Thursday, February 20, 2014

This is your brain on jazz

Science Daily: from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, the laboratory of Charles Limb:
The brains of jazz musicians engrossed in spontaneous, improvisational musical conversation showed robust activation of brain areas traditionally associated with spoken language and syntax, which are used to interpret the structure of phrases and sentences. But this musical conversation shut down brain areas linked to semantics -- those that process the meaning of spoken language, according to results of a novel study.
Citation for original paper:
Gabriel F. Donnay, Summer K. Rankin, Monica Lopez-Gonzalez, Patpong Jiradejvong, Charles J. Limb. Neural Substrates of Interactive Musical Improvisation: An fMRI Study of ‘Trading Fours’ in Jazz. PLoS ONE, 2014; 9 (2): e88665 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0088665

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