Brain waves and music :How do different brains process music?

Author: Malak Tarhini

Looking into music through brain wave art

 Brain wave art

 is a beautiful art

 that involves the 

 connection

 of headsets to an 

 electroencephalogram (EEG) monitor

 to visualize people's brain waves 

 in 3D and in real time on screen.

An example of brain wave art:

🎵AND NOW,LET'S DIVE IN INTO THE WONDERS OF THE BRAIN🧠,

 AND EXPLORE HOW DIFFERENT BRAINS PERCIEVE MUSIC 🎵

BUT FIRST,YOU MIGHT BE SCRATCHING YOUR BRAINS TO FIND THE IMPLICATION BEHIND THE WORDS

"DIFFERENT BRAINS"

WHAT COULD THEY MEAN, YOU MIGHT ASK

 YOURSELF?⁇

In fact, it's quite simple to understand. Some people are unfortunate enough to suffer from neurological disorders and diseases .

So naturally, their brains are labeled as different. 

Some examples of these diseases:

•  Alzheimer's Disease.
• Epilepsy
• Autism
• ADD
• Cerebral palsy
• 
  
  

SO,WHAT ARE THESE DISEASES ?

EPILESPSY: Is a common condition that affects the brain and causes frequent seizures. Seizures are bursts of electrical activity in the brain that temporarily affect how it works. They can cause a wide range of symptoms. Epilepsy can start at any age, but usually starts either in childhood or in people over 60.

Alzheimer's :It is a progressive disease beginning with mild memory loss and possibly leading to loss of the ability to carry on a conversation and respond to the environment. Alzheimer's disease involves parts of the brain that control thought, memory, and language.

 ADD : Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) is a term used for people who have excessive difficulties with concentration without the presence of other ADHD symptoms such as excessive impulsiveness or hyperactivity.

Autism: Autism, or autism spectrum disorder (ASD), refers to a broad range of conditions characterized by challenges with social skills, repetitive behaviors, speech and nonverbal communication.

Cerebral palsy: CP is caused by damage to or abnormalities inside the developing brain that disrupt the brain's ability to control movement and maintain posture and balance. The term cerebral refers to the brain; palsy refers to the loss or impairment of motor function.

How does the brain process music?

All normal human brains can recognize music. How does the brain do it? The apparent universality of music implies that our musical experience, in all its exuberant variety, is underpinned by certain basic processes that reflect the anatomical and physiological organization of our brains. It follows that the perception of music (like other higher brain functions) may be susceptible to specific disease states and brain lesions. Recent progress in the basic and clinical neurosciences, notably structural and functional brain imaging, have confirmed these predictions.

Let's dive into the main question and choose one of the diseases mentioned before.

Can you guess which one it is?

AUTISM!

So now, let me ask you guys a question

How do autistic people's brains perceive music?

Although research on music and ASD has been flourishing since the 1990s, the idea that music is a strength within the ASD profile dates 1943.  children with ASD can easily label each pitch when several pitches are played together in a musical chord, known as chord segmentation, when they have been previously exposed to individual pitches  People with ASD also display enhanced recognition of alterations of single pitches in a melody, even when the altered note remains in tune with the scale of the melody such that most people would not detect this type of alteration  Similarly, they can distinguish between two interleaved melodies played at the same frequency, which are melodies played simultaneously but organized such that notes of one melody do not co-occur with the notes of the other melody . Enhanced pitch perception is an example of perceptual strengths of people with ASD .

Furthermore, adolescents with ASD show as much interest in music and spend as many hours per week listening to music as typically developing peers, as revealed by both self and parent report .Adults with ASD also report listening to music for similar reasons as typical listeners including to relax or to cheer up or feel better , indicating that music listening is a rewarding activity for people with ASD, and may thus activate the dopaminergic response system, in part due to its effect on emotions and mood regulation. Indeed, typical recognition of music-evoked emotions has been reported on several occasions. Children with ASD can accurately identify happy, sad , scary, and peaceful music . They can also associate images of social scenes depicting an emotion with a corresponding musical excerpt.

CONCLUSION:

After reading this article, it must be clear to you dear readers that music is something we all share despite neurological or age differences, and it is something we should all appreciate and learn about on a deeper level . For in cooperation with each of our brains ,music creates gorgeous art that captures the interest of whoever is blessed with its sight!