Download Psychology of Music Learning

Psychology of Music Learning
Miksza
Music and Brain Research
…from Hodges (1996)
Hodges (1996)
• Brain, brain stem, spinal cord, peripheral nerves,
autonomic nervous system
• Cerebral cortex – most ‘distinctly human’ functions
• Occipital lobes – vision
• Parietal lobes – sensory processing
• Temporal lobes – hearing
• Frontal lobes – long-term planning, motor control,
movement control, speech production
– Sensory zone – information from the senses
– Motor zone – control and coordination of muscle movement
– Association zone – cognitive interpretation understanding
Hodges (1996)
• Sensory cortex
– A map of the body surface
• Motor cortex
– Initializes movement
• Limbic system
– Chemical processes and emotions
• Brain stem
– Automatic body functions - breathing
• Cerebellum
– Muscle coordination, rote movements
Hodges (1996)
• 100 billion neurons
– 100 million per cubic inch
– Neurons grow in size and connections early in life
– rich sensory environments stimulate the
connections – impoverished limits
– Single neuron receives 100,000 to 200,00 signals
– Synapses are connecting points
– Nerves either fire or they don’t – they don’t range
in intensity, just rate
– Synapses are altered by experience
Hodges (1996)
• Cognitive neuroscientists – try to explain behavior
based on neurophysiological data
• Competing models of brain function
– Triune: reptilian, paleomammalian, neomammalian
• Evolutionary approach
– Split-brain: Hemispheric function
• Left: verbal, sequential, logical, analytic
• Right: nonverbal, holistic, intuitive, synthesizing
– Varies with handedness
– Neural network: input, middle/hidden, output layers of
overlapping processes
• Logarithmic descriptions of brain processes
Hodges (1996)
• See Table 1 for effects of brain damage on musical
ability – amusia…
• Although it is often the case, losses of musical ability
are not always linked to losses of language abilities
• Some studies suggest that musical abilities may
require more widely distributed neural processes than
language
– Therefore, it is more difficult to draw conclusions about
lateralization and musical abilities
• See page 218 and 219 for methods of testing for
various levels/types of amusia
Hodges (1996)
• Dichotic listening tasks and hemisphericity
– Two conflicting aural stimuli, one in each ear
(usually with headphones)
– Think back to discussion of ipsolateral and
contralateral pathways from the ear…
– 70% of nerve fibers go to opposite hemisphere
(contralateral)
– Very tentative, general findings – vary greatly with
subtle changes in task and individuals studied
• Right hemisphere – sound gestalt
• Left hemisphere – sequential, analytic processes
• See Table 2 for studies…
Hodges (1996)
• Electroencephalogram (EEG)
– Monitoring electrical activity in the brain in terms of
frequency (Hz)
– Electrodes near frontal, parietal, occipital and
temporal areas
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•
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Delta – deep sleep
Theta – dreaming
Alpha – conscious/relaxed
Beta – full alertness (consider term ‘beta-blocker)
– Interesting results from many studies but
significant patterns or generalizations are difficult
to find due to methodological differences in stimuli
and tasks
Hodges (1996)
• EEG continued…
– Alpha production found to decrease with music
listening
– Musical expectancy is somewhat detectable in
brain wave activity (other than alpha) – e.g.,
resolutions
– Musicians show more coherence across
hemispheres and adjacent areas (e.g., parietal,
occipital)
– Larger planum temporale for musicians who
started prior to age 7 or had perfect pitch
– Larger corpus callosum
• Raises issue of whether musical training leads to
reorganization of the brain
Hodges (1996)
• Auditory Event-related Potential
– Tying stimuli to electrical events in a time-bound
fashion
– ERP’s are a result of cognitive processes that are
generated in response or as a result of sensory
perception
• N1 – negative wave 100ms after stimulus
– Attention
• N4 – negative wave 400ms after stimulus
– Violated expectation
• P3 – positive wave 300ms after stimulus
– Short-term and long-term memory exchange
» Lack of P3 in subjects with absolute pitch…
Hodges (1996)
• MRI – magnetic resonance imaging
– Subject placed inside large magnet
– Provides structural, but not functional information
• PET – positron emissions tomography
– Radioactive substance in bloodstream
– Depicts blood flow in brain
– Subtract PET at rest from PET w/musical stimuli to
see activity attributable to musical activity
– Can try to pin down localizations for ‘most’ activity,
but many areas of the brain show some activity
given musical stimuli
Hodges (1996)
• Neuromotor aspects…
• Sensory-motor cortex – where body map (i.e., homunculus
is located)
– Where conscious decisions to contract muscles are processed
– More space is devoted to face and hands
– Body map is redrawn with experience
• Basal Ganglia
– Sends messages to spinal cord and groups of muscles
• Cerebellum
– Maintaining balance, coordinating intricate movements, monitoring
feedback, storing habituated patterns
• Motor cortex and cerebellum must work together to carry
out complex tasks…
– Cerebellum runs entire sequences of motor activity at once
– Important that programming is done correctly early on
• Mental practice
– Evidence that mental practice can stimulate the brain in similar ways
to physical practice
Hodges (1996)
• Summary points
– All humans are born with a musical brain
– Human musical brain is different from animals
– Musical brain operates in infancy and perhaps even in fetal
stages
– Musical brain is dependent on neural systems has localized
functions, but is widely distributed
– Musical brain has cognitive components
– Musical brain has affective components
– Musical brain has motor components
– Degree of lateralization is up for debate
– Musical brain is resilient
– Early and ongoing training affects the organization of the
musical brain