyboard lessons, with the health measures administered at the same times as the experimental group in Florida. ... Read More (249 words)Wednesday, August 1, 2007About This BlikiWow, a crossover between a blog and a wiki? I just started a private blog a few months ago to get in the habit . . . and this just looked like the perfect medium to get people involved. Is Web 2.0 a flash in the pan? and is it the coolest thing ever for classical musicians? Can I even figure this thing out? What this is, is a combination of a blog and a wiki, which is a set of interrelated and interlinked articles, much like Wikipedia. Parts of this site are a blog, and relate to each other in the sense that they are chronologically-based postings. Part of this site is a wiki, with factual articles and no dates in the titles. The two can interact in that a wiki page can reference a blog post, a blog post can reference another blog post or wiki page, and so on. ... Read More (291 words)Monday, September 17, 2007The Classical Music EntrepreneurIf you had asked anyone, even as short a time as 2 years ago, to pick the person they knew most unlikely to revolutionize the way the classical music industry works, I'm sure I must have appeared on the short list along with such unlikely people as, oh, let's say a major pop star constantly in and out of rehab, Jerry Lee Lewis, Dr. Hawking, and Horton the Elephant. My sole goal in life was to make enough money not to have to balance my checkbook. (That, I did manage to achieve.) ... Read More (156 words)Saturday, November 1, 2008Classical Music and High Blood PressureFrom this study: The mechanism by which music modifies brain function is not clear. Clinical findings indicate that music reduces blood pressure in various patients. We investigated the effect of music on blood pressure in spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR). Previous studies indicated that calcium increases brain dopamine (DA) synthesis through a calmodulin (CaM)-dependent system. Increased DA levels reduce blood pressure in SHR. In this study, we examined the effects of music on this pathway. Systolic blood pressure in SHR was reduced by exposure to Mozart's music (K.205), and the effect vanished when this pathway was inhibited. Exposure to music also significantly increased serum calcium levels and neostriatal DA levels. These results suggest that music leads to increased calcium/CaM-dependent DA synthesis in the brain, thus causing a reduction in blood pressure. Music might regulate and/or affect various brain functions through dopaminergic neurotransmission, and might therefore be effective for rectification of symptoms [emphasis added] in various diseases that involve DA dysfunction. ... Read More (265 words)Wednesday, October 29, 2008Classical Music Relieves Stress and DepressionFrom this study : This study examined the effectiveness of reducing stress by using classical music on resting females. Twenty females, 23.25.+-.0.68 years old, with normal hearing (experimental group N=10, control group N=10) participated in this study. The subjects in the experimental group were instructed to stay in supine position and listen to music whereas the subjects in the control group were instructed to stay in the same position and exposed to silence for about one and a half hours. The effectiveness of reducing stress was measured using STAI, POMS, diastolic and systolic blood pressure, heart rate variability, and plasma adrenaline concentrations. The differences between the pre-test and the post-test were compared. There were significant differences statistically between the experimental group and the control group in the scores of "Depression-Dejection", "Fatigue" and "confusion" in POMS (p<0.05). The values of plasma adrenaline concentrations had an interaction effect of the two groups by two-way layout ANOVA. These results indicated that the experimental group experienced reduced stress as a result of listening to classical music as compared to the control group. These findings suggest that classical music has the potential to be used with clinical patients suffering from stress. (author abst.) ... Read More (271 words)Saturday, September 27, 2008Music Training Improves Language Development
Language and music are human universals involving perceptually discrete elements organized in hierarchically structured sequences. The set of principles governing the combination of these structural elements into sequences is known as syntax. A violation of expectancies concerning syntactic regularities may be reflected by two ERP components: the ERAN (early right anterior negativity) and the ELAN (early left anterior negativity). The ERAN is evoked by a violation of musical regularities, whereas the ELAN is linked to syntax processing in the language domain. There is evidence from adult data to suggest that both ERAN and ELAN are, at least partly, generated in the same brain regions. Therefore, it seems plausible to expect transfer effects between music and language due to shared processing resources. Moreover, the ERAN is larger in adults with formal musical training (musicians) than in those without, indicating that more specific representations of musical regularities lead to heightened musical expectancies. The aim of this study is to investigate these issues in child development. We conducted two experimental sessions with the same participants and compared children with and without musical training (11 years old) and children with or without language impairment (5 years old). In a music experiment, the reactions to chord sequences ending either with a (regular) tonic or with an (irregular) supertonic were compared. For a language experiment we used syntactically correct and incorrect sentences. Preliminary results show that an ERAN is present in both groups and appears to have a larger amplitude in musically trained children. In addition, there are indications of an enhanced negativity in response to a syntactic violation in the musically trained children. The relationship between the ERP components is, moreover, manifested in the finding that an ERAN is present in linguistically nonimpaired children at the age of 5 years but not in children with language impairment of the same age. ... Read More (408 words)Saturday, October 25, 2008Music and Social CapitalFor never having been a trendy sort of person, amazingly, I seem to be plugged into the Zeitgeist this month. Oh, it's not just my post for Blog Action Day, and having decided, quite fortuitously, to call my example piano student Joe, given the almost simultaneous occurence of "Six-Pack Joe" and "Joe the Plumber," which would be spooky enough Saturday, September 20, 2008Classical Music and Mood
Although the neural underpinnings of music cognition have been widely studied in the last 5 years, relatively little is known about the neuroscience underlying emotional reactions that music induces in listeners. Many people spend a significant amount of time listening to music, and its emotional power is assumed but not well understood. Here, we use functional and effective connectivity analyses to show for the first time that listening to music strongly modulates activity in a network of mesolimbic structures involved in reward processing including the nucleus accumbens (NAc) and the ventral tegmental area (VTA), as well as the hypothalamus and insula, which are thought to be involved in regulating autonomic and physiological responses to rewarding and emotional stimuli. Responses in the NAc and the VTA were strongly correlated pointing to an association between dopamine release and NAc response to music. Responses in the NAc and the hypothalamus were also strongly correlated across subjects, suggesting a mechanism by which listening to pleasant music evokes physiological reactions. Effective connectivity confirmed these findings, and showed significant VTA-mediated interaction of the NAc with the hypothalamus, insula, and orbitofrontal cortex. The enhanced functional and effective connectivity between brain regions mediating reward, autonomic, and cognitive processing provides insight into understanding why listening to music is one of the most rewarding and pleasurable human experiences. ... Read More (458 words)Wednesday, October 22, 2008Classical Music and Human Capital "Fourthly, of the acquired and useful abilities of all the inhabitants or members of the society. The acquisition of such talents, by the maintenance of the acquirer during his education, study, or apprenticeship, always costs a real expense, which is a capital fixed and realized, as it were, in his person. Those talents, as they make a part of his fortune, so do they likewise that of the society to which he belongs. The improved dexterity of a workman may be considered in the same light as a machine or instrument of trade which facilitates and abridges labor, and which, though it costs a certain expense, repays that expense with a profit." ... Read More (485 words)Wednesday, October 15, 2008 > From my emailOne of my readers, Jan Zbiciak Brummett, sent the following: A thoughtful and useful post. Some notes I made while reading… I see that you mentioned this item in the college years, but it is also true, much, much earlier… as kids are often led astray well before that time, often out of boredom and by peers. Idle, energetic hands are apt to find some outlet for all of that energy; predictably it will be spent either positively or all too often expressed negatively. By providing suitable, intelligent and creative outlets, parents and schools are actually directing energy into useful and beneficial sources, both for student and for the culture as a whole. Teaching a child to “play” with imaginative resources, encourages an inspired, bright, able, problem solving adult. ... Read More (251 words) |
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