Search results for "Music Cognition"
showing 10 items of 20 documents
Trait Empathy associated with Agreeableness and rhythmic entrainment in a spontaneous movement to music task: Preliminary exploratory investigations
2017
The simulation theory of empathy suggests that we use motor processing to empathise, through modelling the actions of others. Similarly, research into embodied music cognition posits that music, particularly musical rhythm, is perceived as a motor stimulus. In both cases, the human Mirror Neuron System (MNS) is put forward as a potential underlying mechanism. If this is the case, some overlap may exist between the ability to empathise with others, and the ability to perceive rhythm in music. The present study investigated this relationship indirectly, through the study of individual differences in Trait Empathy and rhythmic entrainment. Undergraduate students ( N = 237) completed a questio…
Expert musical reading is supported by activation of harmony rules during cross-modal integration
2017
International audience; Multisensory integration of musical information is an important process in music reading. Integrate many sensory inputs (visual, auditory, motor) into a coherent pathway emerges during development of musical skill. We hypothesize that more skilled musicians can retrieve information across auditory and visual modalities, activating harmony rules as retrieval cues. The aim of the present research is to investigate this issue using the eye-tracking technique. Musicians (experts and non-experts) were asked to detect as fast as possible a modified note between listening and reading phases. Randomized fragments of classical music were sequentially versus simultaneously dis…
Guest Editors' Introduction: Music as Embodied Experience
2020
Technology has impacted music’s role in contemporary society in extraordinary ways. In addition to how people use music for professional and artistic pursuits, technology has opened a wide variety of new avenues for research and application, particularly as a reliable therapeutic and salutogenic tool. Recently, a useful framework for studying this shifting perspective surrounding musical experience has emerged: embodied music cognition, which conceptualizes the body as being at the center of music experiences. The papers in this thematic issue highlight how music technologies have matured to the point where they affect the way music is created, performed, enjoyed, and researched.
Beneficial effects of choir singing on cognition and well-being of older adults: Evidence from a cross-sectional study.
2021
Background and objectivesChoir singing has been associated with better mood and quality of life (QOL) in healthy older adults, but little is known about its potential cognitive benefits in aging. In this study, our aim was to compare the subjective (self-reported) and objective (test-based) cognitive functioning of senior choir singers and matched control subjects, coupled with assessment of mood, QOL, and social functioning.Research design and methodsWe performed a cross-sectional questionnaire study in 162 healthy older (age ≥ 60 years) adults (106 choir singers, 56 controls), including measures of cognition, mood, social engagement, QOL, and role of music in daily life. The choir singers…
Naturalistic music and dance: Cortical phase synchrony in musicians and dancers
2018
Expertise in music has been investigated for decades and the results have been applied not only in composition, performance and music education, but also in understanding brain plasticity in a larger context. Several studies have revealed a strong connection between auditory and motor processes and listening to and performing music, and music imagination. Recently, as a logical next step in music and movement, the cognitive and affective neuro-sciences have been directed towards expertise in dance. To understand the versatile and overlapping processes during artistic stimuli, such as music and dance, it is necessary to study them with continuous naturalistic stimuli. Thus, we used long exce…
Memorable Experiences with Sad Music : Reasons, Reactions and Mechanisms of Three Types of Experiences
2016
Reactions to memorable experiences of sad music were studied by means of a survey administered to a convenience (N = 1577), representative (N = 445), and quota sample (N = 414). The survey explored the reasons, mechanisms, and emotions of such experiences. Memorable experiences linked with sad music typically occurred in relation to extremely familiar music, caused intense and pleasurable experiences, which were accompanied by physiological reactions and positive mood changes in about a third of the participants. A consistent structure of reasons and emotions for these experiences was identified through exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses across the samples. Three types of sadness …
Composing only by thought: Novel application of the P300 brain-computer interface.
2017
The P300 event-related potential is a well-known pattern in the electroencephalogram (EEG). This kind of brain signal is used for many different brain-computer interface (BCI) applications, e.g., spellers, environmental controllers, web browsers, or for painting. In recent times, BCI systems are mature enough to leave the laboratories to be used by the end-users, namely severely disabled people. Therefore, new challenges arise and the systems should be implemented and evaluated according to user-centered design (USD) guidelines. We developed and implemented a new system that utilizes the P300 pattern to compose music. Our Brain Composing system consists of three parts: the EEG acquisition d…
Fractionating auditory priors: A neural dissociation between active and passive experience of musical sounds
2019
Learning, attention and action play a crucial role in determining how stimulus predictions are formed, stored, and updated. Years-long experience with the specific repertoires of sounds of one or more musical styles is what characterizes professional musicians. Here we contrasted active experience with sounds, namely long-lasting motor practice, theoretical study and engaged listening to the acoustic features characterizing a musical style of choice in professional musicians with mainly passive experience of sounds in laypersons. We hypothesized that long-term active experience of sounds would influence the neural predictions of the stylistic features in professional musicians in a distinct…
Absolute Memory for Tempo in Musicians and Non-Musicians
2016
The ability to remember tempo (the perceived frequency of musical pulse) without external references may be defined, by analogy with the notion of absolute pitch, as absolute tempo (AT). Anecdotal reports and sparse empirical evidence suggest that at least some individuals possess AT. However, to our knowledge, no systematic assessments of AT have been performed using laboratory tasks comparable to those assessing absolute pitch. In the present study, we operationalize AT as the ability to identify and reproduce tempo in the absence of rhythmic or melodic frames of reference and assess these abilities in musically trained and untrained participants. We asked 15 musicians and 15 non-musician…
What makes music memorable? : Relationships between acoustic musical features and music-evoked emotions and memories in older adults
2021
Publisher: Public Library of Science; International audience; Music has a unique capacity to evoke both strong emotions and vivid autobiographical memories. Previous music information retrieval (MIR) studies have shown that the emotional experience of music is influenced by a combination of musical features, including tonal, rhythmic, and loudness features. Here, our aim was to explore the relationship between music-evoked emotions and music-evoked memories and how musical features (derived with MIR) can predict them both. Methods Healthy older adults (N = 113, age ≥ 60 years) participated in a listening task in which they rated a total of 140 song excerpts comprising folk songs and popular…