Discover Top Posts Tagged with #music perception

// crossed wires: addendum

on hearing music through the wrong hemisphere

After publishing Crossed Wires, a follow-up thought has been looping.

The paper focused on speech and decoding — what happens when cochlear implant signal routes into the non-dominant hemisphere for language. But music is processed differently. Loosely speaking: speech lives in the left brain, music in the right.

My cochlear implant sits in my left ear, now deaf to the world without power — no residual hearing remains. It feeds artificial, digitised sound to the right hemisphere, the part of the brain most attuned to timbre, tone, and emotion. The paradox? That sound is anything but musical. Just 12 channels. Harsh, sharp. A simulation of hearing, stripped of nuance.

Meanwhile, my right ear, aided by an analogue hearing aid, still picks up real-world sound — warm, deep, textured. But it sends that signal to the left hemisphere, the one that processes syntax, not symphony. Logic, not longing.

It’s a strange asymmetry:

Natural sound sent to the wrong brain.

Artificial sound sent to the right one.

Music caught in the crossfire.

No wonder it feels different now. Not absent, exactly — but fragmented. Off-centre. Like trying to recall a dream you never had.

Not quite silence. Not quite song.

#crossed wires #music perception #cochlear implant #brain lateralisation #signal vs noise #auditory processing #processzine #auditory processing disorder

Researchers at NYU have conducted a study on how long it takes for people to decide whether they love or hate a song.

LISTEN 2-Minute https://www.npr.org/2023/02/13/1156477666/youve-heard-of-love-at-first-sight-how-about-love-at-first-sound

Knowing We Like a Song Takes Only Seconds of Listening, New Psychology Research Finds

Study Reveals Excerpts Can Accurately Predict Our Musical Tastes

READ MORE https://www.nyu.edu/about/news-publications/news/2023/january/knowing-we-like-a-song-takes-only-seconds-of-listening--new-psyc.html

The Whole is Not Different From its Parts: Music Excerpts are Representative of Songs

Music psychology has a long history, but the question of whether brief music excerpts are representative of whole songs has been largely unaddressed. Here, we explore whether preference and familiarity ratings in response to excerpts are predictive of these ratings in response to whole songs. We asked 643 participants to judge 3,120 excerpts of varying durations taken from different sections of 260 songs from a broad range of genres and time periods in terms of preference and familiarity. We found that within the range of durations commonly used in music research, responses to excerpts are strongly predictive of whole song affect and cognition, with only minor effects of duration and location within the song. We concluded that preference and familiarity ratings in response to brief music excerpts are representative of the responses to whole songs. Even the shortest excerpt duration that is commonly used in research yields preference and familiarity ratings that are close to those for whole songs, suggesting that listeners are able to rapidly and reliably ascertain recognition as well as preference and familiarity ratings of whole songs.

Sara J. Philibotte, Stephen Spivack, Nathaniel H. Spilka, Ian Passman, Pascal Wallisch

Music Perception (2023) 40 (3): 220–236.

Music psychology has a long history, but the question of whether brief music excerpts are representative of whole songs has been largely una

#music perception

We do suppose that the perceptions of 'the listener' have some real and important relation to the things a composer does, and to things a performer does, but we would not want to equate the roles of composer, performer, and listener, at least not in our culture as it is today for better or worse

David Lewin: Music Theory, Phenomenology, and Modes of Perception, p.339

#david lewin #music theory #music perception

Tom Service discovers how music can be used as a means to manipulate and control us.

For an overview of the programmes that comprised the weekend BBC Radio 3 series ‘Why Music’ read my account at aelizabeththompsonblr.tumblr.com.

Here I have chosen to focus on particular themes discussed during the series which are of special relevance to me as a musician playing for dancing and which I explore further..

I was fascinated to learn how musicians and non-musicians perceive music. Musicians, when communicating sound, apply the logic part, or left hemispheric part of the brain, to deliver the sequential, rhythmical and analytical musical elements. However, if these structural components are to carry music’s aesthetic quality: timbre, lyricism and expression of emotion, these being right hemispheric functions, then it is the integration & synchronised operation of the two hemispheres that is required of the musician. Neither hemisphere predominates. But the particular balance of the two ultimately determines the qualities of the music which are attributed to the composer and for the listener to interpret.

Most musicians perceive music through the left hemisphere, because their study and ‘trained ear’ encourages them to examine its details and to apply a strategic analysis. Whereas, most non-musicians, primarily, respond emotionally when listening to music and encounter feelings phenomenologically, those being mental functions activated in the right hemisphere. Listeners of music, without the theoretical knowledge and experience of making music are far more concerned with its emotional impression and in how it makes them feel.

I see it as being important that facilitators of music are aware of there being a range of differences in people’s perceptions of music and that these perceptional differences are understood. In the situation of delivering a group activity with a musical element which supports health and wellbeing, I would want my participants to feel valued and their individualities positively recognised. I would like to see participants to feel comfortable in what they do and be confident in their contribution to the workshop. This would mean acknowledging a possible variety of approaches to the task and working with those approaches effectively. Above all, I am looking for signs of engagement and enthusiasm in the group and for participants to enjoy and benefit from the activity.

#Why Music?#Music Matters #Music perception

Music Therapy Hack #20: Attend Non-Music Therapy Conferences

Music therapy can inform and collaborate with just about all other therapeutic modalities. If you have a very specialized interest, consider attending a conference in that field. It’s important for music therapists to represent themselves and their work beyond AMTA and there is value to gaining a broader perspective to where MT fits within healthcare.

(If anyone’s interested, I’ve signed up for the Society for Music Perception and Cognition’s conference in Nashville this August. Would love to meet up with people there!)

#music therapy #musictherapy #music cognition #music psychology #music perception #SMPC

If you are music cognition/perception-minded...

Videos of all talks given at the "Milestones in Music Cognition" meeting held in Montreal this June celebrating the work of Al Bregman, Carol Krumhansl, and Eugene Narmour

#Music Perception #music cognition

New music is 'rewarding for the brain'

Listening to new music is rewarding for the brain, a study suggests.

Using MRI scans, a Canadian team of scientists found that areas in the reward centre of the brain became active when people heard a song for the first time.

The more the listener enjoyed what they were hearing, the stronger the connections were in the region of the brain called the nucleus accumbens.

The study is published in the journal Science.

Dr Valorie Salimpoor, from the Rotman Research Institute, in Toronto, told the BBC's Science in Action programme: "We know that the nucleus accumbens is involved with reward.

"But music is abstract: It's not like you are really hungry and you are about to get a piece of food and you are really excited about it because you are going to eat it - or the same thing applies to sex or money - that's when you would normally see activity in the nucleus accumbens.

"But what's cool is that you're anticipating and getting excited over something entirely abstract - and that's the next sound that is coming up."

To carry out the study, which took place at the Montreal Neurological Institute at McGill University, the scientists played 19 volunteers 60 excerpts of new music, based on their musical preferences.

As they were listening to the 30-second-long tracks, they had to the opportunity to buy the ones they liked in a mocked up online music store.

All of this was carried out while the participants were lying in an MRI machine.

By analysing the scans, the scientists found that the nucleus accumbens was "lighting up" and depending on the level of activity, the researchers could predict whether the participant was likely to buy a song.

#music perception

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