Music, Rhythm and the Brain
Keynote Address:
7:30 pmSpeaker: Dan Levitin, Ph.D.Clark Center Auditorium (directions)
Music and the Brain: Fundamentals and Flow
I will review some of what cognitive neuroscience has learned about how music engages the brain, with brief summaries of the development of musical expertise, musical preferences, and the neuroanatomy of musical experience. How music can induce and maintain "flow" states will also be discussed.
Chair:
9:00 amSpeaker: Judith Becker Ph.D.Phenomenology of Human Responses to Rhythmic Music
Rhythmic entrainment, in the sense of a group moving in synchrony with musical accompaniment, is often phenomenologically experienced as a feeling of unity with one's fellow beings and involving a loss of the strong sense of self. Finding the physiological bases for these experientially profound emotional moments is extremely challenging. As a small step toward this end, I have done two experimental runs that will be reported on. In the first, the participants were listening to two examples of music they themselves chose, and two examples chosen by me. In that experimental test, heart rate increased in nearly all participants in the music listening examples compared to silence, no matter what music was playing. In the second experimental run, the participants listened to 20 minutes of strongly rhythmic music only. A comparison of heart rate and respiration during the music listening segment versus the silence segment of this experiment will be presented, plus a comparison with the first experiment.
Music and Optimal Experience
Based on several years of research on the conditions that provide optimal experiences, Prof. Csikszentmihalyi has identified the state of "flow" as the common mental state people report when they feel that what they do is engrossing, enjoyable, and worth doing for its own sake. He will report on the common characteristics of the flow experience, and of the conditions that are conducive to it, with special reference to the making and the listening to music, which are among the most likely activities to produce flow.
The Challenges of Quantifying Musical Experience
When we engage with music as listeners or performers, we often have a sense of immersion in the music such that our thoughts and actions are seamlessly interwoven with the acoustic vibrations impinging on our senses. Arguably, if we hope to understand why the human brain derives such pleasure from music and pursues it with the tenacity that it does, we must understand what happens in the brain as we experience such transcendent states. Unfortunately, the strictures of experimental design and measurement present significant challenges to obtaining behavioral and neural recordings while subjects are in such experiential states.
In this presentation I will use a series of recent experiments from my lab, that attempt to get at the experience of "groove" in music, to illustrate some of the challenges we face in rigorously describing the phenomenon without letting the experiment setting get too far removed from the experience we are trying to understand.
Music as a Technology to Regulate Brain Functioning: A Discussion of Attention, Arousal, and Mood
Moderator: Robert J. Gatchel, Ph.D., ABPP
Discussants: Judith Becker, Ph.D., Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Ph.D., Petr Janata, Ph.D., Dan Levitin, Ph.D., James Lane, Ph.D.
Chair:
1:50 pmSpeaker: James Lane, Ph.D.Binaural Beat Stimulation in Overview
Binaural beat auditory stimulation is a technique for brain stimulation that presents carrier tones of similar frequencies stereophonically to the two ears. Under appropriate conditions, the listener perceives a single tone of intermediate frequency that has an amplitude modulation (tremolo) with a frequency equal to the difference in frequency of the carrier tones. This tremolo in the carrier is known as a binaural beat. Binaural beats with frequencies in the range of human brain wave activity (EEG) may alter brain and nervous system functioning.
This presentation will review the theory behind binaural beat technology and the mechanisms thought to be responsible for the production of changes in EEG activity, mood, and cognitive performance. This will include a summary of research findings on the effects of binaural beat stimulation and a detailed presentation of a published study of the effects that different frequencies of binaural beat stimulation had on sustained attention (vigilance performance) and mood. Current clinical applications of binaural beats will be described, and suggestions for future research will be offered.
Audio-Visual Entrainment (AVE) in Overview
Since the discovery of photic driving by Adrian and Matthews in 1934, much has been discovered about the benefits of brainwave entrainment (BWE) or audio-visual entrainment (AVE), as it is commonly known today. The first clinical applications of AVE are the credit of Sidney Schneider who developed the first photic stimulation device called the Brain Wave Synchronizer in 1958, which prompted the first clinical research (Kroger and Schneider). AVE affects cerebral blood flow, neurotransmitters, dissociative states and brainwave activity. Research on the effectiveness of AVE in promoting relaxation, cognition, hypnotic induction, treating ADD, PMS, SAD, PTSD, migraine headache, chronic pain, anxiety, depression and hypertension is now available. Some of these studies will be briefly touched upon.
AVS and Difficult-to-Treat Disorders
An early photic stimulator called the Whole Brainwave Synchroenergizer was invented by Denis Gorges about 1976. This unit was evaluated at our clinic soon thereafter. We found it to be a useful substitute for Valium in the reduction of anxiety in certain individuals. The frequency which seemed to produce the greatest effect was 7 Hz. A small study of 6 psychic healers in which they were presented with 10 Hz and 7 Hz sequentially, produced verbal reports that the 10 Hz stimulation "opened" the chakras from the head to the throat but the 7 Hz opened all the chakras. All six subjects were in agreement with this observation.
Later observations indicated that the flashing stimulation could be used to facilitate hypnotic induction. More advanced Light/Sound., or AVS (Audio-Visual Stimulation) devices, allowed a selection of waveshapes (square, sine and triangular) as well as sounds. The binaural tones seemed particularly useful in augmenting the photic effects. When neurofeedback clients were being trained to increase certain frequencies, e.g., 12-15 Hz, it helped to stimulate them with this AVS frequency for 10 minutes prior to starting the neurofeedback training. The frequency of 14 Hz was typically the ideal frequency to use in these cases. An additional finding was that the 14 Hz AVS helped reduce depression in individuals who complained of this symptom. Most clients were also given AVS units to use at home. This seemed to augment the clinical training.
We later carried out a study at WWU (Western Washington University) with students who had sought help from the student counseling center. The results of the 30 session AVS training showed that the E group significantly increased their grade-point average but the no-treatment controls did not (Budzynski et al, 1999). A second study of AVS was conducted with seniors who received pre-post testing and were trained for 30 sessions of AVS using a "pseudorandom" program of stimulation. Pre-post Microcog scores showed an increase in the Memory scale.
Ongoing research with hemifield stimulation will be discussed.
The Possible Use of Inexpensive Sensory Stimulation Technologies to Improve IQ Test Scores and Behavior
The brain has the ability throughout life to continuously change its structure and functioning in response to the nature of the stimulation it receives from its ongoing experience. The brain's ability to modify itself is called neuroplasticity or brain plasticity. Current research indicates that major neuroplastic changes such as synaptogenesis, development of new neural pathways and brain reorganization have been reported to be induced by repetitive sensory (audiovisual) stimulation.
Technology has been developed and field tested that uses the ongoing EEG activity of the brain to control the nature of the sensory stimulation it receives. A series of controlled studies that utilized this technology were conducted over a three year time span with LD/ADD/ADHD children. The findings indicated the children made significant and lasting cognitive and behavioral gains that were maintained on 16 months follow up.
The ultimate form of this technology will be specifically designed to be inexpensive and simple enough to use to be practical for group use in schools or other settings where costs (both for acquisition and the personnel required) must be at an absolute minimum for large scale adoption and use. An interim version is available now for the collection of the research data necessary for a thorough evaluation of the effectiveness of the procedures for increasing children's IQ test performance and improving their behavior. An investigation to be conducted at Stanford has been proposed to explore the effectiveness of rhythmic sensory stimulation in increasing children's performance on IQ tests and improving their behavior while systematically collecting brain imaging data on any associated changes in their brain structure and brain functioning. Ideas or modifications that might add to the optimization and scientific acceptability of the findings of the investigation will be particularly welcomed and considered. Some investigators whose interests and expertise are in areas closely related to this topic might be interested in discussing some form of collaboration with Stanford.
Beyond the current proposal with Stanford there is strong evidence in the scientific literature that suggests that this sensory stimulation technology may have an influence on other neurological disorders that are characterized by reduced levels of electrical or circulatory activity or abnormal neurotransmitter levels. Examples could be stroke, mild traumatic brain injury, anxiety and depression and possibly even Parkinson's. Evidence of structural and functioning changes in the brains of children subsequent to repetitive rhythmic sensory stimulation in the Stanford studies could offer reasonable support for the possibility of similar findings in adults. The potential for follow up studies is of interest to the author and possibly to Stanford.
If the proposed research offers convincing evidence that it is possible to safely, inexpensively and effectively enable large numbers of children to function at higher levels on measures of cognitive performance and to be less impulsive in their behavior, then the data from a large relational database available at Ohio State University (The National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) ) suggests strongly that such an outcome would have major and positive socioeconomic consequences.
The concept of stimulating the brain to change it's functioning is not new (LS Illis,1983). My distinct impression after several thousand hours of study of several thousand references is that the amount and location of repetitive neuronal activation generated by stimuli is far more important than the form of the stimulation evoking the activation whether audiovisual, electrical, electromagnetic, musical or intellectual challenge.
Methods of Altering Brain and Nervous System Functioning via Repetitive External Stimulation
Moderator: James Lane, Ph.D.
Discussants: James Lane, Ph.D., David Siever, Thomas Budzynski, Ph.D., Harold Russell, Ph.D., Thomas Collura, Ph.D., William Hurlbut, Ph.D., Robert Gatchel, Ph.D., ABPP
The Califia Project: Work in Progress
"Know that on the right hand from the Indies exists an island called California very close to Earthly Paradise; and it was populated by black women, without any man existing there, because they lived in the way of the Amazons."
- Las Sergas de Esplandián, (novela de caballería) by García Ordóñez de Montalvo, published in Seville in 1510
Our performance is based on this imaginary representation of California: an island paradise described in Las Sergas de Esplandián, a Spanish romance by García Ordóñez de Montalvo that Hernan Cortes carried with him to the New World. Califia, the queen of this fictional island paradise, takes the cast and audience on a fantastic journey to this mythical "California." This piece explores the history of California through its mythical representations, Ęstories and advertisements. The performance tonight is an introduction to the full production to be presented in its entirety in Fall 2008.
This is the first performance for the Pervasive Percussion Performance Space, an interdisciplinary collective working to integrate dance, sound and technology. This piece features composed musical material as well as musical elements generated in real time using sensors mounted throughout the performance space.
Survey of Models of Musical Rhythm
1. Theory of Musical Rhythm: I will attempt an overview of models of musical rhythm, including meter, phrasing, repetition, syncopation, pulsation, microtiming, etc., in a framework that encompasses the rhythmic organization of music of non-Western as well as Western cultures. Some aspects of production and perception of rhythm are biologically based and culturally universal, while other aspects are learned and culturally specific. I will illustrate my theoretical framework with numerous sound examples of music that I find rhythmically interesting.
2. Machine Listening Approaches for Musical Rhythm: Machine listening is the automatic construction of models given the raw sound input (or a symbolilc representation such as MIDI). It has applications in Music Information Retrieval (e.g., to categorize a song's genre or find similar songs in a database), interactive real-time music software (e.g., so that computer-generated accompaniment can mimic the rhythmic feel of a human performer), and is a major stumbling block in the way of the holy grail of automatic music transcription. Each approach relies on a model of musical rhythm. I will pick a few case studies, describe their theoretical underpinnings and software techniques, and evaluate them with respect to my framework.
Brain rhythms and brain noise
Simply playing a scalp EEG recording through computer speakers (suitably sped up and amplified) is disappointing. Instead of hearing brain rhythms as short tones in a quiet background, one typically hears only colored noise. The terms 'synchronization' and 'desynchronization' were used by early neurophysiologists to describe changes in cortical recordings from large-amplitude, low-frequency periodic activity to 'low-voltage fast' noise. Modern spectral analysis of brain electrical activity, however, typically uses frequency-by-frequency statistics, as if power at each frequency varied independently from power at other frequencies. To test the adequacy of this assumption, Julie Onton and I decomposed log spectrograms of independent EEG source signals, likely generated in spatially compact cortical domains, into independent modulator processes. Two main types emerged: changes in periodic alpha or narrow-band beta activities, and truly broad-band modulations across the source activity spectra. I will discuss interrelationships between time courses of these modulator processes and their relations to subject experience and behavior.
Neural basis of temporal structure processing in music
In this talk I will summarize our ongoing research on the cognitive neuroscience of music processing, including recent findings on (1) characterizing how temporal structure in music is processed in the brain, (2) large-scale brain dynamics during event segmentation in music, (3) similarities and differences between music and speech structure processing, (4) the influence of temporal structure on the affective aspects of music processing, and (5) the effects of anhedonia and depression on music processing.
Joint work with Daniel Levitin, Sridhar Devarajan, Jonathan Berger, Chris Chafe, Jennifer Keller and Alan Schatzberg.
The neuroscience of music perception explored through functional imaging and computational modeling
I. Neuroscience of Music Perception: Spectral and probabilistic structure in pitch and
rhythm
Musical pitch, speech and many other ecologically relevant stimuli are known to be
characterized by spectra that obey a power law. Research in our lab has revealed that
musical rhythms are also characterized by 1/f type spectra. In the first half of the talk I
will present ongoing research on mapping regions in the human auditory cortex that
track spectral structure using the fMRI adaptation technique. I will also discuss the use
of machine learning algorithms in decoding brain states predictive of subjects'
perceptual sensitivities to various spectra. Finally, I will demonstrate a novel method to
construct pitch and rhythm stimuli with specified spectral features and probability
distributions, which can be independently manipulated to create a virtually unlimited
number of tonal and atonal melody-like sequences.
II. A Computational model of Music Perception and Memory
In the second half of the talk, I will present a computational model for music processing
that extracts invariant properties from patterns integrated over time (work in
collaboration with Brian Percival, an electrical engineering graduate student researching
artificial memory). Inspired by the visual system, we have arranged computational
modules in a hierarchy along two interconnected pathways: 'what' and 'where'. At each
layer of the hierarchy, a coherence-driven dynamic routing module uses the invariance
transformation ('where' information) to translate temporal sequences into invariant
representations ('what' information). The use of neuronal coherence to accomplish
dynamic routing demonstrates a novel application of 'brain rhythms' to avoid the
classical problem of having to hard-wire routing connections. Local memory modules at
each layer learn invariant sequences that occur frequently over time. The memory
modules are implemented as a hierarchy of probabilistic suffix trees, which allow
efficient storage of arbitrary-length sequences and meta-sequences, while avoiding
sequence fragmentation. A Bayesian network is used to inform beliefs about current
tonal structure and melody, and permits the calculation of expectation about upcoming
notes and sequences of notes. Predictions of this model will be tested against
behavioral psychophysics and functional imaging experiments.
Brain Computer Interfaces driven by rhythmic processing and selective attention
"Music, Mind, Machine" group
NICI, Radboud University Nijmegen
Auditory attention can offer new possibilities for Brain Computer Interfacing (BCI) by tracking the processes that separate compound stimuli, a skill that humans are excellent in (e.g. in the cocktail party effect). Both dynamic attention, directed to parts of sequences over time, as selective attention, focusing of one of a few parallel streams, can be used. For parallel selective attention we used streams separated in frequency and spatial location. A watermark was added to the stimuli and extracted from the EEG signals. The effect strength of the watermarks on cerebral activity is influenced by purposefully directed attention (Ross & Pantev, 2004). We use frequency tagging for this: low frequency rhythmic amplitude modulation much as used for EEG hearing test in infants. Detecting amplitude and phase in that frequency band in the EEG signal makes decoding of the direction of attention possible. Effects are small but usable for BCI control. They mainly exhibit themselves in the phase coupling with the stimulus. Next to auditory stimuli, the same setup was used for tactile stimuli and for multimodal stimuli, to investigate the effects and possibly the usability of inter-sensory binding.
Ross,B and C. Pantev (2004) Auditory steady state responses reveal amplitude modulation gap detection thresholds. JASA 115(5), 2193-2206
EEG signatures of Subjective Rhythmisation
"Music, Mind, Machine" group
NICI, Radboud University Nijmegen
In the so-called clock illusion, isochronous stimulus trains are subjectively grouped into a binary percept (tick-tock-tick-tock instead of tick-tick-tick-tick). To use the manifestation of subjective accenting in EEG (cf. Brochard et al. 2003, Snyder & Large 2005) for realisation of a Brain-Computer Interface (BCI), we measured EEG after instructing participants to imagine different groupings superimposed on an isochronous train of stimuli, thus producing accented and nonaccented beats in identical metronome ticks. Binary, ternary and quaternary metric patterns were used, including a perception part and an imagery part in each trial. For data-analysis, ICA was used to determine localized dipoles, and ERP's were calculated based on single ICA-components. Preliminary results show a marked effect of inter-trial coherence as an effect of the metronome, and effects of subjective accenting, though varying somewhat over participants, in the beta band and, surprisingly, less so in the gamma band, as would be expected. As realisation of a BCI system only requires robust within-subject consistency, the results appear promising. Next steps will focus on single-trial classification of single beats.
Brochard, R., Abecasis, D., Potter, D., Ragot, R., & Drake, C. (2003). The "ticktock" of our internal clock: Direct brain evidence of subjective accents in isochronous sequences. Psychological Science, 14(4), 362-366.
Snyder, J. S., & Large, E. W. (2005). Gamma-band activity reflects the metric structure of rhythmic tone sequences. Cognitive Brain Research, 24(1), 117-126.