Spring Break
Peabody players have their brains studied while playing
Issue date: 2/28/08
Two scientists, one from the Hopkins School of Medicine, have teamed up with Peabody musicians to study brain activity during musical performance, specifically during improvisational playing.
Charles Limb is an assistant professor in the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery who, being a trained jazz saxophonist, holds a joint appointment at the Peabody Institute.
With Allan Braun from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, Limb used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to observe brain activity of six musicians improvising on a keyboard.
Three of the subjects were from Peabody. Limb and his colleague hoped to find a neurological reason for the trance-like state musicians enter when playing spontaneously.
What they found was that the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, a part of the front of the brain that has been linked to planned behavior and self-inhibition, experienced decreased activity during improvisation.
The researchers believe that shutting down this area may lower inhibitions, allowing artists to play more freely. Limb and Braun also found that the medial prefrontal cortex, part of the frontal lobe linked to self-expression, showed increased activity during improvised playing.
Charles Limb is an assistant professor in the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery who, being a trained jazz saxophonist, holds a joint appointment at the Peabody Institute.
With Allan Braun from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, Limb used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to observe brain activity of six musicians improvising on a keyboard.
Three of the subjects were from Peabody. Limb and his colleague hoped to find a neurological reason for the trance-like state musicians enter when playing spontaneously.
What they found was that the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, a part of the front of the brain that has been linked to planned behavior and self-inhibition, experienced decreased activity during improvisation.
The researchers believe that shutting down this area may lower inhibitions, allowing artists to play more freely. Limb and Braun also found that the medial prefrontal cortex, part of the frontal lobe linked to self-expression, showed increased activity during improvised playing.
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