scholarly journals Musicianship and neural synchronization at multiple timescales

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriel A. Nespoli

Auditory events can be considered to have spectral energy at short and long timescales, corresponding to the musical phenomena of pitch and pulse. Neural synchronization—when neurons synchronize their firing with external oscillatory stimuli—can be measured using spectral EEG at both subcortical and cortical levels. It has been shown that subcortical synchronization to tones is more robust in musicians than nonmusicians, suggesting a type of experience-dependent plasticity; a similar test for long timescales has not been investigated. In the current study, EEG was measured from musicians and nonmusicians while they listened to an isochronous sequence of tones. Neural synchronization at short timescales was found to be stronger in musicians. Additionally, the extent of synchronization correlated with the current level of musical engagement. These findings indicate that the experience-dependent plasticity observed in musicians manifests itself at multiple cortical levels corresponding to oscillations at different timescales present in music.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriel A. Nespoli

Auditory events can be considered to have spectral energy at short and long timescales, corresponding to the musical phenomena of pitch and pulse. Neural synchronization—when neurons synchronize their firing with external oscillatory stimuli—can be measured using spectral EEG at both subcortical and cortical levels. It has been shown that subcortical synchronization to tones is more robust in musicians than nonmusicians, suggesting a type of experience-dependent plasticity; a similar test for long timescales has not been investigated. In the current study, EEG was measured from musicians and nonmusicians while they listened to an isochronous sequence of tones. Neural synchronization at short timescales was found to be stronger in musicians. Additionally, the extent of synchronization correlated with the current level of musical engagement. These findings indicate that the experience-dependent plasticity observed in musicians manifests itself at multiple cortical levels corresponding to oscillations at different timescales present in music.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Kim ◽  
Terrence J. Sejnowski

AbstractCortical neurons process and integrate information on multiple timescales. In addition, these timescales or temporal receptive fields display functional and hierarchical organization. For instance, areas important for working memory (WM), such as prefrontal cortex, utilize neurons with stable temporal receptive fields and long timescales to support reliable representations of stimuli. Despite of the recent advances in experimental techniques, the underlying mechanisms for the emergence of neuronal timescales long enough to support WM are unclear and challenging to investigate experimentally. Here, we demonstrate that spiking recurrent neural networks (RNNs) designed to perform a WM task reproduce previously observed experimental findings and that these models could be utilized in the future to study how neuronal timescales specific to WM emerge.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcus Ghosh ◽  
Jason Rihel

AbstractAnimal behaviour is dynamic, evolving over multiple timescales from milliseconds to days and even across a lifetime. To understand the mechanisms governing these dynamics, it is necessary to capture multi-timescale structure from behavioural data. Here, we develop computational tools and study the behaviour of hundreds of larval zebrafish tracked continuously across multiple 24-hour day/night cycles. We extracted millions of movements and pauses, termed bouts, and used unsupervised learning to reduce each larva’s behaviour to an alternating sequence of active and inactive bout types, termed modules. Through hierarchical compression, we identified recurrent behavioural patterns, termed motifs. Module and motif usage varied across the day/night cycle, revealing structure at sub-second to day-long timescales. We further demonstrate that module and motif analysis can uncover novel pharmacological and genetic mutant phenotypes. Overall, our work reveals the organisation of larval zebrafish behaviour at multiple timescales and provides tools to identify structure from large-scale behavioural datasets.


2003 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 165-170 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian H. Robertson

Abstract: In this paper, evidence is reviewed for separable attention systems in the brain, and it is argued a) that attention may have a privileged role in mediating experience dependent plasticity in the brain and b) that at least some types of attention may be capable of rehabilitation following brain damage.


2015 ◽  
pp. 5-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Zamaraev ◽  
T. Marshova

The article examines the state of production capacity of Russian industry. It is shown that in spite of certain positive shifts, the rate of technological modernization in recent years has been insufficient for marked progressive changes in the capacity structure and quality. In contrast to the industrial growth after the crisis of 1998 that took place in the presence of significant reserves of capacity, the current level of idle capacity is much lower. The lack of mass input of modern and high-tech industries objectively limits the possibilities of import substitution and economic growth.


CounterText ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-30
Author(s):  
Stefan Herbrechter

The article takes its cue from Olivier Rey's recent book Une question de taille (a question of size) and develops the idea of humanity ‘losing its measure, or scale’ in the context of contemporary ecological catastrophe. It seems true that the current level of global threats, from climate change to asteroids, has produced a culture of ambient ‘species angst’ living in more or less constant fear about the survival of the ‘human race’, biodiversity, the planet, the solar system. This indeed means that the idea of a cosmos and a cosmology may no longer be an adequate ‘measurement’ for scaling the so far inconceivable, namely a thoroughly postanthropocentric world picture. The question of scale is thus shown to be connected to the necessity of developing a new sense of proportion, an eco-logic that would do justice to both, things human and nonhuman. Through a reading of the recent science fiction film Interstellar, this article aims to illustrate the dilemma and the resulting stalemate between two contemporary ‘alternatives’ that inform the film: does humanity's future lie in self-abandoning or in self-surpassing, in investing in conservation or in exoplanets? The article puts forward a critique of both of these ‘ecologics’ and instead shows how they depend on a dubious attempt by humans to ‘argue themselves out of the picture’, while leaving their anthropocentric premises more or less intact.


2002 ◽  
Vol 716 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. L. Gan ◽  
C. V. Thompson ◽  
K. L. Pey ◽  
W. K. Choi ◽  
F. Wei ◽  
...  

AbstractElectromigration experiments have been carried out on simple Cu dual-damascene interconnect tree structures consisting of straight via-to-via (or contact-to-contact) lines with an extra via in the middle of the line. As with Al-based interconnects, the reliability of a segment in this tree strongly depends on the stress conditions of the connected segment. Beyond this, there are important differences in the results obtained under similar test conditions for Al-based and Cu-based interconnect trees. These differences are thought to be associated with variations in the architectural schemes of the two metallizations. The absence of a conducting electromigrationresistant overlayer in Cu technology, and the possibility of liner rupture at stressed vias lead to significant differences in tree reliabilities in Cu compared to Al.


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