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A blog on music cognition research
Henkjan Honing
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- May 21, 2012
- 06:33 AM
- 12 views
Is the ability to distinguish 'speech sound contrasts' strictly human?
by Henkjan Honing in Music Matters
For various reasons the song of songbirds are currently considered to be the closest animal analogue to language. This raises questions about to what extent particular perceptual and cognitive abilities that are considered to be closely linked to the production, perception and learning of language are present in songbirds. In an upcoming SMART-Talk at the University of Amsterdam on Friday 25 May 2012, Prof. dr Carel ten Cate (Leiden University) will address two of such abilities.... Read more »
ten Cate, C., Verzijden, M., & Etman, E. (2006) Sexual Imprinting Can Induce Sexual Preferences for Exaggerated Parental Traits. Current Biology, 16(11), 1128-1132. DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2006.03.068
- April 24, 2012
- 11:23 AM
- 104 views
What's new in neuroscience and music?
by Henkjan Honing in Music Matters
The future of music neuroscience looks both exciting and promising...... Read more »
Altenmüller, E., Demorest, S., Fujioka, T., Halpern, A., Hannon, E., Loui, P., Majno, M., Oechslin, M., Osborne, N., Overy, K.... (2012) Introduction to The Neurosciences and Music IV: Learning and Memory. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1252(1), 1-16. DOI: 10.1111/j.1749-6632.2012.06474.x
Honing, H. (2012) Without it no music: beat induction as a fundamental musical trait. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1252(1), 85-91. DOI: 10.1111/j.1749-6632.2011.06402.x
- April 23, 2012
- 11:23 AM
- 72 views
Is music a result of secual selection?
by Henkjan Honing in Music Matters
Yesterday, Tecumseh Fitch — presenting at the SMART Lecture Series of the University of Amsterdam — discussed the likelihood of the sexual selection hypothesis; Darwin’s first guess of why we might have music. Fitch argued that virtually all the available empirical evidence is against that hypothesis, including a recent study by his own group that will come out in PLoS One.... Read more »
Blute, M. (2003) [Book Review: The Mating Mind: How Sexual Choice Shaped the Evolution of Human Nature]. The Quarterly Review of Biology, 78(1), 129-130. DOI: 10.1086/377917
- March 7, 2012
- 05:37 AM
- 160 views
How do children learn and represent music?
by Henkjan Honing in Music Matters
Last month the peer-reviewed online journal Visions of Research in Music Education published a tribute to Jeanne Bamberger. See here for more information. ... Read more »
Desain, P., & Honing, H. (1988) LOCO: A Composition Microworld in Logo. Computer Music Journal, 12(3), 30. DOI: 10.2307/3680334
- February 21, 2012
- 03:22 PM
- 218 views
What is the relation between language and cognition?
by Henkjan Honing in Music Matters
What is the relation between language and cognition? On the one hand, researchers like Noam Chomsky thought of language as an independent function with its own rules. However, other people thought that language as a system is embedded in cognition and subject to all models of cognition. ... Read more »
Hauser MD, Chomsky N, & Fitch WT. (2002) The faculty of language: what is it, who has it, and how did it evolve?. Science (New York, N.Y.), 298(5598), 1569-79. PMID: 12446899
- February 18, 2012
- 09:00 PM
- 178 views
Does performance matter?
by Henkjan Honing in Music Matters
A nice example of how a single score can give rise to an enormous variety of intriguing performances. ... Read more »
Huron, D. (2006) Empirical Musicology: Aims, Methods, Prospects, and: Statistics in Musicology (review). Notes, 63(1), 93-95. DOI: 10.1353/not.2006.0101
- February 17, 2012
- 09:00 PM
- 173 views
Do musicians listen better?
by Henkjan Honing in Music Matters
Using discrimination and identification tasks, Sadakata investigated in how far musicians do better in picking up these nuances. It turns out that in some, specific situations musicians indeed do better than non-musicians.... Read more »
Sadakata, M., & Sekiyama, K. (2011) Enhanced perception of various linguistic features by musicians: A cross-linguistic study. Acta Psychologica, 138(1), 1-10. DOI: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2011.03.007
- December 18, 2011
- 11:23 AM
- 211 views
Music Appreciation at TEDxAmsterdam
by Henkjan Honing in Music Matters
Henkjan Honing cites studies and engages his audience in auditory participation to shed light on how absolute pitch is very common and relative pitch is very special and fundamental in music appreciation.... Read more »
Zarco, W., Merchant, H., Prado, L., & Mendez, J. (2009) Subsecond Timing in Primates: Comparison of Interval Production Between Human Subjects and Rhesus Monkeys. Journal of Neurophysiology, 102(6), 3191-3202. DOI: 10.1152/jn.00066.2009
- December 10, 2011
- 08:45 PM
- 275 views
A case of congenital beat deafness? [Part 2]
by Henkjan Honing in Music Matters
Isabelle Peretz told me about Mathieu during a workshop at the Université Libre de Bruxelles in November 2009. She was very excited, and I couldn’t but share her enthusiasm: She was pretty sure she found a beat-deaf person.
... Read more »
Phillips-Silver, J., Toiviainen, P., Gosselin, N., Piché, O., Nozaradan, S., Palmer, C., & Peretz, I. (2011) Born to dance but beat deaf: A new form of congenital amusia. Neuropsychologia. DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2011.02.002
- December 6, 2011
- 11:00 AM
- 282 views
Which brain areas are involved in listening?
by Henkjan Honing in Music Matters
Its a persistent myth to think that music is processed in the right hemisphere. This week yet another study shows that, even when the processes are restricted to listening alone, virtually the whole brain is involved.... Read more »
Alluri, V., Toiviainen, P., Jääskeläinen, I., Glerean, E., Sams, M., & Brattico, E. (2011) Large-scale brain networks emerge from dynamic processing of musical timbre, key and rhythm. NeuroImage. DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2011.11.019
Stewart L, von Kriegstein K, Warren JD, & Griffiths TD. (2006) Music and the brain: disorders of musical listening. Brain : a journal of neurology, 129(Pt 10), 2533-53. PMID: 16845129
- November 30, 2011
- 07:21 AM
- 327 views
Is beat induction species-specific? [Part 2]
by Henkjan Honing in Music Matters
It is a slowly but steadily unfolding story, with more and more evidence in support of it: The story revealing with what other species we share beat induction, a skill that is argued to be fundamental to music.
The ability to synchronize to the beat of the music has been demonstrated in several parrot species and, apparently, one elephant species, supporting the vocal learning and rhythmic synchronization hypothesis, which posits that vocal learning provides a neurobiological foundation for auditory–motor entrainment.
While earlier experiments with parrots and related animals were criticized mainly for their relatively informal setup (e.g. using existing YouTube videos or analyzing home-made video’s), a few weeks ago an elegant and systematic study appeared in Nature in which budgerigars (Melopsittacus undulates), a vocal-learning parrot species, were trained to synchronize to a metronome. A study that can be considered an important first step towards understanding the timing control mechanism in vocal learners. ... Read more »
Hasegawa, A., Okanoya, K., Hasegawa, T., & Seki, Y. (2011) Rhythmic synchronization tapping to an audio–visual metronome in budgerigars. Scientific Reports. DOI: 10.1038/srep00120
- November 27, 2011
- 11:23 AM
- 233 views
TEDxAmsterdam: What makes us musical animals?
by Henkjan Honing in Music Matters
Below some fragments from a talk I gave last week at TEDxAmsterdam with the title: What makes us musical animals. In the talk I try to convince the audience that we all share a predisposition for the perception and appreciation of music, making music second nature to most human beings... Read more »
Zarco, W., Merchant, H., Prado, L., & Mendez, J. (2009) Subsecond Timing in Primates: Comparison of Interval Production Between Human Subjects and Rhesus Monkeys. Journal of Neurophysiology, 102(6), 3191-3202. DOI: 10.1152/jn.00066.2009
- November 10, 2011
- 05:17 PM
- 144 views
Is beat induction species-specific? [Part 1]
by Henkjan Honing in Music Matters
Beat induction (BI) is the cognitive skill that allows us to hear a regular pulse in music to which we can then synchronize. Perceiving this regularity in music allows us to dance and make music together. As such it can be considered a fundamental musical trait that, arguably, played a decisive role in the origin of music (see also earlier entries of this blog). Furthermore, BI has been argued to be a spontaneously developing, domain-specific and species-specific skill.With regard to the first aspect, recent studies with infants and newborns provide some evidence suggesting such early bias (Honing et al., 2009). With regard to the second aspect convincing evidence is still lacking, although it was recently argued that BI does not play a role (or is even avoided) in spoken language (Patel, 2008). And with regard to the latter aspect, it was recently suggested that we might share BI with a selected group of bird species (Fitch, 2009) and not with more closely related species such as nonhuman primates.(Zarco et al., 2009). This is surprising when one assumes a close mapping between specific genotypes and specific cognitive traits. However, more and more studies show that genetically distantly related species can show similar cognitive skill, and this offers a rich basis for comparative studies of this specific cognitive function.Most animal studies have used behavioral methods to probe the presence (or absence) of BI, such as tapping tasks or measuring head bobs. It might well be that if more direct electrophysiological measures are used (such as analogs of the MMN), nonhuman primates might indeed also show BI.Its this hypothesis that that is the topic of a new and exiting collaboration of our group with that of Hugo Merchant at the Institute of Neurobiology in Querétaro, Mexico. This week we started a series of experiments with Rhesus Macaques using the same paradigm we used in our earlier newborn studies.Fitch, W. (2009). Biology of Music: Another One Bites the Dust Current Biology, 19 (10) DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2009.04.004Honing H, Ladinig O, Háden GP, & Winkler I (2009). Is beat induction innate or learned? Probing emergent meter perception in adults and newborns using event-related brain potentials. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1169, 93-6 PMID: 19673760Patel, A. D. (2008). Music, language, and the brain. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Zarco, W., Merchant, H., Prado, L., & Mendez, J. (2009). Subsecond Timing in Primates: Comparison of Interval Production Between Human Subjects and Rhesus Monkeys Journal of Neurophysiology, 102 (6), 3191-3202 DOI: 10.1152/jn.00066.2009... Read more »
Fitch, W. (2009) Biology of Music: Another One Bites the Dust. Current Biology, 19(10). DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2009.04.004
Honing H, Ladinig O, Háden GP, & Winkler I. (2009) Is beat induction innate or learned? Probing emergent meter perception in adults and newborns using event-related brain potentials. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 93-6. PMID: 19673760
Zarco, W., Merchant, H., Prado, L., & Mendez, J. (2009) Subsecond Timing in Primates: Comparison of Interval Production Between Human Subjects and Rhesus Monkeys. Journal of Neurophysiology, 102(6), 3191-3202. DOI: 10.1152/jn.00066.2009
- November 10, 2011
- 05:04 PM
- 175 views
What is the role of consciousness in auditory perception?
by Henkjan Honing in Music Matters
István WinklerOn Tuesday 15 November 2011 prof. dr István Winkler (Hungarian Academy of Sciences) will give the monthly CSCA lecture in Amsterdam. He is visiting the Music Cognition Group for two days.Winkler will talk about his recent research in auditory perception and its role and functioning in the newborn brain. He will argue that the representation of a sound organization in the brain is a coalition of auditory regularity representations producing compatible predictions for the continuation of the sound input. Competition between alternative sound organizations relies on comparing the regularity representations on how reliably they predict incoming sounds and how much together they explain from the total variance of the acoustic input. Results obtained in perceptual studies using the auditory streaming paradigm will be interpreted in support of the hypothesis that regularity representations underlie auditory stream segregation.Furthermore, Winkler will argue that the same regularity representations are involved in the deviance-detection process reflected by the mismatch negativity (MMN) event-related potential (ERP).Finally, based on the hypothesized link between auditory scene analysis and deviance detection, Winkler will propose a functional model of sound organization and discuss how it can be implemented in a computational model.For more information (time and location), see the CSCA website.Näätänen R, Kujala T, & Winkler I (2011). Auditory processing that leads to conscious perception: a unique window to central auditory processing opened by the mismatch negativity and related responses. Psychophysiology, 48 (1), 4-22 PMID: 20880261.Winkler I, Denham SL, & Nelken I (2009). Modeling the auditory scene: predictive regularity representations and perceptual objects. Trends in cognitive sciences, 13 (12), 532-40 PMID: 19828357 ... Read more »
Näätänen R, Kujala T, & Winkler I. (2011) Auditory processing that leads to conscious perception: a unique window to central auditory processing opened by the mismatch negativity and related responses. Psychophysiology, 48(1), 4-22. PMID: 20880261
Winkler I, Denham SL, & Nelken I. (2009) Modeling the auditory scene: predictive regularity representations and perceptual objects. Trends in cognitive sciences, 13(12), 532-40. PMID: 19828357
- November 2, 2011
- 11:23 AM
- 162 views
Is beat induction species-specific?
by Henkjan Honing in Music Matters
Most animal studies have used behavioral methods to probe the presence (or absence) of beat induction, such as tapping tasks or measuring head bobs. It might well be that if more direct electrophysiological measures are used, nonhuman primates might indeed also show beat induction.
Its this hypothesis that that is the topic of a new and exiting collaboration of the University of Amsterdam with that of Hugo Merchant at the Institute of Neurobiology in Querétaro, Mexico. ... Read more »
Fitch, W. (2009) Biology of Music: Another One Bites the Dust. Current Biology, 19(10). DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2009.04.004
Honing H, Ladinig O, Háden GP, & Winkler I. (2009) Is beat induction innate or learned? Probing emergent meter perception in adults and newborns using event-related brain potentials. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 93-6. PMID: 19673760
Zarco, W., Merchant, H., Prado, L., & Mendez, J. (2009) Subsecond Timing in Primates: Comparison of Interval Production Between Human Subjects and Rhesus Monkeys. Journal of Neurophysiology, 102(6), 3191-3202. DOI: 10.1152/jn.00066.2009
- October 12, 2011
- 03:24 PM
- 123 views
Cleese explains it all
by Henkjan Honing in Music Matters
Zatorre R, & McGill J (2005). Music, the food of neuroscience? Nature, 434 (7031), 312-5 PMID: 15772648... Read more »
Zatorre R, & McGill J. (2005) Music, the food of neuroscience?. Nature, 434(7031), 312-5. PMID: 15772648
- October 11, 2011
- 11:23 AM
- 297 views
Interested in human nature?
by Henkjan Honing in Music Matters
During a partner meeting yesterday evening at the residence of the Amsterdam municipality, the majority of the speakers list was released for the 2011 edition of the TEDxAmsterdam event. The speakers and the audience will enter the theme ‘Human Nature’ on an expedition to find out what it means to be human in a society that is increasingly dominated by technology and economical issues.... Read more »
Lentink, D., Müller, U., Stamhuis, E., de Kat, R., van Gestel, W., Veldhuis, L., Henningsson, P., Hedenström, A., Videler, J., & van Leeuwen, J. (2007) How swifts control their glide performance with morphing wings. Nature, 446(7139), 1082-1085. DOI: 10.1038/nature05733
Crone, E., & van der Molen, M. (2004) Developmental Changes in Real Life Decision Making: Performance on a Gambling Task Previously Shown to Depend on the Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex. Developmental Neuropsychology, 25(3), 251-279. DOI: 10.1207/s15326942dn2503_2
- October 10, 2011
- 10:00 PM
- 201 views
A history of music cognition?
by Henkjan Honing in Music Matters
One of the pioneers in the field that would come to be called music cognition was H. Christopher Longuet-Higgins (1923-2004). Not only was Longuet-Higgins one of the founders of the cognitive sciences (he coined the term in 1973), but as early as 1971 he formulated, together with Mark Steedman, the first computer model of musical perception. That early work was followed in 1976 with a full-fledged alternative in the journal Nature, seven years earlier than the more widely known, but, according to Longuet-Higgins, less precisely formulated, Generative Theory of Tonal Music of Lerdahl and Jackendoff.... Read more »
Longuet-Higgins, C. (1983) All in theory — the analysis of music. Nature, 304(5921), 93-93. DOI: 10.1038/304093a0
Longuet-Higgins, H. (1976) Perception of melodies. Nature, 263(5579), 646-653. DOI: 10.1038/263646a0
Honing, H. (2011) The illiterate Listener. On music cognition, musicality and methodology. Amsterdam University Press. info:other
- August 12, 2011
- 06:07 AM
- 525 views
Dirk Jan Povel
by Henkjan Honing in Music Matters
Today reached me the sad news that one of the Dutch pionieers in rhythm perception research, Dirk Jan Povel, has passed away after an incurable illness. Povel made an important contribution to our understanding of the perception of rhythmic patterns reported in a number of highly cited studies. He retired from Radboud University and at the Nijmegen Institute for Information and Cognition (NICI) in November 2005. He taught a few thousand students and was deeply involved in theoretical and applied research in a number of fields. Most notably theoretical and applied research related to speech perception and speech production, the perception of temporal patterns and musical rhythms, and the production of serial motor patterns. More recently he has been doing research on the on-line processes of music perception to discover the perceptual mechanisms listeners use in coding music (see for more information here). Povel, D. (1981). Internal representation of simple temporal patterns. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 7 (1), 3-18 DOI: 10.1037/0096-1523.7.1.3... Read more »
Povel, D. (1981) Internal representation of simple temporal patterns. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 7(1), 3-18. DOI: 10.1037/0096-1523.7.1.3
- August 9, 2011
- 01:12 PM
- 475 views
The Illiterate Listener
by Henkjan Honing in Music Matters
Entry on new essay.... Read more »
Honing, H. (2011) The illiterate Listener. On music cognition, musicality and methodology. Amsterdam University Press. info:other
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