Transcript Psychology of Music MUSED 681

YOUR BRAIN ON MUSIC
Dr. Don P. Ester
Professor of Music Education
Ball State University
Download this Powerpoint at
dester.iweb.bsu.edu
The Brain
The Brain
Hemispheres and the Corpus Callosum
Left:
Language
Math
Logical
Right:
Spatial Reasoning
Art Appreciation
Intuitive
Music perception, response, and performance
involves interplay of hemispheres via corpus callosum
The Brain
Lobes of the Cerebrum
The 3 Domains of Learning
Cognitive
Knowledge
Psychomotor
Skills
Affective
Feelings
The Cognitive Domain
Perception - Cognition
The Cognitive Domain
Working (Short-term) Memory
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Information is stored here for only 5-20 seconds; cognitive
processing takes place at this stage.
Very limited capacity, which was first defined by Miller
(1956) as being seven units (bits), plus or minus two.
Chunking can increase this limit by combining units into
organized chunks, with each chunk then becoming a single
unit.
The Cognitive Domain
Long-term Memory
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Meaningful learning results when new information is
organized so that it connects to stored knowledge and is
thereby anchored in long-term memory
Capacity appears to be unlimited
The Cognitive Domain
Neuromusical investigations are producing
evidence that infants are born with neural
mechanisms devoted exclusively to music.
The Cognitive Domain
Sample Interactions with Other Subjects
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Students who studied music appreciation scored 46 points higher on
the math portion of the SAT in 1995, and 39 points higher if they had
music performance experiences, than those without music
education.
Music lessons in childhood are associated with small but longlasting increases in IQ.
Children who received early music/arts training displayed more
significant gains in language and pre-literary skills, attention, visualspatial skills, and numerical skills.
The Psychomotor Domain
Sensory Cortexes
Sensory
Cortexes
Speech Areas
The Psychomotor Domain
The Child’s Brain
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Babies begin to respond to music while still in the womb.
At a very early age, innate capability (aptitude) is shaped by the
music system of the culture in which a child is raised. That culture
affects the construction of instruments, the way people sound
when they sing, and even the way they hear sound.
The Psychomotor Domain
The Musician’s Brain
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25% increase in the number of auditory nerve cells dedicated to
processing complex piano tones (vs. sine tones) in pianists vs.
non-pianists.
Enlarged cerebellum in professional musicians for precise timing
and accuracy of motor commands.
The brain learns and controls movements not muscles.
The neurons store the information for a complex movement;
adjacent neurons communicate with each other and fire in a
complex sequence – this sequence is stored in a specific
area.
The Psychomotor Domain
Plasticity
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Early training grows the brain
More neurons dedicated to specific motor functions than
“average” person
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Later training changes the brain
The Psychomotor Domain
Musician’s Brains: Empirical Evidence of Plasticity
 Enlarged motor cortex areas
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Especially if prolonged practice began before age 10
Corresponding to fingers 2-5 of left hand in violinists when
prolonged practice began before age 10
Dominant vs. Non-dominant areas more equal in size
Enlarged front portion of corpus callosum
12% thicker nerve fibers in professional violinists and pianists,
especially if prolonged practice began before age 7
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Enlarged sensory areas
Enlarged areas of the auditory cortex, motor cortex, and
visuospatial cortex appears to be a result of music learning
The Psychomotor Domain
Musician’s Brains: Empirical Evidence of Plasticity
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Enlarged Wernicke Region in musicians with absolute
pitch
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Strong linkage develops between the auditory cortex and
motor cortex of performers as a result of habit (practice)
Playing an “air” scale can “cause” one to hear it; hearing a scale can
“cause” fingers to move in response
The Psychomotor Domain
By approximately age 11, neuron circuits that permit
all kinds of perceptual and sensory discrimination,
such as identifying pitch and rhythm, become closed
off.
The Affective Domain
Most neuroscience research in the area of music, as
extensive as it has been in recent years, has focused
on the cognitive processes of music and the
development of psychomotor skills. Little attention
has been paid to the affective aspects of appreciating
music.
The Affective Domain
The Limbic System - Center for Emotions
Emotional Response
From: Poe’s Heart and the Mountain Climber, R. Restak, Three Rivers Press, 2004
The Interaction of The Domains
At the age of 4 months, dissonant notes at the end of a
melody causes infants to squirm and turn away. If they
like a tune, they may coo.
The Interaction of The Domains
Clinical examples from Musicophilia (Oliver Sacks) provide a
fascinating picture of the interaction between the different
aspects of brain function
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Sudden Musicophilia
Sensory-limbic hyperconnection leading to quickly emerging
musical talent as a result of a lightning strike
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Individuals may be very “musically talented” but rather
indifferent to music (e.g., rather common to Asperger’s
Syndrome), or they may be unable to carry a tune and
cognitively challenged yet be passionately sensitive to music
(e.g., William’s Syndrome).
The Interaction of The Domains
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Epileptic seizures (temporal lobe) induced by music
Audiation / Brainworms / Hallucinations
Imagining music stimulates the auditory cortex almost as
strongly as actually listening to it.
Focal Dystonia - non-response or inaccurate response of motor
movements
Music Therapy’s impact on expressive and receptive aphasia
Musical Synesthesia
Most common: association of color with pitches, modes, etc.
The Aesthetic Response
Cognitive
Aesthetic Response
Psychomotor
Affective
The Case for Aesthetic Education
A man who works with his hands is a laborer;
A man who works with his hands and his brain is a craftsman;
A man who works with his hands and his brain and his heart is an artist.
-Louis Nizer
In the cake of life, the arts are not frosting - they are baking soda.
-adapted from Tooby & Cosmides
The Case for Aesthetic Education
I must study politics and war that my sons may have
liberty to study mathematics and philosophy.
My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy,
geography, natural history, naval architecture,
navigation, commerce, and agriculture, in order to
give their children a right to study painting, poetry,
music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain.
-John Adams, President