Lectures Parsons and Sloboda
Lawrence Parsons: Brain basis of music and dance performance.
Dance and music, like language, are universal in human cultures. Components of these capacities may be present in analogue forms in other species. In earlier periods of human evolution, dance, singing, percussive and instrumental music, mimicry, acting, protolanguage, and language were likely blended into everyday social communication, with active participation by all group members. This context may be helpful in understanding the brain basis of these capacities in current humans. I will illustrate this in a discussion of recent findings on the brain basis of performances such as dancing, call/response singing, harmonization, improvisational singing and speaking, sight-singing duets, playing memorized piano pieces, conducting, and the discrimination of phrasing, tempo, and meter.
This question has perplexed scholars and listeners for centuries. Recent scientific progress has been possible by understanding that there is not just one way in which this happens, but several different ways which need careful analysis, and can vary from person to person, and from situation to situation. This means that it is quite hard to predict the emotional effect of a particular piece of music on a particular individual, without knowing much more about the individual concerned and the circumstances in which the music is being heard. Music is not like a reliable and predictable drug (e.g. caffeine or aspirin). Individual emotional responses depend on such factor as the degree of attention we are giving to the music, the specific psychological goals and agendas that we are operating with, and our cultural and personal associations to particular pieces of music and styles. Beyond this, music can operate on our 'feeling system'; through several distinct mechanisms, including (a) 'playing' with our expectations to create feelings of surprise and tension, and (b) mimicking' the emotional signals found in speech and other human vocalizations. These points will be illustrated through recent scientific research studies.
