SEX, DRUGS, ROCK & ROLL, ARE MUSICIANS' BRAINS NORMAL???

Did Euterpe really start all this, or perhaps when Pandora opened that darn box out came gansta rap and death metal and who knows what else? 

DUETTING GUITARISTS' BRAINS FIRE TO THE SAME BEAT

by Andy Coghlan, NewScientist, Life Section

 

 

 

 

Getting in the groove goes deeper than just hitting the notes at the right time, it seems. Musicians playing the same tune together have brain patterns  that are virtually identical, researchers find.

 

The muscians are "Rodrigo y Gabriela"

 

The discovery came from electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings of brainwaves from pairs of guitarists as they duetted.

 

The recordings were taken while each of eight pairs played many as 60 renditions of the same short jazz-fusion melody. Prior to each rendition, each guitarist first heard a metronome beat through headphones. Then, the lead guitarist of each pair would signal by tapping his guitar when to begin the duet, and at what speed.

The scans showed that individually, each guitarist's brain reacted in a similar way to the tempo-setting metronome beat. But the synchrony between brains kicked in once the "lead" guitarist had signalled when to start and the performance began.

 

A video provided by the researchers shows what happened(http://www.biomedcentral.com/imedia/2965745562100252/supp2.mpg). The two guitarists are shown playing while wearing EEG headsets. Their brain signals are displayed alongside – the top six belonging to the lead guitarist, the bottom six to his duet partner.

 

 

 

 

 

 

SYNCHRONISED NEURONS 

 

Before the guitarists synchronised their actions, says lead researcher,  Ulman lindenberger of the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin, their brain waves were already becoming coupled.

As the pair continued playing, their brain waves  oscillated in synchrony from the same brain regions. This suggests that the same sets of neurons were at work, and at the same rhythm, in both players.

 

"Synchronisation at frontal and central electrode sites may indicate coordinated firing of neuronal assemblies located in the motor and somatosensory cortices," the researchers  write in the online journal BMC Neuroscience. These control and coordinate motor activity and are activated during the playing of the instruments, they say.

 

LINKED MINDS

However, synchronised wave patterns were also found in parts of the brain such as the medial prefrontal cortex, and the temporal and medial parietal brain regions.

 

These regions are all linked with "theory of mind" – the recognition that other creatures think and act independently – as well as brain "mirror" systems that enable people to subconsciously mimic the actions and feelings of others.

 

The researchers think these areas may have been activated to increase the bonding and synchrony between the players in the shared task of playing the duet.

 

"There's evidence that the [temporal and parietal regions] could be activated during music perception and also during music production, as well as throughout pleasant feelings induced by the music," they conclude.