I love jazz music. It's one of the most soothing, emotionally driven genres of music out there. I go to see the Duke Jazz ensemble all the time and whenever I have some spare time, I check out the Mary Lou. For me, the best music to study to is jazz, where a sexy saxophone compliments the cool vibes of the xylophone, always freeing me from the grasp of writers block. Hot Damn!! can those jazz musicians free style! The reason I bring this up is because one of the most fascinating fMRI studies I've ever hear about studied jazz improvisation. This study was performed at Johns Hopkins using jazz pianists from their Peabody Institute. The study was divided into four exercises.
"Each musician first took part in four different exercises designed to separate out the brain activity involved in playing simple memorized piano pieces and activity while improvising their music. While lying in the fMRI machine with the special keyboard propped on their laps, the pianists all began by playing the C-major scale, a well-memorized order of notes that every beginner learns. With the sound of a metronome playing over the headphones, the musicians were instructed to play the scale, making sure that each volunteer played the same notes with the same timing.
The key finding of this study was that during times of improvisation, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, linked to planning and self-censoring, exhibited a significant decrease in activation hinting at the idea that less activation means less inhibitions. There was also increased activation of the prefrontal cortex, linked to self-expression and individuality.
How cool is that! The brain shuts off inhibition and increases self-expression when being creative, it frees itself from censorship and lets you take total control. I think this is awesome!
What do you guys think?
"Each musician first took part in four different exercises designed to separate out the brain activity involved in playing simple memorized piano pieces and activity while improvising their music. While lying in the fMRI machine with the special keyboard propped on their laps, the pianists all began by playing the C-major scale, a well-memorized order of notes that every beginner learns. With the sound of a metronome playing over the headphones, the musicians were instructed to play the scale, making sure that each volunteer played the same notes with the same timing.
In the second exercise, the pianists were asked to improvise in time with the metronome. They were asked to use quarter notes on the C-major scale, but could play any of these notes that they wanted. Next, the musicians were asked to play an original blues melody that they all memorized in advance, while a recorded jazz quartet that complemented the tune played in the background. In the last exercise, the musicians were told to improvise their own tunes with the same recorded jazz quartet.."
The key finding of this study was that during times of improvisation, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, linked to planning and self-censoring, exhibited a significant decrease in activation hinting at the idea that less activation means less inhibitions. There was also increased activation of the prefrontal cortex, linked to self-expression and individuality.
How cool is that! The brain shuts off inhibition and increases self-expression when being creative, it frees itself from censorship and lets you take total control. I think this is awesome!
Hey Chris!
ReplyDeleteAs a music minor, this was an especially interesting read. I also think it's fascinating how brains of expert musicians are both anatomically and functionally different from the brains of, say, mathematicians. For example, I remember reading about a study that concluded that those with perfect pitch have different neural connectivities in their auditory cortices than those who don't play music.