[Dixielandjazz] Functional MRI studies when pianists are improvizing.

[Norman Vickers]

To:  Musicians and Jazzfans list;  DJML

From: Norman Vickers, Jazz Society of Pensacola

 

Here's a little news item to pique your interest.  If and when there is
more, I'll pass along.  I can't make anything revolutionary out of this, but
it's another piece to the puzzle.  Here's the link and the article is copied
below.

 

 

 

http://www.myfoxal.com/story/24774891/when-jazz-musicians-improvise-so-do-th
eir-brains

 

 


When jazz musicians improvise, so do their brains


Updated: Feb 20, 2014 09:49 AM

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Jazz.PRNewsFoto / Thelonious Monk Institute of JazzC Jazz.PRNewsFoto /
Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz

  

WEDNESDAY, Feb. 19, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- The mysterious workings of jazz
players' brains while they improvise music are revealed in a new study.

Researchers used functional MRI scans to monitor the brain activity of 11
male jazz pianists, aged 25 to 56, while they performed spontaneous
back-and-forth musical exchanges with each another, which is called "trading
fours."

The MRI scans showed high activity in brain areas typically used to
interpret the structure of sentences and phrases, but low activity in areas
used to process the meaning of spoken language, according to the Johns
Hopkins researchers.

The study authors said their findings indicate that brain areas that process
language structure are not limited to spoken language, but are also used to
process other types of communication, such as music.

The study was published online Feb. 19 in the journal PLoS One.

"Until now, studies of how the brain processes auditory communication
between two individuals have been done only in the context of spoken
language," study senior author Dr. Charles Limb said in a Hopkins news
release. "But looking at jazz lets us investigate the neurological basis of
interactive, musical communication as it occurs outside of spoken language,"
he explained.

"We've shown in this study that there is a fundamental difference between
how meaning is processed by the brain for music and language," explained
Limb, an associate professor in the department of otolaryngology -- head and
neck surgery.

Limb is also a musician who holds a faculty appointment at the Peabody
Conservatory.

"When two jazz musicians seem lost in thought while trading fours, they
aren't simply waiting for their turn to play," Limb noted. "Instead, they
are using the syntactic areas of their brain to process what they are
hearing so they can respond by playing a new series of notes that hasn't
previously been composed or practiced."

More information

Neuroscience for Kids has more about
<http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/music.html> music and the brain.

 

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