[Applause]
music has been around since the dawn of
man it’s in our genes and hardwired in
our brains actually there’s no other
human activity that can activate the
whole brain the way music does the whole
brain all parts of the brain are in
action when the when the brain makes
music out of simple vibrations in the
air so have a look at this video when
you focus on the right left side of the
screen you’ll see Christy say baa baa
baa
but when you turn your attention to the
right side of the screen you see Vow but
still you only hear Bob the sound hasn’t
changed the reason we hear that when we
look at the right side of the screen is
that the lips their form far so seeing
far and hearing bar makes you perceive
something in the middle well so what you
see affects what you hear it’s called
the McGurk effect a tone is not a tone
it’s actually a string of tones on top
of the basic fundamental you can hear
[Music]
yet we only hear a single tone so the
brain simplifies the words for us it
makes all these into one single tone by
fusion and fascinatingly if you play a
chord of sinus tones that represent the
third fourth and fifth overtones of it
given fundamental frequency as shown in
this slide your brain will still see
this as the fundamental so you hear the
missing fundamental a tone that’s
actually not there so the tone you hear
now is actually only a construction in
your minds it’s not there in the real
yeah a little bit annoying perhaps so
what we perceive is the brains
interpretation of the world what the
brain sees is the most likely
explanation giving the information it’s
got evolution developed the brain to be
a hypothesis machine so we could predict
the future to decide what’s the best
next move to avoid danger find food so
the brain will create a hypothesis of
what the world is like and use incoming
information from the senses continually
to update the picture it’s much faster
to update a small error of calculation
than to redraw the whole picture again
and again so when you listen to music
your brain will automatically create
expectations about what’s coming next so
if you listen to music that’s familiar
to you your brain will be able to make
good guesses or what’s coming next
you’ll be able to perceive all the
details and the music will be
interesting to listening to when you
listen to an unfamiliar music on the
other hand say you usually only listen
to Mozart and know you’re going to try
with the 2-pack or scorpions then your
brain will make very bad guesses about
what’s coming next and you’ll miss all
the details and the music will seem
boring dull humdrum actually this is the
way our brain makes sense of the world
not only music so the brain simplifies
the world for us it makes us see things
maybe in more contrast and clearer but
still it’s only an assumption and since
it’s based on previous experiences we
tend to judge the unknown
quickly and unfortunately not always
fairly we may think of ourselves as
rational creatures that we make our
decisions based on logic and reason well
in fact it’s the gut feeling that
decides we depend on our emotional
system to make the right decisions in
all mammals sounds on the auditory
system have direct access to the
emotional parts of the brain that’s why
music can manipulate the feelings and
induce any kind of emotional side state
in your mind and body and when you
listen to rewarding to your favorite
music you will stimulate the reward
systems of the brain much the same way
your favorite food will the sex can and
also some recreational drugs like
cocaine so this was common knowledge
back in the 60s I guess still I think
it’s the way music can activate the
whole brain including the reward system
that is the key to music’s ability to
described the healing powers of music
2500 years ago he wrote about how you
could use music to learn people that
have been in bed for months of the
fractures to learn how to walk again
today we use music to ease all movements
and patients with Parkinson’s disease
Parkinson’s patients have problems
initiating movements as you see
but just as most of us will
automatically start to nod our heads or
cramp along with rhythmic music
Parkinson’s patients can also add her to
the mid rhythm and move with the pulse
of the music
so we have patients that can barely walk
but when you put on the music they dance
along on high heels so it may seem like
magic but all movements are in nature
rhythmical they are based on highly
coordinated and finally tamed muscle
contractions so parties and patients can
add her to the rhythm of the music and
move nearly as normal the goal of the
therapy is for the patients to try to
achieve the same results by creating
music in their minds music can also be
of benefit for patients who have had
traumatic head injuries then at week
piano teacher had personally experienced
that practicing the piano could help her
regain function after a hand injury so
she wanted to try this out more
systematically and approach me and our
simple idea was to teach patients with
problems after head injuries – to play
the piano playing the piano is highly
multimodal it Criers
requires reading the music transforming
the notes into finger movements and
coordinate both hands you need to
monitor the results of your efforts the
sounds you produce so you use your
visual brain you’re reading areas you’re
planning areas your motor areas your
sensory areas you’re hearing areas in
fact the whole brain and the practice is
both rewarding and repetitive in effect
patients with traumatic head injuries
often have problems with cognition
fatigue memory trouble and often
struggle to get back to their normal
life but after eight weeks of training
with the piano we could see that their
frontal lobes normalized in yellow here
you see a key area for planning ahead
memory taking the right decisions was
reactivated after eight weeks of piano
training and you could see that their
memory improved the red line here the
memory got back almost to normal levels
and they were able to take part in
social situations six out of seven were
even able to go back to work or school
interesting we we also found that the
piano playing normal healthy controls
also changed the brain by the training
as you can see for the from the green
line here
they also improved their memory and we
could see changes in motor systems in
their brain and this is after eight
weeks only
so the musicians brain is a gift to the
neuroscientist but studying the brains
of people that have spent thousands of
hours with our instruments have also
shown us that music can actually be a
the musicians auditory system seen in
yellow hair is finely tuned for any task
language as well as music the connecting
bridge between the two hemispheres is
stronger and bigger in an orange and
hand coordination is better the hand
areas of the brain are bigger and fine
musically trained children and young
adults usually do better at school they
score better at IQ tests and memory
tests and it’s even shown that music
making can protect the brain from
dementia and slow down brain aging so my
philosophy is simple do something good
to your brain and your brain will be
good to you and I guess many of you will
have your first piano in your pocket or
at the tablet at home you can even
create an instrument of your own design
so just play your brain will love you
for it thank you
music has been around since the dawn of
man it’s in our genes and hardwired in
our brains actually there’s no other
human activity that can activate the
whole brain the way music does the whole
brain all parts of the brain are in
action when the when the brain makes
music out of simple vibrations in the
air so have a look at this video when
you focus on the right left side of the
screen you’ll see Christy say baa baa
baa
but when you turn your attention to the
right side of the screen you see Vow but
still you only hear Bob the sound hasn’t
changed the reason we hear that when we
look at the right side of the screen is
that the lips their form far so seeing
far and hearing bar makes you perceive
something in the middle well so what you
see affects what you hear it’s called
the McGurk effect a tone is not a tone
it’s actually a string of tones on top
of the basic fundamental you can hear
[Music]
yet we only hear a single tone so the
brain simplifies the words for us it
makes all these into one single tone by
fusion and fascinatingly if you play a
chord of sinus tones that represent the
third fourth and fifth overtones of it
given fundamental frequency as shown in
this slide your brain will still see
this as the fundamental so you hear the
missing fundamental a tone that’s
actually not there so the tone you hear
now is actually only a construction in
your minds it’s not there in the real
yeah a little bit annoying perhaps so
what we perceive is the brains
interpretation of the world what the
brain sees is the most likely
explanation giving the information it’s
got evolution developed the brain to be
a hypothesis machine so we could predict
the future to decide what’s the best
next move to avoid danger find food so
the brain will create a hypothesis of
what the world is like and use incoming
information from the senses continually
to update the picture it’s much faster
to update a small error of calculation
than to redraw the whole picture again
and again so when you listen to music
your brain will automatically create
expectations about what’s coming next so
if you listen to music that’s familiar
to you your brain will be able to make
good guesses or what’s coming next
you’ll be able to perceive all the
details and the music will be
interesting to listening to when you
listen to an unfamiliar music on the
other hand say you usually only listen
to Mozart and know you’re going to try
with the 2-pack or scorpions then your
brain will make very bad guesses about
what’s coming next and you’ll miss all
the details and the music will seem
boring dull humdrum actually this is the
way our brain makes sense of the world
not only music so the brain simplifies
the world for us it makes us see things
maybe in more contrast and clearer but
still it’s only an assumption and since
it’s based on previous experiences we
tend to judge the unknown
quickly and unfortunately not always
fairly we may think of ourselves as
rational creatures that we make our
decisions based on logic and reason well
in fact it’s the gut feeling that
decides we depend on our emotional
system to make the right decisions in
all mammals sounds on the auditory
system have direct access to the
emotional parts of the brain that’s why
music can manipulate the feelings and
induce any kind of emotional side state
in your mind and body and when you
listen to rewarding to your favorite
music you will stimulate the reward
systems of the brain much the same way
your favorite food will the sex can and
also some recreational drugs like
cocaine so this was common knowledge
back in the 60s I guess still I think
it’s the way music can activate the
whole brain including the reward system
that is the key to music’s ability to
described the healing powers of music
2500 years ago he wrote about how you
could use music to learn people that
have been in bed for months of the
fractures to learn how to walk again
today we use music to ease all movements
and patients with Parkinson’s disease
Parkinson’s patients have problems
initiating movements as you see
but just as most of us will
automatically start to nod our heads or
cramp along with rhythmic music
Parkinson’s patients can also add her to
the mid rhythm and move with the pulse
of the music
so we have patients that can barely walk
but when you put on the music they dance
along on high heels so it may seem like
magic but all movements are in nature
rhythmical they are based on highly
coordinated and finally tamed muscle
contractions so parties and patients can
add her to the rhythm of the music and
move nearly as normal the goal of the
therapy is for the patients to try to
achieve the same results by creating
music in their minds music can also be
of benefit for patients who have had
traumatic head injuries then at week
piano teacher had personally experienced
that practicing the piano could help her
regain function after a hand injury so
she wanted to try this out more
systematically and approach me and our
simple idea was to teach patients with
problems after head injuries – to play
the piano playing the piano is highly
multimodal it Criers
requires reading the music transforming
the notes into finger movements and
coordinate both hands you need to
monitor the results of your efforts the
sounds you produce so you use your
visual brain you’re reading areas you’re
planning areas your motor areas your
sensory areas you’re hearing areas in
fact the whole brain and the practice is
both rewarding and repetitive in effect
patients with traumatic head injuries
often have problems with cognition
fatigue memory trouble and often
struggle to get back to their normal
life but after eight weeks of training
with the piano we could see that their
frontal lobes normalized in yellow here
you see a key area for planning ahead
memory taking the right decisions was
reactivated after eight weeks of piano
training and you could see that their
memory improved the red line here the
memory got back almost to normal levels
and they were able to take part in
social situations six out of seven were
even able to go back to work or school
interesting we we also found that the
piano playing normal healthy controls
also changed the brain by the training
as you can see for the from the green
line here
they also improved their memory and we
could see changes in motor systems in
their brain and this is after eight
weeks only
so the musicians brain is a gift to the
neuroscientist but studying the brains
of people that have spent thousands of
hours with our instruments have also
shown us that music can actually be a
the musicians auditory system seen in
yellow hair is finely tuned for any task
language as well as music the connecting
bridge between the two hemispheres is
stronger and bigger in an orange and
hand coordination is better the hand
areas of the brain are bigger and fine
musically trained children and young
adults usually do better at school they
score better at IQ tests and memory
tests and it’s even shown that music
making can protect the brain from
dementia and slow down brain aging so my
philosophy is simple do something good
to your brain and your brain will be
good to you and I guess many of you will
have your first piano in your pocket or
at the tablet at home you can even
create an instrument of your own design
so just play your brain will love you
for it thank you
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