Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

On the Meaning of Movement in Music, Development and the Brain

2009; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 28; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/07494460903404394

1477-2256

Jessica Phillips-Silver,

Music and Audio Processing

Abstract This article is written from the perspective of empirical research within the broad field of the neuroscience of music (including evolutionary, behavioural, neuroimaging and neuropsychological approaches), with a central theme of the multisensory experience of rhythm and movement in music and dance. Section 1 explores some historical theories on the evolutionary origins of music that point to the important role of rhythmic synchronisation. Section 2 discusses some of the concepts of beat perception and synchronisation in the scientific literature, with examples of various methodologies that have been used to measure these abilities in the body and in the brain. Section 3 focuses on the development in infancy of the musical capacity to 'feel the beat', which involves the integration of auditory and movement information. Section 4 takes a neuropsychological perspective, giving examples of what can go wrong in cases of abnormal music development, and posing some provocative questions about whether or not we all 'have rhythm'. These different perspectives, taken together, reflect a scientific interest in understanding music, movement and the brain. The goal of the article is to find points where neuroscience and music meet, while recognising certain limitations. The discussion is meant to complement important studies and observations in the fields of musicology, music pedagogy, music performance and music therapy by providing empirical support for some of the work of experts in these fields. Ultimately, musicians and scientists together can illuminate the importance of music and movement for the human mind. Keywords: MusicMovementDevelopmentDanceBrain Notes For example, 24 February 2008, Times interview with the owner of Snowball, a dancing sulphur-crested cockatoo. Retrieved April 2, 2009, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvuWjqxL5io&feature=related I use the expression 'highly experienced' to refer to both informally and formally trained musicians because I believe that these kinds of listening skills develop in some cultures with formal music training and in others with communal music practice. Another example of discrepancy between science and music terminology lies in these variously used terms for experimental stimuli: 'simple meter' and 'complex meter', which again do not necessarily correspond to the musical definitions of those terms (e.g., 'complex' meter might be used to refer to an experimental stimulus that has an irregular meter). This issue is outside the scope of this article, but for a thorough exploration of meter perception, informed both by scientific and music theory, see London (Citation2004). For a description of how children often represent rhythms graphically, see the work of Bamberger (Citation1991). This provides a distinction between what have been called 'formal' versus 'figural' aspects of rhythm representation. For an online version of the diagnostic test for congenital amusia, see http://www.brams.org I am grateful to John Laing for discussions on amusia from an ethnomusicological perspective. To read about special cases of musical brains, see Sacks (Citation2008).