William Wedmedyk

Intro to Neurology of Music

Professor Cahn
February, 07, 2015
Peretz + Coltheart - Modularity of Music Processing Review
The abstract poses the argument that musical ability is not
confined to specific individuals, but perhaps exists in modular neural
functions that are developed by the individual. They pose studies done
on neurologically impaired individuals as an insight into this reality, as
well as neural imagining of normal functioning individuals. The authors
continue by explaining that the basis of their research centers around
Fodors research on modular brain functions, a study that found that
complex systems in the brain are developed to create musical ability.
The authors at hand use this finding as a basis for their hypothesis: To
claim that there is a mental information processing system whose
operation is specific to the processing of music. then we should
expect to find people in whom brain damage has selectively affected
musical abilities. This background presented, and goal posed allows
us to see a clear image of the purpose and aims behind the study at
hand.
They continue by offering a comprehensive table of cited studies
that provide evidence that support their claims of modular brain
function behind music. The table provided stands alone, and is clear
and easily understood. They continue by provided more examples of
brain damage affecting specific types of musical recognition, all
substantiated by cited references. Of 35 sources, the authors
contributed 13 total, allowing us to know that they do not have a bias
on their findings, but rather are supported by others as well. This
poses the hypothetical of leading to some misinformation and skewed
findings. The authors conclude with their own analysis and conclusion
of the given information by creating their own table outlining and
finding their own modular model of music processing. This table, like
the previous, stands alone and is easily understood b the explanation
given by the authors. In conclusion, the authors contribute to the field
by offering this table as a plausible stepping-stone into further
understanding modular musical brain function.
Loui, Bachorik, Schlaug, Li -Effects of voice on emotional
arousal
To begin, two of the authors do not have credentials in this field
of research. The abstract poses the question of how music effects

emotions, particularly when making use of the human voice and lyrics.
They offer their finding that emotional response is noticeably present,
and amplified with age and gender when exposed to such music. The
authors introduce their argument with background on studies about
the emotional effects of the human voice in verbal speech, as well as
non verbal sounds. Although these perhaps can be seen as relevant
because the voice is involved, they fall short of having any connection
to music. The authors are simply assuming that there is a connection
without truly knowing. They move forward by including references that
have found the emotional arousal in music, and how music can affect
moods. They even include a study that provides the finding that music
can create emotional responses that are happy or sad. Unfortunately a
study with such a limited scope of emotional discovery not only
supports the authors, but also poses a limitation to their hypothesis:
perhaps the only emotions present with musical arousal are sad and
happy. Unfortunately the authors continue by providing a study that is
completely irrelevant to their present topic when they cite the Serafjine
et Al (1982), a study that has found the memory recall of vocal music.
The presence of this reference poses the possibility that this study is
not very well executed. Furthermore, they even include a reference to
Rentfrow Gosling: The do re mis of everyday life to support the claim
of emotional response to music. Once again, this study poses some
suspicious questions when reading the abstract, which is about musical
preferences, not emotional response.
The charts presented are clear, and stand-alone. The materials
and methods, although simple, seem impossible to replicate. The
authors fail to make a point to make specific selections of participants,
but rather simply found participants through newspaper ads: making
the experiment hard to replicate. Furthermore they only use 50
participants, which seems like a rather small amount of people to act
as a representation of the Boston metropolitan area. Another logical
flaw is the lack of brain scans to image the emotional regions of the
brain, but rather they rely on the participants ability to narrate their
own emotional reaction for us. This presents obvious issues in its
accuracy. For example, if a male does not want to admit he is
experience an emotional response to a song, perhaps out of
embarrassment, how can we use that data? Additionally, there is no
consideration of overall popular response to the pieces. What I mean
is, how successful were the pieces in general, how much did the
personal participants like one pieces over another prior to the
experiment? Additionally there is no consideration for vocal excerpts
with and without musical expression (with and without articulations,
dynamics, phrasing, etc.).
Salimpoor, Zald, Zatorre, Dagher, McIntosh

The authors for this article all have sizable contributions to the
field. The abstract begins by posing the question of how predictability
and reward play a significant role in the pleasing effect of listening to
music. The continue by explaining that the intent behind the article is
to summarize recent evidence demonstrating interactions between
the sensory, cognitive, and emotional systems with reinforcement
circuits that we believe give rise to musical pleasure.
They present a thorough explanation of background on the topic
by providing multiple examples of the reward systems in the brain, and
they relate to the human experience with music. They provide
sufficient cited references that emphasize their claims, many of which
do not present bias by being by the present authors in question, but
rather they use sources outside of their own work. The explanations of
the material are clear and concise, and emphasize the main arguments
present in the abstract. There are no tables present. Since there is no
original material there is no material to replicate.

Elmer AP Article
The abstract presents a brief overview of previously assumed
neural activities indicative of absolute pitch. Unlike previously found
material, this study is attempting to combine previously assumed
contradictory theories: categorical labeling, and pitch labeling. The
abstract clearly presents its study as new evidence regarding
possibilities in identifying absolute pitch in subjects. It goes on to
propose that their study has found it possible to identify the neural
markers in absolute pitch in about three minutes of resting state
measurements.
The introduction provides adequate background to inform the
reader of the motivation behind the study, and also provides historical
perspective for the new evidence discovered. Most importantly, it
poses knowledge gaps in previously made studies, which act as clear
motivators for pursuing the study at hand. The study continues by
explaining the materials and methods used for the study. The details
specified are exceptional in their specificity and methodical approach.
The material provided all seem clear enough to recreate, and thorough
enough to provide insight into the subjects mental capacity and
cognitive functions. Although they do not provide explanations of
alternative methods that could be used in place of the ones chosen,
the care taken by the authors to provide detailed explanations of their
processes provide a concise and unsuspicious approach to the study. In
regards to specific methods used, they explain that the motivations of
their scans are centered on previously performed studies to either

corroborate or contradict those findings. Although this is true, they fail

to mention any shortcomings of their approach.
The objectives of the study were clearly met with the methods
used, and although they do not mention contradictory evidence, their
presentation of their data does not present itself in a suspicious
manner. The tables provided all stand-alone by providing clear
explanations of the data being presented. There is transparent use of
sources and references throughout the article that provide concise
background to the studies and information at hand. Additionally, in a
list of roughly 50-100 references, they also do not over cite
themselves. They only provide about 10 publications of their own,
while the rest are overwhelmingly of other origin. Also, the frequent
citing of previous studies provides us with clear insight and context on
the results and intentions of these studies. In its conclusion, the study
successfully proposes a holistic view of the brain mechanisms used in
absolute pitch brain behavior. The authors even close with a proposal
of their own knowledge gap when they state certainly, the influences
of autobiographical and genetic features on this specific
spatiotemporal coupling mechanism, and its relationships to functional
and structural plasticity, have to be described in more detail.