Transcript Music and Consciousness - UCSD Cognitive Science

Music and
Consciousness
The astounding influence of
music on cognition
Eleanore Park
Alex Kawas
Stephen Frost
Matthias Havenaar
Ties to ASCs

Shift state, alter mindset
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Used to accompany, induce ASCs:
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Religion/shamanism/mysticism
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Drug use
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Meditation
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Sleep
What is Music?
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Distinguishing aspects
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Tonal organization; psychoacoustics
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Beat & rhythm
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Affect
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Birdsong?
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Jackhammer?
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Country?
Basic Structure
Hierarchy
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Major and minor beats
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Essential + ornamental notes
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Defeasible principles of organization
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Interaction between types and levels
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Auditory “scene” analysis: stream
segregation
Processing music
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Utilizes broad cognitive capacities

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Gestalt grouping: proximity, good
continuation
And specialized ones
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Differential lateralization in
processing
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Analysis of tonal space: pitches,
intervals, chords, keys
Affect in music
Music theory
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There are “degrees of tension and
attraction within a melody…at any point”
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Rising pitch: increased tension
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Large interval shifts: more tension than
small shifts
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Attraction related to “resolution” during
melodic progression
Conscious and unconscious expectation;
latter unrelated to memory
1. Jackendoff, p. 24
1
Why does music move us?

Aesthetics: Admiring beauty,
virtuosity
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Memory: Nostalgic familiarity
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Entrainment: direct effect on
rhythms within the body (heartbeat,
brainwaves); visceral and motor
rhythmicity
Why does music move us?

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“Musical posture” and “gesture”:
ascription of affect and animatism
Listening to “dark” music doesn’t make us
feel dark, but in the presence of a dark
entity
We have empathy or attunement with the
affect
Dancing: conversion to physical posture
and gesture
Framing: level to invest, or detach
The Impact of Music on the
Brain & Experience
Neural Basis for Coupling Music
to Emotion & Attention

PET studies showed increased CBF in the ventral
striatum, midbrain, amygdala, orbitofrontal cortex,
and ventral medial prefrontal cortex (Limb, 2006)
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EEG studies have shown a significant power increase
in the low-alpha band range in bilateral frontal
networks, indicating increased neuronal
synchronization and attention (Thaut, 2005).
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Music acts on waking arousal control systems based
on norepinephrine (NE) and serotonin (Panksepp,
1986).
Music elicits responses similar
to sex and drug intake

Music can lead to musical chills and euphoric experience
Music activates reward related brain areas
These area’s are similar to reward / emotion and limbic
arousal processes similar to thoses activated by drug intake
and sex.
NAc, Insula, OFC, ACC (Blood, 2001)
Increased DA secretion due to listening to music.
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Music is your XTC! Remember Volkow? Is music addictive?
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?
Music and Brain
Lateralization
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Right hemisphere is involved in processing of
melody (prosody)
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Left hemisphere is involved in processing rhythm
and musical analysis. Also activates frontal motor
areas

Is the left hemisphere involved in making you want
to shake your body?
Is music capable of inducing
an altered state?
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Is used for induction of hypnosis/
trancelike states
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Music can drive listeners into states
of patriotic fervor or religious frenzy
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Is there a reason why we sing in
church?
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Does music induce religious
experiences?
What is music therapy?
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Systematic intervention process that uses music
experiences to achieve therapeutic goals
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Music as an ASC: changes in emotion, motivation,
motor functions to help a variety of patient
populations
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Passive and active interactions with music:
 Song writing, listening to music, discussion of song
lyrics, performing, etc.
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No previous experience with music or music talent is
necessary
Music Therapy patient
populations
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Goals:
 Obtain symptom control, reduce clinical disability,
improve quality of life

Vary with each patient’s condition:
 Geriatric care
 Patient’s undergoing cardiac surgery
 Parkinson’s disease
 Rehabilitation
 Alzheimer's- “silent brain”
 Schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, Tourette’s
Active music therapy

Voice exercises, rhythmic and free
body movements
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Combining motor and emotional
responses

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Rhythmic and melodic components
Combining stimulation of different
sensory pathways
Active MT and Parkinson’s
Disease
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Bradykinesia,hypokinesia
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Postural and gait abnormalities
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External rhythmic cues acting as a timekeeper
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Variable improvements
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Motor improvements as a function of emotion?
 DA mesolimbic projections to ventro-striatum
intraccumbens
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Integration of basal-ganglia loop and cortical regions
 Limbic systems + motor systems
Music therapy and effects on consciousness
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Improvements seem to be residual
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ASC’s generally relative
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Individual differences in normal state of
consciousness
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(Pacchetti et al.)
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Patients achieve different mental state and physical
state
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Body and mind connection (Brain vs. Mind)
Is music adaptive? What
purpose might music
serve on an individual
and social level?
Where Did Music Come
From?
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Auditory Cheesecake hypothesis
 Steven Pinker, How the Mind Works (1997)
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Sexual Selection hypothesis
 Geoffrey Miller, “Evolution of human music through
sexual selection” (2000)
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Social Bonding hypothesis
 Robin Dunbar, “Language, Music and Laughter in
Evolutionary Perspective” (2004)
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Coalition Signaling hypothesis
 Hagen & Bryant, “Music and dance as a coalition
signaling system” (2003)
Auditory Cheesecake
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Cheesecake tastes good by taking
advantage of existing structures
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The desire for cheesecake is an
emergent phenomena of existing
processes
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Music, too!
Sexual Selection
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Darwin: Music as courtship display
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Miller: Musical ability as indicator
of fitness
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Jimi Hendrix
Social Bonding
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Sexual selection is insufficient
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Monkey grooming
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Grooming ceiling: 50 monkeys
Human grooming
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Dunbar’s number: 150 humans
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Language allows larger grooming size
Ramping up from 50 to 150
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Music, precursor to language
Coalition Signaling
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Sexual selection, social bonding
insufficient, but important
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Music commonly performed in groups
during war, politics with other groups
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Apes coordinate songs to advertise
territory, pair bonds
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May also signal group identity
Music signals other groups of cohesion
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“We can kick your butt.”
Altered State Induction
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What about altered states?
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Mob behavior as altered state:
Personal identity frame drop induces
altered state
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Are musical groups mobs?
Is music’s role in the induction of altered
states evolutionarily adaptive?
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Open question
References
Blood AJ, Zatorre RJ. “Intensely pleasurable responses to music
correlate with activity in brain regions implicated in reward and
emotion.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the
United States of America (2001).
Esch T, Guarna M, Bianchi E, Zhu W, Stefano GB. “Commonalities in
the central nervous system's involvement with complementary
medical therapies: limbic morphinergic processes.” Medical
science monitor: International medical journal of experimental
and clinical research (2004).
Gold C, Rolvsjord R, Aaro LE, Aarre T, Tjemsland L, Stige B.
“Resource-oriented music therapy for psychiatric patients with
low therapy motivation: protocol for a randomised controlled trial
[NCT00137189].” BMC psychiatry (2005).
Hatem TP, Lira PI, Mattos SS. “The therapeutic effects of music in
children following cardiac surgery.” Jornal de pediatria (2006).
Jackendoff R, Lerdahl F. “The capacity for music: What is it, and
what's special about it?” Cognition (2005).
References
Jaynes J. “Of poetry and music.” The origin of consciousness in the
breakdown of the bicameral mind (2000, 1976).
Myskja A. “Can music therapy for patients with neurological
disorders?” Tidsskrift for den Norske laegeforening (2004).
Pacchetti C, Mancini F, Aglieri R, Fundaro C, Martignoni E, Nappi G.
“Active music therapy in Parkinson's disease: an integrative
method for motor and emotional rehabilitation.” Psychosomatic
medicine. (2000)
Pinker S. How the mind works (1997).
Miller G. “Evolution of human music through sexual selection.” The
origins of music (2000).
Dunbar R. “Language, music and laughter in evolutionary
perspective.” Evolution of communication systems: A comparative
approach (2004).
Hagen & Bryant. “Music and dance as a coalition signaling system”
Human nature (2003).