Jul 2, 2008 1:56 pm US/Eastern
Brain Scans Study Minds Of Musicians
BOSTON (WBZ) ―
While many musicians follow notes on a page, jazz artists are known to improvise their tunes. And just how they do it is giving researchers a new understanding of the brain.
Jazz pianist Bill Charlap is one of the country's best, but he doesn't plan exactly what he's doing. Much of his music is improvised, created on the fly.
"The goal of the jazz improviser is to dispense with thinking as much as possible," Charlap said.
This' non-thinking' process got The National Institutes of Health's Dr. Allen Braun thinking about the jazz musician's brain and how it works.
"To study creativity, to study spontaneous musical production is relatively novel," Dr. Braun said.
Brain scans were taken while jazz musicians played a keyboard. On the scans red and yellow represent increased activity. Blue represents decreased activity.
Brain scans change depending on whether a musician is playing a memorized or improvised piece of music. When subjects improvise, areas associated with self monitoring and inhibition turn off, while self expression turns on. It's similar to what happens in our brain when we dream.
It's hoped this new window into creativity will provide new clues into the brain's wiring.
"This may help us understand some of the ways music and language and some of these other systems interact," Dr. Braun said.
Experts hope this could one day lead to new treatments for stuttering and even help stroke victims regain speech.
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