Jazz improvisation and the brain: new research studies spontaneous creativity and brain activity


	Jazz improvisation and the brain: new research studies spontaneous creativity and brain activity

enbar

3-22-2008 3:15 PM

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science, music, health, psychology, art, cool, post:tumblr:source

enbar says:

A group of researchers at Johns Hopkins and NIH used fMRI equipment to study what goes on in the brains of musicians who are perfoming spontaneous musical improvisation. The layman's summary doesn't say all that much, but there's a link to PLoS.

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/60d720da-26a7-4ca2-aeaf-abf021525a8b/FE56CA2E-3749-48B1-B68A-02DA716C7750/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/Press_releases/2008/02_26_08.html" href="http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/Press_releases/2008/02_26_08.html" style="font-size: 11px;">www.hopkinsmedicine.org</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/Press_releases/2008/02_26_08.html"><div align="center"><img src="http://content7.clipmarks.com/blog_cache/www.hopkinsmedicine.org/img/DB2CBB9A-B09C-4D7B-8482-512EB168703D" alt="JOHNS HOPKINS MEDICINE" /></div></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/Press_releases/2008/02_26_08.html"><SPAN class="Header_1">THIS IS YOUR BRAIN ON JAZZ: RESEARCHERS USE MRI TO STUDY SPONTANEITY, CREATIVITY<BR /></SPAN></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/Press_releases/2008/02_26_08.html"><P>A pair of Johns Hopkins and government scientists have discovered that when jazz musicians improvise, their brains turn off areas linked to self-censoring and inhibition, and turn on those that let self-expression flow.</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/Press_releases/2008/02_26_08.html"><DIV><TABLE width="44" height="44" cellspacing="2" cellpadding="2" border="0" align="right"><TBODY><TR><TD rowspan="1" colspan="1"><IMG width="226" vspace="0" hspace="0" height="169" border="0" align="" rolloverid="" rolloverenabled="No" alt="piano" src="http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/bin/p/o/Piano.jpg" /></TD></TR><TR><TD rowspan="1" colspan="1"><P><SPAN class="captions">This keyboard was specially designed for a study to assess brain activity in jazz musicians during improvisation. Because fMRI uses powerful magnets, the researchers designed the unconventional keyboard with no iron-containing metal parts that the magnets could attract.</SPAN></P></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>The joint research, using functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI, and musician volunteers from the <A href="http://www.peabody.jhu.edu/">Johns Hopkins University’s Peabody Institute,</A> sheds light on the creative improvisation that artists and non-artists use in everyday life, the investigators say.</DIV></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/Press_releases/2008/02_26_08.html"><P>It appears, they conclude, that jazz musicians create their unique improvised riffs by turning off inhibition and turning up creativity.</P></blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/FE56CA2E-3749-48B1-B68A-02DA716C7750/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content8.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

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