Music Listening, Music Therapy, Phenomenology and Neuroscience

Appendix 3.02 Survey of The Neurosciences a

nd Music I

I

Conference 2005

From Perception to Performance

Part V. Neurological Disorders and Music

4 papers

Title, Category

Aim

Mus. Material, Cultural Ref.

Technol

ogy & Procedure

Main focus of interest

Conclusion

32. Cuddy et al. (311

-324)

Musical difficulties are rare

Cat. 11: Deficit 33. Levitin (325

-334)

Evidence from Williams syndrome

Cat. 11: Disorder

34. Candia et al.
    (335

-342)

Hand D

ystonia

Cat. 11: Deficit 35P. Pressnitzer et al.

(343

-345)

Music to electric ears

Cat. 11: Deficit

To compare self-

reports of

tone deafness (TD)

with tests

of perceptual difficulties

. And

to compare the tests of TD group with a Non

-TD

control

group

To summarize a series of studies

on music and Williams

Syndrome (WS),

a

neurogenetic develop

mental

disorder

In patients with hand dystonia, to assess whether mo

tivated training can retune

brain anormality

To better understand how recipients of cochlear im

• 
  

plants

(CI)

perceive basic

sound attributes involved in music listening

Six subtests of the

Montreal

Battery of Evaluation of Amusia (

MBEA

): scale,

contour, interval, rhythm, meter, memory. Synthesized tones.

CR: Western

Excerpts from familiar

and

unfamiliar classical music, and types o

f noisy sounds

that WS individuals are often sensitive to

CR: Western

No particular musical material

CR:

---

Bandpass

-filtered harmonic

complexes delivered acoustically CR: Neutral

1-5: Same

-different trials: A

standard melody is followed by a

comparison melody. 6:

Memory recognition test. Plus self-

report questionnaire

fMRI study: Music vs. rest, noise vs. rest, music vs. noise. Other studies: rhythmic production and melodic production ability MEG

: studyi

ng finger

representations in somato

• 
  

sensory cortex pre and post treatment: immobilizing finger(s) with a hand splint

Tasks: 1) Highe

r-lower pitch

judgement. 2) Comparison of melodies 3)

Just

-noticeable

difference (

JND

) on timbre:

attack time and s

pectral

centroid

Whether self-

report of tone

deafness is a strong indicator of amusia

Musical abilities of WS individuals compared with Downs’ syndrome, Autism and normal controls Somatosensory finger representa

tion in the two

hemispheres: D

ifferent

= one

side affected by dystonia. Similar = relief of dystonia

Pitch and timbre percep

tion

by cochlear implant patients

A tendency for Non

-TD

participants to obtain higher scores than TD.

But

many individuals who

consider themselves ”tone

• 
  

deaf”

may not have

perceptual difficulties

WS individuals are more engaged with music than members

of other groups.

Music perception

and rhythm

production

are equivalent to

normal.

fMRI:

WS have

greater right amyg

dala

activation

In guitarists and pianists: Co

rtical changes

, together

with emergent neuro

logical

dysfunction, can be redressed by context-

specific treatment

High pitch discrimination

thresholds. Melody task impossible. Timbre task: CI group

perform

s almost as well

as control group