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Date: Tue, 1 Aug 2000 11:26:51 +0100
From: Emma Waghorn
Subject: Re: Brain-l

On Wed, 26 Jul 2000 07:30:59 EDT, Siegfried (Snaru~ol.com) wrote:

>... neurologists as the "responsible" experts have indisputably
>found that the gray matter holds certain places for our senses.
>So, effected blindness by injuries of the rear low brain part
>proved that the visual sense is obviously located right there.

I'm not a neurologist, nor do I play one on TV, but my understanding is
that it is not as simple as that. Although there are regions of the brain
that are associated *primarily* with different senses, there is no simple
"map" of the human brain. Each region of the brain seems to be associated
with several different functions, and each sense seems to be associated
with several different parts of the brain. For example, someone whose brain
is damaged may retain the ability to see, but lose the ability to recognise
what she sees. Or retain the ability to recognise what she sees, unless
it's an animal or a vegetable, or a human face. Some people retain both
sight and recognition, but lose the emotional associations with what they
see, so that they don't "feel" that the people close to them are really who
they seem to be, and end up believing that members of their own families
are impostors!

>The more interesting question for harp-L whether
>and where there's also a special music center, more
>precisely, a specific harp center, is a question only
>Harpie may answer.

Well, perhaps Harpie won't mind me muscling in. Again, I realise that my
knowledge of such things comes only from popular science (gasp!), and I'm
not sure to what extent you're joking here, Siegfried, but I would think it
highly unlikely that's there's "a" special music centre in the brain, for
several reasons. As far as I know and remember, music is thought to be
associated with several different areas of the brain, including the bit
that's associated primarily with auditory functions (the temporal lobes, I
think), and the bit that's associated largely with emotions (er ... the
hypothamalus, is it? or the amygdala, or maybe both?), and various bits
associated with memory (including the hippocampus), and, when it comes to
singing or playing music, various bits associated with various motor
actions, and breathing, and so on. And I've read something about the part
of the brain associated with hearing organising information by pitch (it's
called a tonatopic map, apparently). Anyway, again, there are people with
brain damage who retain the ability to hear and to enjoy music to a certain
extent, but are unable to remember and recognise music, even a simple tune,
and yet can recognise certain emotional characteristics of a piece of music
- -- e.g. that tune is sad, that one's jolly, that one's scary, etc. And
others who can recognise music but lose the emotional connection, and so
on.

Given that most human evolution took place thousands of years ago, long
before, I suspect, humans produced anything resembling what we now call
music, it seems most likely, to me, that what evolved in the brain was the
ability to recognise and reproduce different pitches and rhythms, for the
purposes, perhaps, of communication. (That would suggest that there is a
neurological link between music and language, but I'm not sure whether
that's been determined.) What humans subsequently did with that ability is
remarkable, but it took a long time and it's related to cultural rather
than physiological evolution, in my opinion. And even now there is
tremendous variety worldwide, not only in the quantity and types of music
played and the technology used, but the value placed on music.

Anyway, to get back to the harmonica (whew!), I suspect that there's a
strong link between harmonica playing and whistling. Now, it seems quite
likely that early humans had the ability to whistle -- again, for
communication purposes -- so I suppose it's possible that specific brain
functions evolved specifically for the purpose of whistling -- maybe those
who could whistle had an evolutionary advantage over those who could not,
who knows? (Maybe it could be used to attract a mate! ;-) ) And maybe, just
maybe, there is a particular part of the brain that is strongly associated
with whistling, and maybe, just maybe, the same part of the brain is
associated with harmonica playing.

I make this harmonica--whistling connection not only because of the
similarities between embouchure changes used in whistling and in bending
notes, but also because, since I've been playing the harmonica, I've been
having problems whistling. I've found that, instead of blowing all the
notes when I whistle, I've been wanting to "suck" the notes that are
equivalent to the draw notes on a C diatonic harmonica! I don't have this
problem when I sing. Anyone else find this?

Emma

P.S. Siegfried also wrote:

>The Brits e.g. don't have such problems, "right or
>wrong, my country" answers all questions.

Hmph! I hate to get all bristly and defensive here, but blind patriotism
has rather gone out of fashion here in Britain, you know. And I suspect
that we are as questioning and sceptical as any other nation -- which, in
my view, isn't as questioning and sceptical enough, but that's another
matter.