Music Flashcards
Music Adaptation? Sex + Music
Darwin: music = adaptation for courtship
Geoffrey Miller: honest signaling
Zahavi: handicap principle - 10 yrs to become expert
Miles Davis: sexual edge to play well
- songbirds: protect territory & lure mates
- whales: lure mates
Adaptation?
heritability: 0.79
Pinker: music is nothing but a by-product of language… cheesecake to our mental faculties
Neural parallels
Broca’s area when syntax-like, as with language
activation in L hemisphere enhanced in musicians w. perfect pitch
music training correlated to verbal (working) memory
Neural dissociations
“human ipod” - autistic // strong dissociation b/w language & music
- neurons that would have been used for sight (blind) or language (autism) can be used for music
- congenital amusics
- epileptic seizures just cause of music
Emotional Power
- to change emotions
- preference for consonant music from infancy
unpleasant/disonnant: r parahippocampul gyrus
pleasant/consonant: r orbitofrontal; ventral striatum (reward area)
animals & music
dogs; cotton top tamarins
monkeys: can distinguish but have no preference for consonant over dissonant music
can distinguish but have no preference b/w unpleasant and neutral stimuli
PREFER chirp to scream
PREFER lullaby to techno
PREFER soft vs. loud music
PREFER slow clicks vs. fast clicks (less auditory stimuli in general?)
PREFER LESS STIMULI than humans (we like music)
can’t differentiate changes in random notes, but can in children’s melodies … machinery must have been around for a long time
Rhythm
humpbacks rhythmic sounds
elephant orchestra - drums
sea lion keep beat
bird w different bpm
Infants & emotional coloring
1st year of life & cross culturally, emotional tones of music detected
infant directed speech : approval = soothing prohibition = quick attention = ending high SAME as way monkeys communicate ... did music or language come first?
Music development
perception of rhythm from infancy
significant neural plasticity (ie. finger reresentation .. same if IMAGINE – effective in music, sports, etc.)
Pitch
born w/perfect pitch, lost if not maintained w musical training
Sound localization
sensitivity to sounds in periphery vs. in front - conductors are much more sensitive to periphery
Musical knowledge
Passive exposure – scales, key, tonality, meter
Formal training - performance, music, explicit knowledge
Universal across cultures/present early in life - consonance, temporal regularity, multi-sensory interactions
