Practical Apps for Learning to Play and Make Beautiful Music

by Stephanie Haywood Making music has various health benefits, from reducing stress and depression to improving memory and reading skills. If you are thinking of picking up a musical instrument, you are taking a smart step towards improved wellbeing. If you have kids who want to play an instrument, they can also benefit; studies have … Read more

Musicians have enhanced subcortical auditory and audiovisual processing of speech and music

Indeed, research has shown that musicians often exhibit enhanced subcortical auditory and audiovisual processing compared to non-musicians, particularly when it comes to speech and music stimuli. The subcortical auditory system includes structures such as the brainstem and thalamus, which are involved in the early processing of auditory information before it reaches higher cortical regions. Several … Read more

Pitch Memory in Nonmusicians and Musicians: Revealing Functional Differences Using Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation

The study you’re referring to, titled “Pitch Memory in Nonmusicians and Musicians: Revealing Functional Differences Using Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation,” investigates the neural mechanisms underlying pitch memory in musicians and nonmusicians using transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). Transcranial direct current stimulation is a non-invasive brain stimulation technique that involves applying a low electrical current to … Read more

Bodily maps of emotions

“Bodily maps of emotions” refers to a concept proposed by a team of scientists led by neuroscientist Dr. Lauri Nummenmaa and psychologist Dr. Riitta Hari. Their research, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) in 2013, sought to investigate how emotions are experienced and represented in the human body. The researchers … Read more

Mozart Effect for Newborn

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2xrl3dFft8 The “Mozart Effect” is a term popularized by a study published in 1993 by researchers Frances Rauscher, Gordon Shaw, and Katherine Ky in the journal Nature. The study suggested that listening to Mozart’s music could temporarily improve spatial reasoning skills in college students. However, the findings were limited to a specific task and did … Read more

“Music will get worse” – mind control thru music scale

Abstract “Pornography, violence and obscenity on TV and in movies will be deliberately increased. People will be desensitized to violence and porn and made to feel life is short, precarious and brutish. Music will be used for indoctrination and ‘will get worse.’”   Content listen from 7:00 in paraphrased — Emperor would not check writings … Read more

Topographic maps of multisensory attention

Abstract   The intraparietal sulcus (IPS) region is uniquely situated at the intersection of visual, somatosensory, and auditory association cortices, ideally located for processing of multisensory attention. We examined the internal architecture of the IPS region and its connectivity to other regions in the dorsal attention and cinguloinsular networks using maximal connectivity clustering. We show … Read more

Affective constraints on acquisition of musical concepts: Children’s and adults’ development of the major-minor distinction

Abstract Across cultures and age groups music has a powerful impact on human affective states. We examined the effect of these affective responses on children’s and adults’ ability to label musical excerpts as major or minor. Content Affective constraints on acquisition of musical concepts: Children’s and adults’ development of the major-minor distinction Clarissa A. Thompson … Read more

Neurobiological Aspects of Neurologic Music Therapy

Abstract “…we present data on the potential of music making to support and facilitate neurorehabilitation. We focus on interventions such as melodic intonation therapy and music-supported motor rehabilitation to showcase the effects of neurologic music therapies and discuss their underlying neural mechanisms.” Content Neurobiological Aspects of Neurologic Music Therapy Eckart Altenmüller, MD, MA1ਪ*’ Gottfried Schlaug, … Read more

The Long-Term Effects of Childhood Music Instruction on Intelligence and General Cognitive Abilities

Abstract This article reviews research on the effects of music instruction on general cognitive abilities. The review of more than 75 reports shows (1) the consistency in results pertaining to the short-term effects of music instruction on cognitive abilities and the lack of clear evidence on the long-term effects on intelligence; (2) the complex nature … Read more

Death Metal and Music Criticism: Analysis at the Limits

Abstract Michelle Phillipov challenges the tendency of popular music studies to focus on questions of a political nature. The first half of the book is a thorough critique of ‘The Rise of Political Criticism’ in popular music studies with three individual chapters dedicated to case studies of punk, hip-hop, and electronic dance music (EDM). Although … Read more

The improvising brain: music and complex systems science

Professor Henrik Jensen (Mathematics) takes us for a musical journey through the brain as we understand the effects of melodies on the mind. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5lZ-ayhIXg     “The Improvising Brain: Music and Complex Systems Science” is a fascinating topic that explores the intersection of music cognition, neuroscience, and complex systems theory. This interdisciplinary field of study … Read more