Music and the Brain
The Library's Music and the Brain events offer lectures, conversations and symposia about the explosion of new research at the intersection of cognitive neuroscience and music. Project chair Kay Redfield Jamison convenes scientists and scholars, composers, performers, theorists, physicians, psychologists, and other experts at the Library for a compelling 2-year series, with generous support from the Dana Foundation.
Episodes
May 23, 2011 • 27 mins
Host Steve Mencher talks with Tod Machover, composer and Director, Professor of Music and Media, and Director of the Opera of the Future Group at MIT.
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May 23, 2011 • 19 mins
Host Steve Mencher talks with Dr. Deforia Lane, Director of Music Therapy, Univeristy Hospitals of Cleveland.
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February 15, 2011 • 17 mins
Host Steve Mencher talks with Alicia Clair about Music Therapy, Alzheimer's and Post-Traumatic Stress
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November 30, 2010 • 17 mins
Host Steve Mencher talks with Music and the Brain Series advisor Kay Redfield Jamison about her book Nothing Was The Same.
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September 22, 2010 • 20 mins
Host Steve Mencher talks with Dr. Jayne Standley, Director of the Music Therapy Program, Florida State University.
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September 10, 2010 • 17 mins
Host Steve Mencher talks with Dr. Vera Brandes, Director, Research Program Music Medicine, Paracelsus Medical Private University, Salzburg.
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April 29, 2010
Dr. Gottfried Schlaug, Director of the Music, Neuroimaging and Stroke Recovery Laboratories, Beth Deaconess Israel Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, talks with host Steve Mencher about the notable differences between the brain of a musician and a non-musician.
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April 29, 2010 • 18 mins
Steve Mencher from the Library of Congress talks with Concetta M. Tomaino, Executive Director,Institute for Music and Neurologic Function, about "The Positive Effects of Music Therapy on Health."
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April 29, 2010 • 17 mins
Dr. Peter Janata, associate professor at University of California, Davis, and member of the Center for Mind and Brain talks with Steve Mencher about how the brain creates an autobiographical soundtrack from our memories.
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April 29, 2010 • 20 mins
Host Steve Mencher and Professor David Huron, Head of Ohio State University's Cognitive and Systematic Musicology Laboratory,answer to the question in a conversation on emotions, the brain and music.
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January 22, 2010 • 25 mins
Steve Mencher from the Library of Congress discusses "States of Mind: Music in Islamic Sufi Rituals" with
Dr. Taoufiq ben Amor, Gordon Gray J. Lecturer, Arabic Studies, Columbia University.
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January 22, 2010 • 24 mins
Steve Mencher from the Library of Congress talks to Dr. Robin Sylvan, Director of the Sacred Center, El Cerrito, California about "Trance Formation: Music, Trance, Religious Experience, and the Brain."
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December 1, 2009 • 17 mins
Michael Kubovy and Judith Shatin of the University of Virginia discuss their presentation "The Mind of an Artist." Debate has long raged about whether and how music expresses meaning beyond its sounding notes. Kubovy and Shatin discuss evidence that music does indeed have a semantic element, and offer examples of how composers embody extra-musical elements in their compositions. Kubovy is a cognitive psychologist who studies visual...
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December 1, 2009 • 26 mins
Dr. Richard E. Cytowic, MD, of George Washington Medical Center discusses his presentation "Wednesday Is Indigo Blue: Discovering the Brain of Synesthesia."
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April 17, 2009 • 22 mins
Helfgott and Middleton examine the use of classical music by law enforcement and other cultural institutions as social control, to quell and prevent crime. Their conversation touches on how classical music is viewed in contemporary culture, how it can be a tool for discouraging criminal activity and anti-social behavior, as well as its history as a mind-altering experience.
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March 27, 2009 • 19 mins
From Mode to Emotion in Musical Communication: Steven Brown, Director of the NeuroArts Lab at McMaster University, discusses his work looking at the expression of emotion in both Western and non-Western musics. Music employs a number of mechanisms for conveying emotion. Some of them are shared with other modes of expression (speech, gesture) while others are specific to music. The most unique way that music communicates emotion is ...
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January 29, 2009 • 13 mins
Artistic anathemas, musical mayhem, and cultural conundrums such as "the devil's music"- Middleton and Krash explore the psychological and social issues associated with the human tendency toward censorship of musical expression, as well as what has been described as "suicide-by-music" and crimes that have been connected to musical genres.
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December 29, 2008 • 18 mins
In our everyday lives language and instrumental music are obviously different things. Neuroscientist and musician Ani Patel is the author of a recent, elegantly argued offering from Oxford University Press, Music, Language and the Brain. Oliver Sacks calls Patel a "pioneer in the use of new concepts and technology to investige the neural correlates of music." In this podcast he discusses some of the hidden connections between langu...
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December 17, 2008 • 21 mins
Daniel Levitin's new book The World in Six Songs has attracted a serious fan following, including Sting, Joni Mitchell and Willie Nelson. Neuroscientist, rock producer, and best selling author (This is Your Brain on Music) Levitin talks about his research for this fascinating book that takes the reader on a journey of the world through 6 types of songs--friendship, joy, comfort, knowledge, religion/ritual, and love.
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December 9, 2008 • 21 mins
Johns Hopkins otolaryngolost and jazz musician Charles Limb talks about "The Brain on Jazz"--Neural Substrates of Spontaneous Improvisation."
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