Music as a social instrument: a brief historical and conceptual perspective

Frontiers in Cognition, Journal Year: 2025, Volume and Issue: 4

Published: Feb. 24, 2025

This article addresses the origins and purpose of communal music-making, including dance, its role in human sociality. It accords special significance to adapted nature vocalization, sensorimotor discrimination that allows prediction then generation musically relevant, coordinated simultaneous movements. Commencing with a historical survey development ideas about evolutionary importance music social behavior, this mini-review sets out define explore key issues involved an explanation. These include: acquisition control parameters required for vocal production (synchronization pitch, timbre, duration loudness); exchange transmission pitched utterances unison as well harmony; roles natural sexual selection shaping musical abilities; cooperative consequences bonding such interaction throughout life; behaviors across generations, between genes culture drives evolution complex behavior Homo sapiens . The concludes brief review current research deals contributory features field, especially neuroscience which continues provide important psychophysiological data reinforces long-held proposal has promoting cooperative, prosocial interactions leading health wellbeing over lifespan.

Language: Английский

Pearls & Oy-sters: Isolated Acquired Amusia in a Patient With Right Temporal Stroke

Neurology, Journal Year: 2025, Volume and Issue: 104(5)

Published: Jan. 31, 2025

Strokes in the right temporal lobe are known to cause acquired amusia, or deficits music processing, which can be formally assessed using online version of Montreal Battery Evaluation Amusia (MBEA). Patients with amusia most often present not only but also other neurologic symptoms, such as aphasia, neglect, memory issues. We report a case 39-year-old man who initially presented for follow-up after single seizure episode. Two years before seizure, patient experienced an episode headache, nausea, and vomiting, he developed difficulty appreciating carrying tune, something had never competent trumpet player singer. An MRI scan performed his revealed encephalomalacia gliosis within lateral areas hemosiderin deposition, suggesting that 2 ago was stroke. His standard examination normal including score 30/30 on Cognitive Assessment. On MBEA, scored 66.7% off-tune test, 87.5% off-beat 70.8% out-of-key consistent diagnosis amusia. This highlights importance eliciting less common isolated symptoms patients otherwise examination, musical symptoms. highlight utility tools MBEA document severity potentially follow patients' progress they recover.

Language: Английский

Dynamics of pitch perception in the auditory cortex

bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory), Journal Year: 2024, Volume and Issue: unknown

Published: June 10, 2024

Abstract The ability to perceive pitch allows human listeners experience music, recognize the identity and emotion conveyed by conversational partners, make sense of their auditory environment. A percept is formed weighting different acoustic cues (e.g., signal fundamental frequency inter-harmonic spacing) contextual (expectation). How when such are neurally encoded integrated remains debated. In this study, twenty-eight participants listened tone sequences with (pure tones, complex missing ambiguous mixtures), placed in predictable less sequences, while magnetoencephalography was recorded. Decoding analyses revealed that neural responses all three types, low-to-mid cortex, bilaterally, right-hemisphere dominance. pattern activity generalized across cue-types, offset time: earlier for harmonic tones (∼85ms) than pure (∼95ms). For emerged significantly contexts, could be decoded even before onset. results suggest a unified representation emerges integrating independent cues, context alters dynamics generation ambiguous.

Language: Английский