Functional imaging studies such as PET, fMRI, and MEG; and psychophysiological studies of patients with brain lesions allow the author to take two avenues for pursuing this research. The author states that functional imaging studies allow the researcher to see the processes normally involved in temporal analysis, while lesion studies show the researcher the necessary processes involved in temporal analysis. Beyond this, he also divides these processes into fine and higher-order temporal analysis. Fine temporal analysis is at the level of milliseconds or tens of milliseconds, while higher-order temporal analysis is at the level of patters of pitch, duration, etc.
Both functional imaging and lesion studies show “evidence for the existence of a neural substrate for the processing of sound sequences that is hierarchical in organization” (p. 175). The auditory cortices, and the pathways leading to them, are likely to provide a sufficient (necessary) mechanism for the processing of “simple sounds,” as defined above. However, for the processing of “complex sounds,” as defined above (and the higher hierarchical division of “semantic processing” as defined above), bilateral temperofrontral networks are likely required.
These findings show the importance of considering exactly what is defined as “musical perception” in various studies, as there are apparently different mechanisms involved in the psychophysiology of the temporal processing of complex music.
I’m getting off my ‘academic high horse’ and expressing my absolute frustration with the verbosity of this chapter. The use of scientific jargon left me thinking ‘Ummmm, what?’. So to calm my nerves AND encourage a more social learning environment, I’m posing some questions that hopefully won’t make me look like a complete monkey/blonde:
ReplyDelete1) What is a neural substrate?
2) Why is temporal analysis important?
3) Why are many of the experiments we’ve read about performed on predominantly ‘disabled’ persons when a healthy cortex seems more logical?
Hi Nicola,
ReplyDeleteYou are right that there is a lot of jargon, though it isn't quite as bad as it might seem at first glance. I'm going to take a stab at answering your questions from memory. I hope they make sense!
1.) A neural substrate basically refers to a physical area in the brain and is used in the context of trying to find a 'place' in the brain that is responsible for something, like pitch or language, etc.(substrate means something like 'foundation' or 'basis;' neural obviously refers to neurons).
2.) Temporal analysis refers to the use of music in time. The importance of temporal analysis of music is important because music exists only in time (and the psychological construct of a moment in time is only about 600ms), and hence our memory must know how to quickly code information before it is gone forever. It also must then be able to relate it to the rest of the music. It is similar to listening to a paragraph. You might not be able to repeat it word for word, but you have to temporally process the meaning in order for you to understand what the other person in saying. This article addresses how different complexities of music are processed in regards to their temporal dynamic.
3.) Research into a healthy brain tells us what the usual or 'normal' processes are for music in the brain. Research into a 'disabled' brain tells us what is necessary. For example, if the corpus callosum is larger in musicians, then is that part of the brain necessary for musicians? Or can the brain adapt and still allow the person to be a musician, but with a different way of functioning.
You're better than textbook, thanks Todd!
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