Music and the Brain

The link between human language and our appreciation of music has often been explored, as far back as Darwin and his hypothesis of a musical protolanguage. If, as it has been shown, that music and language share processing locations in the brain, then what is the consequence, if any, of being tune deaf on language ability?
We have previously posted and pondered on the condition, amusia, also known as tune deafness here at the Bayblab. Essentially amusia sufferers have difficulty following pitch changes in music. You have probably heard sufferers of this condition at Karaoke night, and you can take this very interesting test to see if you too are tune deaf and have made others suffer on Karaoke night.
A recent study has found that indeed amusia has consequences for language processing. While the importance of tune in music is obvious, tune is also important to communicate an emotional quality to spoken words. Pitch changes in language can indicate sarcasm, irony, irritation and other emotions that are independent of the words that are spoken. As you might guess, according to this study, it is the interpretation of these emotional tonal cues of language that are deficient in sufferers of congenital amusia. Of course, this doesn't mean that sufferers can not interpret body language or other cues, however the deficit is significant enough that some sufferers are aware of their difficulty in this respect. I have been looking for any information on amusia in people who speak tonal languages as I imagine it would be very debilitating. In any case, next time someone you tell someone how fantastically frequent Bayblab updates have been recently, and they agree, don't let them sing at Karaoke night.

Friday Fun: Rube Goldberg Machine

The band OK Go makes some pretty good music videos. They're all well choreographed (for example, their famous treadmill video), but my favourite has to be for the song This Too Shall Pass which features a massive Rube Goldberg machine:



I also quite like their latest video, End Love that does some cool stuff with timelapse and compression - and is even more impressive since it's one continuous camera shot!

The Glucose Song

Something silly for Sunday... (but who doesn't love The Archies?)



[via Dr. Isis]

El Corazón

If the twang of country music isn't to your liking, you might prefer this latin-styled ode to the heart. I can't attest to the translation accuracy, but there's one blogger in particular that I think might enjoy this.

Trace Elements

Chris Hardwick and Mike Phirman, aka Hard 'n' Phirm, are perhaps better known - at least to me - for their great bluegrass Radiohead medley, but they also do a mean country-parody about science terms and concepts. I'm not really sure what to make of this, but I can't resist a catchy tune. Some lyrics NSFW.

The Safety Song

How our lab safety training should have be done:

Maybe singing and puppets would reduce the open-toed footwear in the lab.

From: The Sounds of Science

Stevie Wonder Could Probably Make Music On A Gilson

Stevie Wonder on the drums. HOLY SHIT! As the caption says "Can't nobody fuck with the dude Stevie Wonder." I agree.

Tuning and Temperment

Dr. Ken Garson, lab ninja and science overlord extraordinaire, (here is a picture of his lab bench), and I recently had a discussion about musical theory. I have taken a fair bit of musical theory over the years and I remember very little. However, I was certain that Ken was wrong when he stated that in certain scales a C# is different than a Dflat.
Don't mess with Garson. Turns out that while I was correct when using the modern tuning of equal temperment, back in the day of musical geniuses like Bach, instrument tuning was not so crude and was specific to the key in which it was being played. Intervals in musical scales are defined by frequency ratios, and they aren't always so pretty. C# is not Dflat according to that definition.
Ken has done some fine research on this subject in order to point out my infiroirity. Equal temperment is used so that an instrument like the piano can be played in any key. However, from a great summary on the history of tuning and temperment:

* Our first written instructions for setting equal temperament come from Giovanni

Maria Lanfranco in 1533:


*        "The 5ths are tuned so flat that the ear is not well pleased with them; and the
3rds are as sharp as can be endured."

Equal temperament has had its share of critics.  Very few composers or organists
preferred equal temperament until the French Romantic school.

*        In 1879, William Pole wrote in his book The Philosophy of Music, "The modern
practice of tuning all organs to equal temperament has been a fearful detriment to
their quality of tone.  Under the old tuning, an organ made harmonious and
attractive music.  Now, the harsh 3rds give it a cacophonous and repulsive effect."

So is there a audible difference to those of us who aren't musical geniuses or Ken Garson?
Check out this youtube link of a guy playing the same piece in using different temperments.
I think I can tell the difference but maybe the guy is just playing it better.
A computer simulation would probably be best.

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog

Do you like superhero fantasy? Do you like musicals? Then check out Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. It's a 3-part musical superhero spoof (each part is about 13 minutes long) starring Neil Patrick Harris and written/directed by Joss Whedon (the man behind Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Firefly, co-writer of Toy Story, as well as several comic book stints).

It's free to watch, but will only be online until midnight, Sunday July 20th.

Coolest body hack you'll see today

Sweet Reads

Having just completed James Watson's Avoid Boring People: Lessons from a Life in Science (highly recommended, however you feel about his antics), I am fortunate that a couple of new books have found their way into my possession. Otherwise, I would soon run out of quotes and anecdotes to bore people with. The first is Right Hand, Left Hand: The Origins of Asymmetry in Brains, Bodies, Atoms and Cultures, in which I expect to learn more about the superiority of left-handedness in all of the above. A quick leaf through reveals that even crystals can be chiral! No doubt the lefties are more stable. I love it.

Next up will be Science Friction: Where the Known Meets the Unknown, by Skeptic editor Michael Shermer. This one also promises to be a doozy, kicking it off with the following gem of an opener:

"It is in the vacuum of such will-nilly whencing and withering that we humans are so prone to grasp for transcendent interconnectedness. As pattern-seeking primates we scan the random points of light in the night sky of our lives and connect the dots to form constellations of meaning. Sometimes the patterns are real, sometimes, not. Who can tell?"

So many ideas, so little time. I'll go so far as to recommend both before even reading them. Or, check back at the bayblab for periodic updates and (what I think) are the coolest memes therein.

One last bonus - since I find myself reviewing the arts - I have to recommend Feist for great music to write or read to. Funky enough to stave off depression and keep you alert, soft enough not to be distracting. I've been checking out "Let it Die" and "The Reminder", and there's not a non-kick-ass track to be found on either. Big up to Amherst, Nova Scotia. Maybe she'll sit in with the spineless Kevin-Z one of these days. Hey, I could see it...

More bayTUNES

At the recommendation of my latest issue of WIRED magazine, I recently downloaded acquired last year's Girl Talk album: Night Ripper. This kinetic mashup of over 160 artists with heavy hip-hop flavour may be better suited to the nightclubs than the lab, but if you've always wanted to hear Boston mashed with Ludacris, Sonic Youth with Missy Elliott or Public Enemy with James Brown, it's worth checking out. And if you don't like it, don't worry: He still has his day job as a biomedical engineer.

bayTUNES

We all know that a good supply of music is essential in order to survive grad school. Of course it's all too easy to get busy in the lab and lose touch with pop culture. So I've recently tried to revive my stagnating playlist by going on a music acquisition spree. Thought I'd share a few recently released albums worth getting if you have an aging playlist and little time:

The Kooks - "Inside In, Inside Out"
The Shins - "Wincing the Night Away"
Arcade Fire - "Neon Bible"
Modest Mouse - "We Were Dead Even Before the Ship Sank"
Gomez - "How We Operate"

Anyone else got any suggestions?