Title of paper under discussion Left Hemispheric Lateralization of Brain Activity During Passive Rhythm Perception in Musicians Authors Charles J Limb, Stefan Kemeny, Eric B Ortigoza, Sherin Rouhani and Allen R Braun Journal The Anatomical Record Part A, vol 288A, pp382 – 389 (2006) Link to Paper (free access) Overview Twelve musicians and twelve non-musicians …
Title of paper under discussion Dynamic Cortical and Subcortical Networks in Learning and Delayed Recall of Timed Motor Sequences Authors Virginia B. Penhune and Julien Doyon Journal The Journal of Neuroscience, February 15, 2002, 22(4):1397–1406 Link to paper (free access) Overview Using positron emission tomography (PET) researchers from Montreal scanned the brains of volunteers 1) …
Title of paper under discussion Enhanced Pitch Sensitivity in Individuals with Autism: A Signal Detection Analysis Authors Anna Bonnel, Laurent Mottron, Isabelle Peretz, Manon Trudel, Erick Gallun and Anne-Marie Bonnel Journal Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, vol 15, no 2, pp 226–235 Link to paper (free access) Overview Building on previous research showing that people with …
Autism is associated with superior sense of intonation Read More »
Title of paper under discussion Tuning in to musical rhythms: Infants learn more readily than adults Authors Erin E. Hannon and Sandra E. Trehub Journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA (PNAS), vol 102, no 35, pp 12639-12643 Link to paper (free access) Overview A 6-month-old baby is remarkably ‘culture-general’ in …
American babies learn Balkan rhythms quicker than their parents Read More »
Title of paper under discussion The emotional power of music: How music enhances the feeling of affective pictures Authors Thomas Baumgartner, Kai Lutz, Conny F. Schmidt, Lutz Jäncke Journal BRAIN RESEARCH, 1075 (2006), pp 151–164 Link to paper (free access) Overview Although movie soundtracks are universally acknowledged as ‘emotion enhancers’ in the cinematic experience, it …
Adding music to pictures flips brain from ‘cognitive’ to ‘feeling’ mode Read More »
Title of paper under discussion When That Tune Runs Through Your Head: A PET Investigation of Auditory Imagery for Familiar Melodies Authors Andrea R. Halpern and Robert J. Zatorre Journal Cerebral Cortex, Vol. 9, No. 7, pp. 697-704 (Oct 1999) Link to paper (free access) Quick summary Here are four of this paper’s most important …
Imagining the “Dallas” theme tune is a right-brained affair Read More »
Title of paper under discussion Sight over sound in the judgment of music performance Author Chia-Jung Tsay Journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol 110, no 36, pp 14580-14585 Link to paper (free access) Overview A series of 6-second clips of international music competition contestants in action – some audio-only, some video-only and …
Music competitions are judged on sight more than sound Read More »
Title of paper under discussion Music training improves verbal memory Authors Agnes S. Chan, Yim-Chi Ho & Mei-Chun Cheung Journal Nature 396, 128 (1998) Link to paper (free access) Overview Magnetic resonance scanning reveals that the left planum temporale, situated in the left temporal lobe of the brain, is larger in musicians than in non-musicians. Perhaps, reasoned Agnes Chan and …
Title of paper under discussion Cortical Regions Involved in the Generation of Musical Structures during Improvisation in Pianists Authors Sara L. Bengtsson, Mihály CsÍkszentmihályi and Fredrik Ullén Journal Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, vol 19, no 5, pp. 830–842 Link to paper (free access) Overview Scan the brain of someone in the act of selecting freely, …
Title of paper under discussion Superior voice timbre processing in musicians Authors Jean-Pierre Chartrand and Pascal Belin Journal Neuroscience Letters 405 (2006) 164–167 Link to paper (free access) Overview This study set out to compare musicians and non-musicians in their abilities to tell different timbres apart. In the first set of tasks, ‘instrumental timbre discrimination’, …
Musicians are slower – but better – at discriminating timbres, instrumental and vocal Read More »