The Psychology and Chemistry of Aesthetics (1 Viewer)

[jane]

Does anyone know any interesting studies of the way the human body/brain responds physically and psychologically to music?

I know there's lots of philosophy out there, but I'm looking for a chemical and psychological thing. Taste is a multi-factorial thing, but I want to know about the scientific dimension.

Certain voice tones, chord progressions, etc -- how they work together with our memory banks, our history of music taste, our age, etc.

Like why I want to weep when I hear Bruce, but I seriously don't fucking 'get' Nirvana, when other people shed tears of ecstasy when they hear Smells Like Teen Spirit. I guess I'm less interested in why I don't get Nirvana, but in why I actually had a physical response to Badlands when Bruce played it. I mean like, seriously. I wasn't playing around -- it was intense.

 

[daydream_nation]

one model of memory is that of spreading activation...basically if you imagine that your brain cells are like a network and when one part is activated, its more likely that parts nearby will be activated...cells that fire together wire together. so if you hear a song, and theres an associated memory/emotion, it increases the likelihood you'll remember it as there'll be increased neuronal activity in that part of your brain. oversimplifying it a bit but...in a nutshell

edit: as for musical taste....hmm

 

[rettucs]

reading this at the minute

its fascinating, and while it doesn't address exactly what you ask (essentially, the science behind 'taste'), it does go into several studies about how people's brains react in different ways to different stimuli.

I'm assuming that taste, or what we find pleasing to our senses, has something to do with the synapse connections between neurons in our auditory cortex (not its real name I'm sure, but you know what I mean) and whatever part of the brain accounts for pleasure. But the premise of this book is that, as we exercise different parts of our brain more, we strengthen those connections. So that would mean what I just said makes no sense. Pleasure would exist even before the connections are strengthened.

In short, I don't know.

But if you want, I can give you the book when I'm done.

 

[jane]

one model of memory is that of spreading activation...basically if you imagine that your brain cells are like a network and when one part is activated, its more likely that parts nearby will be activated...cells that fire together wire together. so if you hear a song, and theres an associated memory/emotion, it increases the likelihood you'll remember it as there'll be increased neuronal activity in that part of your brain. oversimplifying it a bit but...in a nutshell

But I want more detail! I want to know why certain folk songs stay in the collective memory and then can actually travel. In other words, a song that is remembered in a certain geographic area that has resonance with a totally different geographic area with no connection to the past of the place of origin. Obviously, there is still a neuronal memory, but I'm interested in some of the details of that, some of the research and stuff.

Also, how does music relate to something like trauma, which is also a similar nerves-stimulated-by-triggering-of-memory.

And also, why is it then that children grow out of Barney? And childhood songs don't necessary trigger pleasure memories? Or some of us stop listening to heavy music? I still get the nostalgia bit of something like early Boston hardcore, but I don't get the pleasure bit.

So yeah, I get what you're saying, but I'm looking for actual published work that will give me a more detailed picture.

Also, what are some of the other models of memory? I'm really interested in shit like this, partly because I'm interested in why certain things disappear from memory. How, for example, weather features into our memory. That's a story for another thread, though.

I wanna know why Bruce does what he does to me. And maybe why the sound of Jeff Buckley's voice makes me feel like I'm trapped in an airless box.

 

[Jill Hives]

Check out Oliver Sacks, I love this man. Oh and this.

 

[jane]

AWESOME.

Thank you, Hayworth!

 

[billygannon]

Check out Oliver Sacks, I love this man. Oh and this.

There was a programme specifically on this on BBC with Oliver Sacks only a couple of days ago.

Presented by Alan Yentob. It's on the iPlayer - but you need to be on the mainland to watch that (I think).

 

[Froog]

minor chords are sad.

 

[Cara]

Oliver Sacks for sure, and also Your Brain On Music by Daniel Levitin

 

[Kid Lovebeach]

There was a programme specifically on this on BBC with Oliver Sacks only a couple of days ago.

Presented by Alan Yentob. It's on the iPlayer - but you need to be on the mainland to watch that (I think).

that was a really amazing show,
that autistic blind pianist:

 

[Jill Hives]

AWESOME.

Thank you, Hayworth!

I love his books because, although a serious scientist he writes in a way that makes it understandable. Fascinating stuff all together. Marc Hauser is another favorite. He wrote a book called Wild Minds but it doesn't really deal with music at all.

I love neurological studies, I participated in a few a couple years back for the U of R. Got paid mad cash for them to put needles in the muscles of my hand and more or less play simon says.

 

[daydream_nation]

because trauma/ptsd is us acting on old memories or feeling the emotions associated with a past memory in the now...i guess a song can trigger the memory that triggers that feeling. i just bought a book on the psychophysiology of trauma, the body remembers by babette rothschild, a few people i work with went to workshops she gave in dublin recently shes supposed to be great - havent read the book yet though. lots of neuropsychological stuff in there about brain circuits involved in trauma.

also theres a guy in the psychology dept in tcd, ian robertson, he has a great book called mind sculpture: your brains untapped potential. well worth a look, looks at neuronal plasticity and how the brain is constantly changing. interesting chapters on neuronal plasticity and playing instruments. prob one of my fave books and not jargonish at all.

with changing musical tastes it has more to do with cultural and social stuff i guess. who you hang out with, what you do and how that changes...school > college > work ...how sounds change and you just outgrow them. less cognitive and more social psychological i would think.

spreading activation is a more recent model of memory, in the vain of cognitive science rather than pure psychology. there are a million different models, depending on type of info...semantic/episode/procedural and short/long term storage. its one for wikipedia the working memory model is prob the most recent though.

i'd imagine looking at this from a sensory point of view would be really interesting in terms of hypo and hyper auditory sensitivity...and everything in between. have a question for work on monday now!

 

[TrueLoveWaits]

It's fascinating...what's that thing called too where people can actually taste colours or see sounds? Kinesthesia or something? It is amazing how much of the brain we still don't understand and don't use...autism and music is interesting too, it really can become a form of communication for people who are so inhibited in other ways.

 

[Cara]

It's fascinating...what's that thing called too where people can actually taste colours or see sounds? Kinesthesia or something? It is amazing how much of the brain we still don't understand and don't use...autism and music is interesting too, it really can become a form of communication for people who are so inhibited in other ways.

Synaesthesia, incredibly interesting stuff that

 

[TrueLoveWaits]

Synaesthesia, incredibly interesting stuff that

yesss that's it...great i can wiki it now that you have spelled it for me lol

 

[Cara]

yesss that's it...great i can wiki it now that you have spelled it for me lol

Jorg Jewanski is the guy inrelation to it, he wrote the Grove online article about it, lots of his stuff in Leonardo, if you have access to academic journals

 

[Cara]

There's a guy called E. Glenn Schellenberg who's done studies on the creative impact exposure to music has on a person, along with the enhancement of IQ and that. In terms of music and cognition Francis H Rauscher is your only woman. Again, if you have access to academic journals, you should look up Psychology of Music, Psychological Science and publications by the National Association for Music Education (MENC).

 

[Juno]

Jane, I have some articles on music and autobiographical/episodic memory. I don't know if that's exactly what you're looking for but if you pm me your email address I can send 'em on.

 

[Ex-User (5762)]

Does anyone know any interesting studies of the way the human body/brain responds physically and psychologically to music?

I know there's lots of philosophy out there, but I'm looking for a chemical and psychological thing. Taste is a multi-factorial thing, but I want to know about the scientific dimension.

Certain voice tones, chord progressions, etc -- how they work together with our memory banks, our history of music taste, our age, etc.

Like why I want to weep when I hear Bruce, but I seriously don't fucking 'get' Nirvana, when other people shed tears of ecstasy when they hear Smells Like Teen Spirit. I guess I'm less interested in why I don't get Nirvana, but in why I actually had a physical response to Badlands when Bruce played it. I mean like, seriously. I wasn't playing around -- it was intense.

hi jane... some background reading on music therapy would give you good insight.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/music-thera...books&tag=thumpedcom0e-21?tag=thumpedcom0e-21
handbook of music therapy is really good. gives history, overview of main theories, and amazing case studies.

 

[ann post]

i read a book last year that hinted at that subject, one of the largest relevants parts was that when a mother is cooing at her newborn bag of flesh, the newborn bag of flesh coo's back typically (this hols through many western and eastern cultures) a major third above the mothers note. supposedly this is possible a cornerstone of modern harmony.