…after a computer analysis of three decades of hit songs, Dr. DeWall and other psychologists report finding what they were looking for: a statistically significant trend toward narcissism and hostility in popular music. As they hypothesized, the words “I” and “me” appear more frequently along with anger-related words, while there’s been a corresponding decline in [...]
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSgiXGELjbc]
A still more glorious dawn awaits.. not a sunrise.. but a galaxy rise…
….and the award for the stupidest science story I’ve seen in months goes to LiveScience.com for “Cave Men Loved to Sing“, in which we’re told that our cave-dwelling ancestors used echo-location:
With only dull light available from a torch, which couldn’t be carried into very narrow passages, the ancient hunters had to use their [...]
Colin McGinn reviews Oliver Sack’s new book, Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain
Sacks opens his book with a striking case, rather literally striking. Tony Cicoria, a forty-two-year-old orthopedic surgeon, was making a phone call to his mother when he was struck in the face by lightning. He thought he was dead [...]
I’ve been rather swamped this week, off to the NZ Phylogenetics Meeting in a few hours, and have to finish writing my talk. So – just a quick round-up of interesting links to keep you all occupied!
Music reliably evokes common colors – a fascinating demo by cognitive daily. The great blog, Shared [...]
Beautiful – Dusty Springfield, via the medium of sign-language
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20Xb9pORFRk]
According to new research presented at the American Public Health Association’s Annual Meeting & Exposition in Washington, D.C., 33 percent of the most popular songs of 2005 portrayed substance use. The study, in which researchers analyzed 279 of the year’s most popular songs according to Billboard magazine, also found that allusions to substance use varied [...]
Ok. Time for a catch up post. There’s just not enough hours in the day…
1: Native Language Governs The Way Toddlers Interpret Speech Sounds:
Toddlers are learning language skills earlier than expected and by the age of 18 months understand enough of the lexicon of their own language to recognize how speakers [...]
A study in NeuroImage suggests that language and music are processed by the same underlying brain systems. Using EEG (which has really good temporal sensitivity), the authors presented subjects with melodies that were violated in one of three ways:
1) Rule-only violations: where the melody contained out-of-key deviant notes that violated the tonal harmony [...]
uh… no comment (via JapanProbe.com)
I feel feverish and sluggish indeed.
