Music

[nanocub]

The past couple of days I've had the music from "Charlie Brown Christmas" (Vince Guaraldi Piano Trio) in my head. Usually when a song or music gets stuck in my head it gets annoying after one day, and only gradually disintegrates. This one is still fun, and the melody is still recognizeable. I've been able to nudge it slightly to do some jazz

Comments

[dr_scott]

Hard with a capital 'H.'

It would be (relatively) simple to set up a musical performance system that uses music generation algorithms (principles of composition, serial correlation, style) and is influenced by brainwave activity. This would be rather like the biofeedback control of cursors and prosthetic limbs that's currently being done, but it's not tapping into the "native data format" of the music in your head.

It's not impossible -- there probably is a small region of the brain where the "soundtrack" of your imagination is localized, and it's probably similar enough across the human population -- but aside from the difficulties of mapping from neural activity to sound, the technology for reading localized brain activity hasn't progressed beyond implanted electrodes. There's nothing like a neural "CAT scan" yet that would let you crunch external brainwave data and read what's going on in small regions. That problem alone is good for a lifetime of work.

[nanocub]

Functional MRI is close -- roughly cubic millimeter sized voxels. But, yes, there probably is still a lot more detail at smaller scales.

Ah well, it's just a dream...

[anonymous]

David, I remember doing something like this on a 20 mile hike in Glacier National Park about 20 years ago. I somehow had this country western song in my head and essentially sang as many different styles of it as I could think of mainly to make noise and alert any grizzly bears as to my presence in their backyard. Being late in the year I did not want to be some bears last 40,000 calorie meal. I saw no one on the trail that day and for all I know all the bears where just off the trail in the fields of beargrass ruminating and laughing (if they can do this) because I really can't sing. At the end all I really remembered was the country version. The Dinah Washington version was pretty bizarre I thought as I reflect on this experience. Mark

[nanocub]

Which country/western song was it?

[anonymous]

David, The song was "Louisiana Saturday Night". The version at the time was from Mel McDaniels, but I also have channeled the Don Williams version which is in my visual memory from a PBS program (may have been Austin City Limits). Mark