Midterm 3

Wallace Walker, artist

Created 3-D objects out of paper by folding and gluing it = called kaleidoscopic shapes Impact on mathematics of geometrical shapes called kaleidocycles

Sculptor- Kenneth Snelson

Created in 1950s, American Invented tensegrity Structures Linking stiff units (rods) with highly flexible material (rope, cables) under tension. The units that are "tensed" work in opposition to other units in a way that resists compression The units maintain the balance of the whole structure through the tension Forces pull and push against each piece simultaneously, and still maintain an overall flexible shape As opposed to only push against each other to maintain compression - e.g., arches, buildings Tensegrity structures are dynamic, not rigid and static They will bend if pushed, but snap back to original shape when let go These tensegrity sculptures impacted: Modeling the structure of proteins Skeleton of neurons (cytoskeleton) Always moving in response to signals And many more influences

Do animals dance? Dance in animal

Dancing Grebes Mates synchronize neck bending; walking on water Magnificent Riflebird Male dances for female Dance of the Parotia Bird of Paradise from New Guinea Males rehearse their dance Use motoric skills to attract others for procreation

Examples of creativity in art

Dennis Oppenheim Canadian sculptor Upside-down house/churches Alexander Polzin, a German Sculptor Upside down statue Memorial to Giordano Bruno, 450 years ago, dominican monk burned at stake 1600 for denying the divinity of christ for supporting the copernican model of the solar system, for his idea that the universe contained a multitude of suns and earth-like worlds Symbolic of way in which scientific discoveries and revolutions happen "by turning a worldview on its head" 6 m high sculpture, designed to "irritate" passerby into reflecting in the role of human reason in making the world a better place

What is dissonant music?

Dissonant = harsh/tense music Also known as atonal music: began in early part of the 20th century; audiences reacted negatively, riots in Paris in reaction to such music Rats and starlings (type of bird) distinguish between consonant vs dissonant chords

EEG recordings of brain waves

Electroencephalogram Pick up brain waves (action potentials)

Silk Screening and Etching

Etchings in art produce lithographs Silk-screening (stenciling) originated in Asia hundreds of years ago- to make textiles Microelectronic chips - used in computers - are made by "printing" on tiny chips, a process similar to silk-screening and etching Silk screening and etching are artistic methods Influenced creation of microelectronic chips ((the kind used in computer ex.) Called optical lithography Andy Warhol- did silk textiles and screening

Autism and art

Exceptional autism = savant What can their brain teach us about talent and creativity? Significant anomalies in gray and white matter in brain structure of individuals with autism But no reliable studies of brains of autistic savants Visual and musical artists Not literary artists (poets or writers) Not dancers

Expert musicians listen to music differently than non-experts

Experts use left hemisphere more- to figure out details Beethoven - deaf ;5th symphony - Leonard Berenstain While non-experts rely on right hemisphere Mozart: Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra in A major, K. 622 (you heard the adagio) Chiarello (?) Shown by Chiarello and Bever, 1974 ; Then replicated by others

Artist's choice of cheek emphasis in portraits

Explains the issue of appearance of the final art work What influences it The artistic cognitive decision Wanting to engage the sitter and paint animated portraits The emphasis on signs of "virtue" in portraits of women shows: The influence of society's norms on the artwork; society is reflected in final appearance of the art

Idealized beauty in portraits:

Faces were painted according to principles of idealized beauty of that period They were not faithful to the true face Portraits were meant to display the wealth of the patron Including the virtue of the sitter Virtue = chastity, loyalty, faithfulness, obedience Additional studies confirmed a general leftward bias for portraits of women sitters: Collection of total of 4180 painted portraits, photographs, etchings, and drawings

Studying patterns of behavior in very creative people How do creative people think and behave?

Focus Superior in 1 or very related areas Cognition Ability to use mental images Ability to consider a problem from many angles - flexible Personality Independent, self-confident, unconventional, hard-working, committed Motivation Driven by internal values or personal goals

How many composers are there with brain damage?

In all, 7 composers with left hemisphere injury = continued to compose In all, 3 composers with right hemisphere damage = 2 continued to compose, 1 did not Very few composers with brain damage- not much to go on

Consequences of acquired brain lesions in dance (choreography), written prose (novelists, poets) Tomas Transtromer

- (1931- 2015) Nobel Prize in Literature in 2011 Left hemisphere stroke at age 59 (in 1990) Right sided paralysis, Broca's aphasia (left frontal lobe) No post-stroke alteration in style of poetry Post-stroke poems well-received and admired The Great Enigma - poems 2004 Not criticized From Sweden

Consequences of acquired brain lesions in dance (choreography) Agnes de Mille

- American choreographer, influential in American ballet and dance 1905-1993 Innovative, important American choreographer Left hemisphere stroke in 1975 in frontal lobe, resulted in aphasia Difficulty speaking- Broca's area in left frontal lobe Right sided paralysis, difficulties in speaking, writing, cdancing, choreography demonstration But went on to write books, but was not effective in choreography Had problems giving instructions to the dancers

Consequences of acquired brain lesions in dance (choreography), written prose (novelists, poets) William Carlos Williams

- American writer, poet, novelist, playwright (also a medical doctor) - 1883-1963 Left Hemisphere stroke in 1951 - age 68 Left hemisphere stroke in 1952- age 69 Suffered from right arm paralysis, Broca's aphasia, right visual field defects Continued to write novels, essays, poetry in next 11 years (til death) No alterations in style or creativity have been detected Received Pulitzer Prize for one of the poems written post-stroke

Consequences of acquired brain lesions in dance (choreography), written prose (novelists, poets) Iris Murdoch

- novelist from Britain; highly regarded and influential Alzheimer's Disease in a writer Diagnosed with AD at age 76 (post-mortem pathology confirmed AD) Behavioral symptoms appeared at least a year earlier, and maybe even earlier Continued to write a novel - "Jackson's Dilemma" Was criticized/received bad reviews when published Poor organization, story line, coherence Computerized analysis of her language/syntax use in last novel revealed Particularly poor vocabulary - word selection deficit Other deficits found are common in old age ie not unique to AD in a writer (eg syntax) Many areas of the brain were damaged- unlike the other 2 writers who had localized damage

Viewing dancing fMRI and EEG techniques are typically used to measure reactions in expert dancers and non-expert dancers while they view dance segments on a computer monitor FMRI studies:

1. Expert dancers viewed and imagined themselves performing familiar or novel movement sequences Found maximal activation in premotor cortex and inferior parietal lobule 2. Non-dancers trained for 5 days observing and performing dancing Researchers found maximal activation in premotor cortex and inferior parietal lobule; same areas as expert dancers 3. Expert dancers observed familiar vs novel dance styles (familiar from having actually danced those styles) Found maximal activation in the premotor cortex for the familiar styles 4. Ballroom dancers vs nondancers viewed ballroom dancing Found maximal activation in the premotor cortex 5. Novice dance spectators observed dance performances Found maximal activation in auditory cortex (superior temporal gyrus)

Perception/cognition/memory of music: Mostly right hemisphere specialization:

1. Melody recognition - Much faster/easier than melody naming 2. Pitch 3. Timbre - Better at recognizing which instrument

Perception/cognition/memory of music: Mostly left hemisphere specialization:

1. Timing 2. Rhythm 3. Melody naming (name of melody) 4. Tones

Left temporal lobe injury->influence on music comprehension

1. Tone deafness = inability to discriminate tones on a scale ("all tones sound the same", says the patient)

Right temporal lobe injury-> influence on music comprehension

2. Melody deafness = inability to recognize melodies Patient can still recognize the instrument from just hearing the sound - the timbre Patient can still recognize wrong notes

What is amusia?

= difficulties in processing music or musical elements

Ancient flutes

A 30,000 year old french deer bone flute A 4,000 year old French vulture bone flute Have to be careful to make sure it's made by humans; they found one that was made by an animal- bite marks

Jules Verne

A French novelist who wrote in the 19th century Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea A novel about a submarine traveling under water in the oceans of the world Eighty Days Around the World A novel about seeing the world from a hot air balloon From the Earth to the Moon A novel about getting to the moon on a ballistic cannon fired from Earth Wrote about travel in machines that didn't exist yet Only existed in his artistic imagination

Creativity is not the same as "to create"

A semantics issue with the world "creativity" Language and linguistic labels can be misleading Creativity is a noun To create is a verb When something is created it is not necessarily "creative" It is a creation of sorts, a production, .......

The nucleus accumbens is associated with

Addiction (to recreational drugs) Reward (from food and sex) Laughter Placebo effect

Findings of Howard Gardner on similarities among highly creative people

An atmosphere of moderate tension, & a sense that change was necessary Sufficient background to feel confident in knowledge of the area and its problems To come up with a creative idea/innovation/theory-> you have to knowledge At least one mentor or friend who provided advice or encouragement A high level of commitment to the work, sacrificing any possibility of a well-rounded life

What brain areas are involved with singing?

Anaesthetizing entire hemisphere at a time I.e. when only the right hemisphere is awake versus when only the left hemisphere is awake When only right hemisphere is awake and controls the singing = good singing but not perfect When only left hemisphere is awake and controls the singing = monotone, incorrect pitch, but rhythm is unaffected

We process sounds using the auditory cortex in the temporal lobe

Auditory cortex - superior temporal gyrus, heschl's gyrus Where Wernicke's area is too Primary Auditory Cortex and Second Auditory Cortex Researchers studying the different things that can be heard in each one

Biological origins of sound and music In animals:

Auditory pathways used to perceive music evolved in animals - communication(mate selection, territoriality) - Sound source identification (prey, foe, friend) - Auditory object segregation (frogs, crickets) Sounds bounce off of objects

Health status of hearing

Beethoven Hearing loss became worse in his late 20s but was not deaf Became completely deaf at 44. Wrote 9th symphony while completely deaf Smetena - had syphilis Czech Billy Joel (This Night can last forever)

Surrealism art school/movement

Began as an extension of the Dada art school Dada formed around WW1 In 1913, by Marcel Duchamp, who was anti-war The idea of Dadaism was also expressed in Cubism Practiced by Braque and Picasso Dada questioned human existence following WW1 The arts reflected devastation of the established world order, of cultural norms, moral values etc. Surrealism school; Rene Magritte; born in Lessines, Belgium 1898-1967 Personal values All the objects are drawn realistically, but the juxtaposition and sizing are not This hadn't been done up to this point Domain of Arnheim Fantasy landscape described by Edgar Allen Poe Surrealism violates norms, rules Salvador Dali (1904-1989) from Italy The Persistence of memory (1931) Distorts details of familiar objects Man Ray - American who lived in France

Composers with brain injury- Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)

Bolero Neurodegenerative disease affecting both hemispheres, but more the left hemisphere Famous- use this song in movies Wrote Bolero when he already had disease in both hemispheres Unknown disease, developed memory and language problems Underwent biopsy on his brain

Music and Language

Both are acoustically based forms of communication - Set of rules for combining sounds in an infinite number of ways Speech vs melodies Speech = small units, time dependent, and temporally ordered (e.g. sequential) Melodies = long units, time independent, are remembered and produced as entire wholes The whole is not pieced together tone by tone, but rather as a long unit Unlike speech, we do not know the precise semantic meaning of the beginning or end of musical phrases A bunch of tones put together- this is how a musical phrase sounds to us Where is the deep semantic meaning of these tones and their combinations together with basic elements of music?

Babies enter the world primed to extract temporal regularities that characterize the music

By 1 year, babies can sing spontaneously By 3 years many children can sing several songs Can sing them better than they can speak

Human babies and music- at 4 mos. babies prefer:

By 4 months, babies prefer consonant music as opposed to dissonant music Consonant = relaxed/pleasant music Dissonant = harsh/tense music Babies weaned on non-western music also prefer consonant music - Supports the idea that it is biologically wired, doesn't rely on experience

Autonomic nervous system reactions to music

Chills (e.g. goosebumps, shivers) = indicates arousal Number of chills, intensity of chills Chills index the peak of pleasure (they are byproducts of pleasure, not the cause of pleasure) Pleasure subjective reactions to music Pleasure (mild vs intense continuum) These reactions are associated with increased activation (more blood) in fMRI studies in the Caudate nucleus of the striatum - part of the basal ganglia Nucleus accumbens Increased levels of dopamine in these nuclei

Human Music early beginnings (practical reasons)

Could have started with mimicking animal sounds To capture and hunt them through deception Could have developed into a group-unifying strategy ie the members sing, hum in unison - Became a symbol for the group/identity - ex national anthem Dolphins: lots of sounds, whistles that act as names, live in groups - Not music; music requires combination of notes to make melodies to make themes - Humpback male whales

Composers with brain injury - Vissarion Shebalin (1902-1963)

Left hemisphere stroke = injury to language comprehension region in the temporal lobe (had Wernicke's aphasia) Not really well known or famous Russian Continued to compose after stroke

Emotional and Neural response to music

Limbic system Medial forebrain bundle pathway Autonomic nervous system Emotional = happy, cheerful, pleased, relaxed, sleepy, tense, sad, melancholic, etc. relieves anxiety pain and stress Limbic system is involved in emotional response to music Amygdala, hippocampus, cingulate gyrus A patient with damage in LEFT amygdala no longer experienced chills upon listening to certain music perceptual/cognitive response to music is separate from emotional response to music Neurological patient who lost emotional response to music can still perceive and respond cognitively to music and its various components Cognitive- knowing the name of the melody(if there are errors), rhythm, timbre, pitch

Very early Renaissance portraits were in profile (side view)

Meant to resemble medals or coins Duke's Profile The duke had a right eye injury inflicted during a battle, and this explains why he is facing this direction 1450: start having slight turns of head

What are the elements of music? (Without conscious effort, the brain translates patterns of acoustic energy into music's basic elements)

Melody = the overall tune Harmony = occurrence of the sounds Rhythm - the timing Pitch = the frequency (low vs high) Tone = specific sounds, chords Tempo = speed

Savants = one exceptional ability in Art (visual, musical performance) Or Memory

Miniscule number of savants despite large number of persons with autism Talent can survive extensive brain damage Display remarkable talent but very little creativity Remarkable visuo-spatial configurations in their visual art - photographic - like Very few in society have such talent Pay a great attention to details Color not remarkable/outstanding In general, color not often used Benefit very little form art instruction Unlike healthy artists and non-artists Create very little that is new/innovative Although occasionally show ability to improvise (particularly in music) Autism = severe language and social communication deficits Accompanied by low IQ Artistic talent can survive despite extensive brain lesions (seen in visual art, music playing, singing) Intelligence level is critical for creativity Extensive damage in brain does not destroy talent, but creativity can be destroyed Create very little that's new/innovative And despite extensive brain damage, talent can be preserved

Researchers are studying whether or not repeatedly listening to the same piece again and again can train the brain to better synchronize with musical rhythms

Mirror/mere(?) effect- true with faces, visual art, people Exposure changes preference

An important study published in 1973 in NATURE 1,474 painted portraits of single sitters (from National Portrait Gallery in London, England) FOUND:

Most portraits were of established, wealthy people who could afford to commission an artist 68% women sitters = left cheek emphasis 56% men sitters = left cheek emphasis Possible reason for why artists emphasized left cheek in women sitters: Artists engaged the women sitter in conversation' Most successful portrait painters were men The sitter reacted, the reaction was most salient in the left facial half Women smile more readily than men Artists wanted to create animated paintings As for men Those who got portraits painted were highly-ranked men (aristocrats, kings, soldiers, generals, etc.) So they don't talk as much Men also don't show as much expression And male artists didn't bother engaging men sitters in conversation Which makes it less important to paint the expressive side, so right side emphasized more often

Talent: Talent has a short shelf life?

Mozart's descendants? Schuberts? Brahms? Handels? Hyden? None of them were successful musicians Bach One of his sons had some success No grandchildren had success Talent is short lived; occurs in an individual Rarely inherited Sometimes NOT a short shelf life: Very rare Johann Sebastian Bach Alessandro Scarlatti Had composer progenies In visual art, typically only 1 or 2 generations One major exception is the Breugel family of artists: They were active for 4 generations Starting in the 1500s Flemish painters = northern part of belgium, the Flanders (Dutch speaking part of Belgium) Very influential in northern European art Started with the first Breugal, and continued into next generations

What brain areas are involved in music composing?

Multiple brain areas are involved in composing Particular hemispheric specialization is not a factor in composing Both hemispheres contribute to musical composing Very few composers in general- talent is rare

What about music suggests biological ancestry of music?

Music-making varies dramatically among cultures, but the fact that it's found in all societies suggests that the roots can be found in our biology ancestry Symbolic reasons - unity, part of culture Aria from opera - about tragic love, French ;The Pearl Fishers, George Bizet Fado- tragic love; in portugal Cherry blossom love- wailing Also composed Carmen Biological underpinnings in our brain devoted to processing of music That's how we can tell things are sad/happy even when we can't understand the words

Cellular tensegrity model

Must have a skeleton first in any structure (a frame), also in cells Many sieves in a skeleton (fibres) Neurons stay together due to push and pull forces (idea from Snelson's art) Also microfilaments, microtubules, other filaments Shows the importance of science learning from art

Brain's natural rhythms and EEG

Natural oscillations of neuronal firing = a clue to neural basis of liking vs not liking musical pieces Firing = action potentials High oscillations = many neurons are firing Low oscillations = fewer neurons fire off Synchrony of oscillations = the oscillations are under neural control that synchronizes rate of oscillation Synchrony has a predetermined rhythm Motor cortex - has its own synchrony/oscillation Frontal lobe Visual cortex - has its own synchrony/oscillation Occipital lobe

Common characteristics of creative individuals

Nonconformity Risk-taking Willingness to tolerate rejection Openness to new experience At least a moderate level of intelligence Applies to creativity in ALL fields, not just in art

Science and Art ;Ideas in on field influence ideas in another field ; Art influences science : From film to reality

On september 11, 2011, the Kepler Discovery telescope spotted a distant planet orbiting 2 planets (2 suns) A world with double sunsets (and sunrises) was predicted in the film Star Wars about 30 years earlier

Parallels between bird song and human music

Our evolutionary path diverged millions of years ago Birds produce songs with same rhythmic variations, pitch relationships, permutations, and combinations of notes as human composers Some bird songs resemble musical compositions; eg the canyon wren's trill cascades down the musical scale like the opening of Chopin's "Revolutionary" Etude Not all bird sounds emanate from the vocal tract- Some produced with "instruments" such as special feather structures Or pounding on an object with a "preferred" resonance Usually a tree; or use a branch; Not just any twig Eg; the palm cockatoo of northern australia and new guinea The male breaks a twig from a tree, selects a hollow log, hold on to the log with one foot, and holds the stick with its other foot to drums on the log (to attract a female)

Creative Thinking

Reorganization of previous understanding Of established knowledge Insight is not the same as creativity Insight uses current knowledge to solve a problem, reach a solution/understanding Creative individual - in general Is someone who regularly solves problems or fashions products, and defines new question that make a positive impact on society Innovative Original thinker

A reasonable hypothesis

Response to music is related to brain pathways tuned to sounds of social affiliation Eg sounds of language These auditory pathways are evolutionarily old and are preserved in humans because of their highly adaptive nature Bring members of group together Lead to cohesiveness Contribute to the cultural repertoire

The brain in the dancer while the dancer is performing dance movements

Several different techniques used to determine brain areas activated maximally EEG, PET, fMRI-type All techniques suffer from a methodological difficulty Namely, motion artifacts Taken together, researchers found Network of cortical regions implicated in various aspects of dance performance Superior temporal gyrus (auditory cortex) Superior parietal lobule - spatial cognition Frontopolar cortex - planning ahead Middle temporal gyrus Regions in the cerebellum also become active Movements, coordination, maintenance of muscles

Anamorphosis

Shape change = derived from Renaissance discovery of perspective drawing = mapping a 3D object onto a flat surface Artists Produced anamorphic distortions Influenced thinking on biological shape change in development (ontogenetic or phylogenetic)

What can we learn from brain injury and music?

Shows there s dissociation in the brain among musics components Diff brain regions process diff components Aphasia patients can recognize melodies but at the same time cannot recognize/use the words in the lyrics, what does this mean? - Language and music are dissociable

Creativity is not the same as talent

Talent is inborn A talented person is not necessarily creative Skill is not the same as creativity Both talent and creativity play a role in successful art communication Art that attracts attention Art that communicates artistic genetic quality

Viewing dancing fMRI and EEG techniques are typically used to measure reactions in expert dancers and non-expert dancers while they view dance segments on a computer monitor EEG studies:

Tango dancers viewed familiar video clips of tango steps Comes from argentina Found pronounced brain waves generated in the premotor cortex and inferior parietal lobule As well as in other frontal, parietal, and occipital regions That occurred in anticipation of the viewed tango steps - ie occurred before actual steps were performed

Emotional responses to music are evoked by

Temporal (time) events eg Expectations Delay Tension (e.g. appoggiatura: a note that clashes with the melody) Resolution Prediction Surprise (e.g. loud to soft, 2 singers with contrasting voices) Anticipation

Brain physiological responses to hearing music

The music we listened to - was supposed to trigger alpha waves(relaxing) in non-musicians right hemisphere Jaoquin Rodrigo: concierto de aranjuez (the adiago is what we heard) Physiological responses are not the same between musicians and non-musicians Patient with corpus callosum cut(split-brain patients); their right hemisphere emitted alpha waves

Pixels

The process of breaking a picture into tiny discrete areas of color Influenced use of pixels in computers Started with artists Georges Seurat Pointillism - developed from Impressionism; Small little dots to make up a painting "Bathers at Asnieres" - 1884 "A Sunday afternoon on the island of La Grande Jatte", 1884-85 "Study for The Channel at Gravelines, Evening", 1890 This is where scientists/engineers got the idea of pixels Were interested in the way light breaks down, similar to Impressionists' interests

Why do you like some music and not other music?

The study also showed that the degree of synchronization affected how well listeners processed the content of the music itself Subjects whose cortical oscillations were better synchronized with the music were also better able to pick the pitch distortions that were purposefully introduced to it

EEG in 27 non-musicians and 12 musicians was measured

They listened to 3 clips of classical music Cortical oscillations in both musicians and non-musicians synchronized with the tempo of the clips of music Music altered the default cortical oscillation ! Could this be the neural basis for liking pieces of music?? A match between the tempo of a piece of music and the tempo of cortical neuronal oscillations could spell "I like this music" Debate in scientific literature

Whales and humans

Very large brains They use phrases of similar lengths to ours - a few seconds in length- and create themes out of several phrases before singing the next theme Whale songs can be almost as long as a movement of a symphony They have a similar attention span to humans Have a large cerebral cortex Fact that whale and human music have so much in common, even though our evolutionary paths have not intersected for ~60 million years, suggest that humans are latecomers to the musical scene There's biological continuity between human music and animals (or at least sounds)

When we view surrealistic art, what do we see?

Violations of the Physical laws of nature Logical laws of nature Moral laws of society

Western (European) trend in portraiture of single sitters

Western trend in painting and drawing faces A slight turn of the head One side is given more space on the canvas Left side It is "emphasized" In Europe, At end of Renaissance, started doing profiles (side views) Around 1450: slight turns of head, emphasizing one side over the other in Europe Head-on views very, very rare in Europe China/Japan/Asia did head-on views Subject's left side of face (our right) is given priority FOR WOMEN For men, their right side of face (our left) is given priority

Creativity and Talent

What is creativity? Creating something new/innovative that didn't exist previously and that makes a positive impact on society There's a continuum in the category of creativity One extreme = genius Isaac Newton, Galileo, da Vinci, Einstein etc. Galileo- first experimental astronomer Newton - gravity Da Vinci - artist, inventor Einstein - theory of Special Relativity = matter and energy are interchangeable E = mc^2 E = energy, m = mass, c^2 = speed of light squared "The speed of light is such a big number, a tiny amount of mass is equivalent to - and can be converted into - a very large amount of energy. Explains atomic and hydrogen bombs so powerful." Creativity is not the same as talent, either. Can have one without the other And neither is skill

Health status of the hands

Wittgenstein the pianist Lost his right arm Composed for the left hand Domenico Scarlatti the pianist/composer Alexander Scriabin the pianist/composer Niccolo Paganini the violinist/composer Could play certain things bc he had such long fingers Could compose things that no one else could play Marfan syndrome President lincoln believed to have had this - tall, long limbs Strong genetic component External appearance: exceptionally long fingers with unusual flexibility Thumb can be exceptionally hyperextended Elongated limbs Heart problems Tallness La Campanella

Music composing is linked to

a chromosome 4 region that previously had been linked to musical abilities Several genes linked to this chromosomal region are expressed in the brain Chromosome 18 region is linked to musically active individuals but it is not linked to composing or arranging This region includes several brain-related genes

Composers with brain injury - George Friederic Handel (1685-1759)

had several left hemisphere strokes Continued to compose, including the famous oratorio Messiah

Influences on musical compositions

health status of the hands, hearing

Willingness to listen to music is related to :

neurobiological pathways affecting social affiliation and communication Use music for social identification - Symbolic signal Adults prefer listening to high pitched songs/melodies - Miserere - Allegri - Because babies have high pitched voices, need to hear it easier

The medial forebrain bundle pathway-

the so-called reward pathway; in the VTA Projects from the midbrain to the hypothalamus, to the nucleus accumbens in the forebrain NA: controls how much dopamine is released This pathway relies on actions of dopamine A flood of dopamine creates an intense feeling of pleasure