Welcome to the web site of the Olson/De Cari Duo. We draw on our music, science, and theater backgrounds to expand the guitar/voice repertoire in innovative directions.
We are commissioning music based on science themes — read about our Science/Music Commissioning Project. For more information about us, please see our bio page.
The latest news is below; or check out John's Science and Music Blog.
Apr 1 2009
The Musician’s Brain
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There has been a good deal of research done on music and the brain, some of which is described in recent books such as Daviel J. Levitin’s This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession and Oliver Sacks’s Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain. The areas of the brain involved in processing music are well understood, and anatomical differences in the brains of musicians and non-musicians have been described. Far less research has been done on what happens within the brains of musicians while they are performing. One reason for this is no doubt due to a practical difficulty — pianos and guitars don’t fit into MRI instruments. However, a few recent studies that examine the brains of musicians provide some interesting insights.
Only one of these studies examines the brains of musicians while they are actually playing. Charles Limb of the NIH and Alan Braun of Johns Hopkins University devised an experiment that would allow them to see changes in activation of specific brain regions in experienced jazz musicians in the act of improvisation. They were interested in determining if particular patterns of neural activity were associated with spontaneous musical performance. They used functional MRI (fMRI), a non-invasive technique that measures blood flow to different areas in the brain. They contrasted what they observed when the musicians improvised with what happened when they played memorized musical passages.
They found that improvisation involved a deactivation of some brain regions and an activation of others. Specifically, the areas deactivated were those typically involved in self-monitoring and self-evaluation, while areas activated were those that play a role in self-expression and the creation of internally-motivated, stimulus-independent behaviors. It appears that these musicians were shutting down regions that would inhibit the free, creative, uncensored expression of musical ideas. This certainly makes sense — experienced improvisors would have to have this ability, to allow the free flow of creativity — but it’s remarkable that it can actually be observed at the level of blood flow within the brain. It would be interesting to know whether musicians who are less experienced or less effective at improvisation would show this same pattern.
Another interesting recent study was performed by Elizabeth Margulis and colleagues at the University of Arkansas. Rather than observing actual performance, they used fMRI to examine neural responses when musicians listened to music played on their own particular instrument of expertise, or on another instrument. The study was designed to explore whether extensive experience playing a particular instrument — in this case, either violin or flute — affects the neural response when listening to music played on that instrument.
They found that musicians had more extensive and complex neural responses to music played on their instrument compared to music performed on another instrument. Brain areas activated under these circumstances include those related to sense of self, motor control and the suppression of unwanted movements. Margulis is quoted as saying that “some of the brain activation suggests that they could detect more subtle differences in sound when listening to their instrument of expertise.” These findings are perhaps not unexpected, but they do highlight just how engaged the brain becomes when hearing music that one has a long, intimate, physical connection with. And they suggest that the response is learned — an innate ability to process music in this way would not likely be instrument-specific.
And finally, another recent study looked at musicians’ brains while performing non-musical activities. A team at Vanderbilt University used near infrared spectroscopy to monitor blood flow to cortical regions when individuals — either musicians or non-musicians — were given problems to solve that required creative thinking. They found that, compared to non-musicians, musicians showed a greater capacity for creative, or “divergent,” thinking, and observed a greater degree of bilateral frontal cortical activity while problem-solving — that is, musicians showed more use of both hemispheres. One of the researchers, Bradely Folley, said that “there seems to be a qualitative difference in how [musicians] think about this information.” An interesting question that arises from this study is the origin of this difference: are people with this bilateral pattern more likely to become musicians, or does long experience with the highly complex activity of making music train the brain to adopt a bilateral approach to problem-solving?
Notes
The study on neural activity when listening to different instruments is described in Margulis, E.H. et al. (2009). Selective neurophysiologic responses to music in instrumentalists with different listening biographies. Human Brain Mapping 30:267-275. Further information can be found in a news account at the University of Arkansas web site.
The research on brain regions active during jazz improvisation was published in Limb, C.J. and Braun, A.R.(2008) Neural Substrates of Spontaneous Musical Performance: An fMRI Study of Jazz Improvisation. PLoS ONE 3(2): e1679.
The study on cortical activity patterns during problem-solving can be found in Gibson, C., Folley, B.S., and Park, S. (2009) Enhanced divergent thinking and creativity in musicians: A behavioral and near-infrared spectroscopy study. Brain and Cognition 69:162-169. An account of the research can also be found at physorg.com.
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Mar 14 2009
Why Does Music Exist?
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This year marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin, as well as the 150th anniversary of the publication of On the Origin of Species, the book in which Darwin first presented his theory of evolution by natural selection. Darwin’s ideas profoundly changed our thinking about our physical origins and our place in the natural world. In the context of Darwin, it is interesting to consider what evolutionary theory has to say about the origins of music and its role in human development. What did Darwin have to say about music? What is the current thinking about the role of music in human evolution? In short: why does music exist?
This isn’t a question that is asked very often. Music is so ubiquitous in our culture that most of us take it for granted. And for musicians, music feels so much a part of us that to wonder about where it comes from and why it exists takes us into unfamiliar territory — contemplating a world before music, or a world where music never came to be.
However, the question has been asked, by Darwin himself and by many researchers after him, and the subject continues to be an active area of research. And while there are many theories, there is not yet — and perhaps cannot ever be — a definitive answer.
The simplest explanation is that there is nothing to explain — that there is nothing special about music. It doesn’t serve any big purpose, it hasn’t played any important role in human evolution; instead, it is an accident, a parasitic phenomenon that lives off of other, more important cognitive abilities like language. In the words of Steven Pinker, it is “auditory cheesecake” — pleasurable, but nothing more.
To many people, and probably most of all to musicians, this view doesn’t make much sense — music feels to important to be an accident, a mere by-product of language or other human abilities. And several more objective observations would seem to support this objection. For example, music is universal, existing across the world in all cultures. And it has been around for a long time — what appear to be musical artefacts have been discovered that are estimated to be 40,000 years old. If the first music used voices or simple percussion, it could be much older since those activities would have left no trace. Music could be as old as Homo sapiens itself.
Music is also a major human activity, something we devote considerable energy to. Tied closely to dance and movement, music literally costs energy — and evolution doesn’t tend to keep things around that are costly without benefit. It is also interesting to note that musical ability may have a genetic component; the rare condition known as amusia, in which an individual is unable to recognize music as anything other than noise, is in some cases heritable. And finally, proto-musical abilities appear very early, showing up in infancy.
If music is more than an accident, then what is it? Here, there are many theories. Darwin thought it had to do with courtship and mate attraction, like a peacock’s plume — the better the chops, the more attractive the guitarist and the more offspring to pass those skills along to. It has also been thought of as a special language important for mother-infant bonding. It has been suggested to play a role in human cognitive, motor, and social development, and to be important for social cohesion.
It seems clear that music is a type of language, but it is distinct from spoken language. Different parts of the brain are used in the two activities. And while music, like spoken language, is communicative, it is not so in a direct, informational way. Its capacity for emotional communication and transformation lends support to a role in promoting group cohesion, something that would be tremendously important for the development of a social species such as our own. In this regard, a recent study is interesting. Researchers at Northwestern University found that musicians were better than non-musicians at picking up on auditory emotional cues. They noted that “musical training enhances the perception of vocally expressed emotion.” So music may prime us to read emotions better, and music itself may be an effective way to communicate emotion, particularly in group settings.
So while there are no clear conclusions and much speculation, research into the role of music in human evolution continues. What is clear — both objectively and subjectively — is that, whatever its origin, music is a fundamental part of what it means to be human.
Notes
Daviel J. Levitin’s fascinating book, This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession (Dutton, 2006) contains an interesting chapter on music and human evolution.
A review of theories of cognitive evolution and the role of music in human evolution can be found in article by Ian Cross entitled “Is music the most important thing we ever did? Music, development and evolution,” published in Music, Mind and Science (Seoul National University Press, 1999, edited by Suk Won Yi).
An article by Alan R Harvey entitled “Music and Human Evolution,” published by the Music Council of Australia, contains pictures of a “bone flute” dated at 40,000 years old and includes images of brain areas activated during music listening.
The research paper on the enhanced ability of musicians to read emotional sound cues is: Strait, D. L. et al. Musical experience and neural efficiency — effects of training on subcortical processing of vocal expressions of emotion (2009). European Journal of Neuroscience 29:661-668.
A recent article in The Economist contains a general account of current theories.
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Aug 6 2008
Aloha from Maui
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We just returned from Maui, where we attended Ben Verdery’s masterclass. For some photos of this beautiful island and the wonderful class, visit our gallery page.
Jul 6 2008
Abyss of the Stars
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Composer Terry Champlin has written a new piece for us, Abyss of the Stars: A Mass for Voice and Guitar. This song cycle, in five movements, sets texts by renowned scientists within the context of the mass. The juxtaposition of these texts alongside the Latin words of the mass highlights the sense of wonder and celebration that accompany the scientific understanding of physical laws, human origins, and the evolution of the cosmos. Terry uses texts by the Jesuit priest and paleontologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and the great physicists Richard Feynman and Albert Einstein.
With our own backgrounds in mathematics and science, and Terry’s background in theoretical physics, this is an exciting new piece to have and to work on with Terry. We will be premiering the piece on September 14 in New York City in our concert on the Second Sundays Classical Guitar Concert Series.
Jun 2 2008
Gioia Backstage
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Gioia recently premiered her solo show Truth Values: One Girl’s Romp Through MIT’s Male Math Maze at two festivals in New York City. I took this photo of her backstage on opening night at the West End Theatre.
— John
May 26 2008
Science/Music Commissioning Project
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Music and science are two of our main interests, so we are excited to launch our Science/Music Commissioning Project. Our goal is to further the public understanding and appreciation of science through music. We are commissioning new music that explores the process of scientific discovery and the human side of the scientific endeavor through song.
For more information, see our Science/Music Commissioning Project page.