Musical Illusions and Phantom Words

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diana Deutsch
Keyword(s):  
Music Perception ◽  
Musical Ability ◽  
Art And Science ◽  
Brain Organization ◽  
Early Form ◽  
The Real ◽  
Musical Patterns ◽  
Psychology Of Music ◽  
The Mind ◽  
The Brain

In this groundbreaking synthesis of art and science, Diana Deutsch, one of the world’s leading experts on the psychology of music, shows how illusions of music and speech – many of which she discovered - have fundamentally altered thinking about the brain. These astonishing illusions show that people can differ strikingly in how they hear musical patterns - differences that reflect both variations in brain organization and influences of language on music perception. They lead Deutsch to examine questions such as: When an orchestra performs a symphony, what is the ‘real’ music? Is it in the mind of the composer, or the conductor, or different members of the audience? Deutsch also explores extremes of musical ability, and other rare responses to music and speech. Why is perfect pitch so rare? Why are some people unable to recognize simple tunes? Why do some people hallucinate music or speech? Why do we hear phantom words and phrases? Why are most people subject to stuck tunes, or ‘earworms’? Why do we hear a spoken phrase as sung just because it is presented repeatedly? In evaluating these questions, she also shows how music and speech are intertwined, and argues that they stem from an early form of communication that had elements of both. Many of the illusions described here are so striking and paradoxical that you need to hear them to believe them. So the book enables you to listen to the sounds that are described while reading about them.

scholarly journals Emergent processes in cognitive-emotional interactions

2010 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 433-448 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Basal Forebrain ◽  
Significant Progress ◽  
Brain Organization ◽  
The Past ◽  
Mind And Brain ◽  
The Mind ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Anatomical Evidence ◽  
Made In

Emotion and cognition have been viewed as largely separate entities in the brain. Within this framework, significant progress has been made in understanding specific aspects of behavior. Research in the past two decades, however, has started to paint a different picture of brain organization, one in which network interactions are key to understanding complex behaviors. From both basic and clinical perspectives, the characterization of cognitive-emotional interactions constitutes a fundamental issue in the investigation of the mind and brain. This review will highlight the interactive and integrative potential that exists in the brain to bring together the cognitive and emotional domains. First, anatomical evidence will be provided, focusing on structures such as hypothalamus, basal forebrain, amygdala, cingulate cortex, orbitofrontal cortex, and insula. Data on functional interactions will then be discussed, followed by a discussion of a dual competition framework, which describes cognitive-emotional interactions in terms of perceptual and cognitive competition mechanisms.

Natural Brains and Motivated, Emotional Mind

2021 ◽  
pp. 82-138
Keyword(s):  
Neural Network ◽  
Brain Structures ◽  
Evolutionary Development ◽  
Synaptic Coupling ◽  
Subjective Character ◽  
Brain Organization ◽  
Conscious Mind ◽  
The Mind ◽  
The Brain

We know that the brain is the seat of the mind. Constructing the reductive model of the conscious mind requires an indication of the laws according to which the mind emerges from biophysical processes occurring in natural brains. Because in Part I, the authors presented the theoretical model referring to the ideal structures of the imagined neural network, we now have easier task, because we need to indicate in the brains of the living beings those processes that functionally correspond to our postulates. Such suitability is not guaranteed by known processes occurring in specialized parts of the brain. The role of the primary sensory areas is a detailed analysis of sensory stimuli with specific modality. They result in analysis of the meaning of all useful stimuli and their interpretation used in various parts of the cortex. The high specialization of individual cortex areas is striking and are the result of evolutionary development of the brain. New brain structures, such as the new cortex, were added on the outskirts of existing structures, improving their performance in the ever more demanding environments, where other intelligent beings ravened. But even as we know the brain organization, we struggle to understand how it works. How neurons that make the brain work together to create the conscious mind. To discover functionally effective processes in the brain, one need to reach for the biophysical properties of the astrocyt-neural network. In this chapter, the authors suggest that some concepts of neuro-electro-dynamics and the phenomena of neuro- and synapto-genesis as well as synaptic couplings may explain the processes of categorization, generalization and association leading to the formation of extensive, semihierarchical brain structures constituting neural representations of perceptions, objects and phenomena. Natural brains meet the embodiment condition. They are products of evolution, so they have intentionality, their own goals and needs. So they can naturally show emotions, drives and instincts that motivate to act. This determines the nature of constructed mental representations. They are the subject of psychological research, which shows the motivation of pain and pleasure in the field of intelligent activities, as well as the motivation of curiosity and the need for understanding in the domain of propositional and phenomenal consciousness. They describe the way pain is felt in organisms as basic quale. The role of other qualia for “how-it-is-like to feel something” and their subjective character was explained, as well as their interspecies specificity was characterized. In this chapter, the authors present an elementary biophysical phenomenon, that is a flash of consciousness. This phenomenon is synaptic coupling formed in the course of learning. They justify that the stream of such phenomena is the foundation of consciousness. They also point out that the astrocytic-neural network meets all the conditions required to generate conscious sensations.

scholarly journals The problem of mind-body interaction and the causal principle of Descartes’s Third Meditation

Sententiae ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 28-43
Author(s):  
Dmytro Sepetyi ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Causal Principle ◽  
The Real ◽  
Body Interaction ◽  
The Third ◽  
Efficient Cause ◽  
Mind And Body ◽  
Brain States ◽  
The Mind ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Natural Way

The article analyses recent English publications in Cartesian studies that deal with two problems: (1) the problem of the intrinsic coherence of Descartes’s doctrine of the real distinction and interaction between mind and body and (2) the problem of the consistency of this doctrine with the causal principle formulated in the Third Meditation. The principle at issue is alternatively interpreted by different Cartesian scholars either as the Hierarchy Principle, that the cause should be at least as perfect as its effects, or the Containment Principle, that the cause should contain all there is in its effects. The author argues that Descartes’s claim (in his argument against the scholastic doctrine of substantial forms) that it is inconceivable how things of different natures can interact does not conflict with the acknowledgement of interaction between things of different natures in the case of soul and body. The case is made that Cartesian mind-body interaction can agree with both the Hierarchy Principle and the Containment Principle, because the Principle is about total and efficient cause, whereas in the interaction, mental and brain states are only partial (and plausibly, in the case of brains states, occasional) causes. In particular, in the case of the causality in the brain-to-mind direction, the mind is conditioned by brain states to form the corresponding specific ideas on the basis of its innate general ideas of movements, forms, colours, etc. Eventually, for Descartes, the most natural way to deal with worries about the possibility of mind-brain interaction is to rely on God’s omnipotence, which certainly enables Him to arrange for such interaction.

scholarly journals Mózg jako nowy wszechświat – wokół Incepcji Christophera Nolana

2021 ◽  
Vol 28 (37) ◽  
pp. 207-220
Author(s):  
Marcin Kowalczyk
Keyword(s):  
Human Brain ◽  
Science Fiction ◽  
Real World ◽  
Paradigm Shift ◽  
Space Travel ◽  
The Real ◽  
Main Thesis ◽  
Christopher Nolan ◽  
The Mind ◽  
The Brain

The article shows the growing interest of science fiction cinema in the human brain and related concepts, such as mind or consciousness. Nowadays, when distant space travel seems unreachable, artists find the exploration potential of the brain very promising. Thus, the main thesis of this analysis says that the brain has become for science fiction cinema the new universe. An excellent example of this paradigm shift is Inception (dir. Christopher Nolan, 2010). In the movie, the mind is depicted as a physical and accessible place, where we can find a lot of mysteries to solve. The characters travel to the deepest parts of subconsciousness because the processes inside the brain are the key to understanding and changing the real world. The article also shows how the director uses the achievements of science fiction cinema and, at the same time, that he postulates a new way of considering the issues relevant to modern neuroscience.

Conclusion

2019 ◽  
pp. 187-190
Author(s):  
Diana Deutsch
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Factors ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Environmental Exposure ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Musical Ability ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Brain Organization ◽  
Illusory Conjunctions ◽  
Musical Patterns ◽  
Shed Light

The Conclusion draws together the findings concerning music and speech that are explored in the book, and the insights derived from these findings. Much of the book is concerned with illusions. Some of the illusions reflect huge differences between people in how they perceive simple musical patterns. These differences suggest variations in brain organization and environmental exposure. Another way in which these illusions shed light on hearing involves illusory conjunctions. These lead to the conclusion that, normally, the process of analyzing sound includes the operation of specialized modules that each analyze a particular attribute, and that we combine the outputs of these modules to obtain an integrated percept. This process usually leads us to perceive sounds correctly, but it breaks down under certain circumstances, producing illusions. Further threads that run through the book involve relationships between music and speech; the importance of unconscious inference, or “top-down processing” on our perception of sound; and extremes of musical ability, which are shown to be the products of both innate and environmental factors. It is also shown that earworms and musical hallucinations highlight the vital role played by the inner workings of our musical minds in determining what we hear. The extraordinary phenomena explored in this book lead us to conclude that the hearing mechanism did not arise as a coherent, integrated whole, but rather developed as a set of different, though interconnected, mechanisms. From another perspective, they elucidate factors involved in listening to music in everyday life.

Lighting Up the Brain to Illuminate the Mind

2004 ◽  
Vol 49 (6) ◽  
pp. 713-716
Author(s):  
Ellen S. Berscheid
Keyword(s):  
The Mind ◽  
The Brain

How Does the Brain Make the Mind? We Do Not Know.

PsycCRITIQUES ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 61 (32) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher A. Was
Keyword(s):  
The Mind ◽  
The Brain

Big Heads title page

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
vernon thornton
Keyword(s):  
Title Page ◽  
Language Of Thought ◽  
Correct Version ◽  
Evolutionary Context ◽  
The Mind ◽  
The Brain

A description of of the mind and its relationship to the brain, set in an evolutionary context. Introduction of a correct version of 'language-of-thought' called 'thinkish'.

Zombies and Dolls

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcello Massimini ◽  
Giulio Tononi
Keyword(s):  
Body Problem ◽  
Thought Experiments ◽  
Turing Test ◽  
Hard Problem ◽  
Mind Body Problem ◽  
The Hard Problem ◽  
The Mind ◽  
The Brain

This chapter uses thought experiments and practical examples to introduce, in a very accessible way, the hard problem of consciousness. Soon, machines may behave like us to pass the Turing test and scientists may succeed in copying and simulating the inner workings of the brain. Will all this take us any closer to solving the mysteries of consciousness? The reader is taken to meet different kind of zombies, the philosophical, the digital, and the inner ones, to understand why many, scientists and philosophers alike, doubt that the mind–body problem will ever be solved.

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