Dear Paris,

You are confusing. I can’t quite figure you out, especially your music taste. While I really appreciate all the wonderful musicians you have hired to serenade me in different locations, your musicians are all over the place. (no pun intended) Despite my confusion, I don’t mind it at all. I enjoy the soulful reggae of Ben L’oncle’s Sympathique, the vibrant enthusiasm of Zaz’s Je veux, and the electric simplicity of Stromae’s Alor on danse.   (click on the title of the songs for a listen 🙂 )

There are some data suggesting that the shape of one’s skull influences music preference due to the differing resonant properties of the person’s skull (Suwangbutra et al, 2013). I may never know why I prefer classical over screamo or why you have such diverse preference. I guess you’re that type who listens to everything.

parc flor de paris, place full of funk and jazz.

However, it would be a sin not to mention the funky side of you. For eight consecutive weekends in the beautiful parc floral, the Paris jazz festival pleases both jazz aficionados and the rookies (like me) to enjoy the diversity and history of jazz. This past Saturday, Max, Dr.Frenzel and I were able to swing by and embrace its dynamic colors. Under the warm embracing sun, we had a mini picnic on the lawn while listening to Guillaume perret & the electric epic and Céline Bonacina Trio. Unlike any other genre, jazz offers the freedom in which the musicians can deviate from the written sheet music. There is some organization and planning, such as the chord progression or the specific pattern of rhythms that loosely outline the performance, but there’s always that unknown factor. The unpredictable part (like the spontaneous saxophone solos or that mystery flavor of Airheads you’re really curious about) is a challenging yet an exciting process for both the musician and the audience.

music + beautiful weather + picnic food + good people = THE life

So what happens if you put bunch of jazz musicians in a brain scanner? Charles Limb, a doctor & a musician at Johns Hopkins and Adam Braun, the chief of the language section in the National Institute of Health, did exactly that. They wanted to find out the exact brain recipe of this musical improvisation, which they viewed as a form of spontaneous creative behavior (Limb, 2008). They hypothesized that the brain was using ordinary mental processes in a new funky combination, similar to how ordinary food items can be combined to create a bizarre flavor, such as asparagus and banana. To summarize, they wanted to see how the brain acted under well rehearsed process vs spontaneous process.

Six full-time male professional musicians, all proficient in jazz piano, participated in the study. Those six musicians all went through four musical conditions while under an fMRI scan (measures brain activity by looking at blood oxygen level at various regions. The activity and the blood oxygen level are positively correlated). The four conditions were….

1. ScaleCtrl condition: playing rehearsed scale (set of 8 notes)
2. ScaleImprov condition: improvising within the same notes as ScaleCtrl of the scale but only changing the order of the notes
3.  JazzCtrl condition: playing rehearsed jazz sheet music
4.  JazzImprov condition: improvising within the same chord progression of the JazzCtrl, changing the order and the rhythm of the notes.

The scale and the jazz condition differ in complexity. ScaleImprov condition, which has one factor to manipulate, is much easier than JazzImprov condition, which has two factors to manipulate. These four conditions not only reveal the different brain activity between learned processes and improvised processes but also illustrate how the varying levels of improvisation would influence brain activity.

jazzy musician in her vibrant orange outfit. I wonder what her brain is doing..

Compared to the controls, the fMRI images showed similar pattern of activation for both improv conditions. All six musicians, under the improv conditions, shared these four brain activities..

1. widespread deactivation in DLPFC dorsolateral-prefrontal cortex (DLPFC brain area involved in many cognitive functions like planning, organization, and inhibition)
2. increased MPFC (medial prefrontal cortex) 
3. increased sensorimotor activity
4. gradually decreasing limbic activity (area involved in emotions and memory). 

To further summarize, the musicians were thinking less, planning less, feeling less and were just playing the music. 

This research is one of the first neuroscience studies looking at the neural mechanism of creativity in jazz, and it has already inspired studying another type of improvisation – free style rapping. In addition to the notes and the rhythm, the rappers also have to consider what words to say within a short frame of time, adding another layer of complexity. The overall data has yielded very similar results (Liu, 2012). Jazz musicians and rappers aren’t so different!

what if they can sax it up with some jazzy improv?

What if Armstrong could freestyle rap?

Initially I viewed creativity as an identity that only existed in small fleeting moments, but now it has redefined itself as another beautiful brain puzzle that researchers have solved. I am still in love with the “mystery flavor” of jazz, but I can’t wait for that one day where I get to see the fMRI scans of Kanye West and Jay-Z doing jazzap, a delightful fusion of rap and jazz. Genre of the summer? I think so.

– Sehe Han

References

Limb CJ, Braun AR. (2008). Neural substrates of spontaneous musical performance: an fMRI study of jazz improvisation. PloS one 3: 1 – 9 

Liu S, Chow HM, Xu Y, Erkkinen MG, Swett KE, Eagle MW, Rizik-Baer DA, Braun AR (2012) Neural correlates of lyrical improvisation: an fMRI study of freestyle rap. Scientific reports 2: 834

Suwangbutra J, Tobias R, Gordon MS. (2013) Music of the body: An investigation of skull resonances and its influences on musical preferences. Proceedings of meetings on acoustics 19: 1 -5

Image references (from Creative Commons)

http://liquorandkarate.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/KANYE_WEST_JAY_Z.jpg

Yesterday was our TA, Kris’ 25^th birthday, and to celebrate we decided to go out to dinner.  He made reservations at Galerie 88, at 88 Quai de l’Hôtel de ville, Paris.  Like usual, I looked up how to get there and found the route below:

Directions from Cite Universitaire to Galerie 88

I thought that the easiest way was to get off the RER, cross both rivers, and turn right. Turns out that our TA ended up coming with us and he looked up directions as well, but in a different way than I did.  Instead of just using landmarks he looked up each street name and which direction to turn on them, which just seems way too complicated and confusing for me.  I told him that people in Rhode Island always give directions with landmarks since everyone probably knows what you are referring to.   It was then I learned that it was not just because of my small state that I focus on landmarks, but because I am a woman. 

Map we both looked at, he memorized the streets, I just crossed the rivers and turned right

I honestly did not believe them but sure enough when I got home and looked it up, I found a lot of information on how men typically use streets and cardinal directions and women use landmarks and lefts and rights (James MD Jr., 1998).  One particular study I read investigated age and gender differences in different orientation strategies.

Lui et al. used an online battery, or a series of 6 tests, to test for different orientation strategies.  There was the Landmark Recognition test which assessed the ability to recognize landmarks encountered during navigation; the Left/Right Orientation test which assessed the ability to learn a route by following left/right body turns without any landmarks; the Path Reversal test which assessed the ability to recognized the ability to go back to starting point without landmarks; the Heading Orientation test which  evaluated the ability of the individual to perform a route based on left/right turns associated with selective landmarks; and finally the last two, Cognitive Map Formation and the Cognitive Map Use test, which assessed the ability of individuals to form and make use of mental representation of the environment. 634 volunteers participated in the testing and were scored on the number of correct responses during each individual test.  Men were able to form and make use of cognitive maps better than women, so they had a better mental representation of the environment (Liu et al., 2011).  Men performing better spatially made sense to me since I remember learning in my NBB 302 class that men generally have a slightly larger parietal cortex, relating to improved performance on spatial tasks.  Liu et al. also made a new observation that men performed better in the path reversal test.  They explained how it is novel, but it is consistent with the knowledge that men process distance/metric information better than women during navigation (Liu et al., 2011).

I was surprised that men and women performed equally on the Landmark Recognition test.  The lack of variation between the genders could have been due to the fact that it was a virtual navigation, and the participants never actively navigated.  Liu et al. did recognize that active and passive learning of spatial environments could lead to different performance data and that further studies could be performed.

Overall I understood how men essentially have a spatial map in their head when following directions which probably accounts for their sense of direction.  One thing I know for sure is I did not have to look at the map again once we started off for the restaurant, and Kris stopped twice.   I’m sticking with using landmarks…

Cheers to your birthday Kris!

~Sarah Harrington

James MD Jr. E-LC, Rebecca AS, Rhonda M (1998) Spatial Ability, Navigation Strategy, and Geographic Knowledge Among Men and Women. Evolution & Human Behavior 19:89-98.

Liu I, Levy RM, Barton JJ, Iaria G (2011) Age and gender differences in various topographical orientation strategies. Brain research 1410:112-119.

It’s 9:30 in the morning and I’m sitting in class listening to this old geezer talk about neuroscience. This is even more disheartening since I am in Paris over the summer break. As we touch upon genetic engineering, my mind takes this weird but quick neuronal pathway from genetic engineering to genes then jeans and finally shopping at the Avenue des Champs-Elysees. What a great time that was. We stopped by the Laduree and picked up some of the best macaroons in Paris. As I was falling deeper into the pleasures of my mind, I hear arguments over ethical reasons against pre-implantation genetic diagnosis from the other neuroscience students which quickly snaps me back to reality. I try to refocus my attention to the discussion at hand so I can put my two cents in for the day. As much as I love talking about enhancing the human race, my mind has the tendency to wander the streets of Paris.

The blue is the Accent center where my class is. The red is where my mind is, avenue des Champs-Elysees.

When my mind wanders, it isn’t a conscious choice (at least for the most part). It feels like sudden jolt of random associations till I get a sustained daydream or I realize I am wandering and stop. The default network is the culprit here. It is a network of brain regions that is known to become active during wakeful rest which is associated with mind wandering. In a default network study, subjects were trained to meditate by focusing on their breathing. They were then placed into an fMRI machine that measures brain activity via changes in blood flow. As soon as the subjects noticed their mind wandering away, they pressed a button and drew their attention back to their breathing. During the wandering stage, the fMRI revealed activity in the default network such as the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), which is known to integrate all sorts of sensory information. Another part of the default network is the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) which is known to attribute mental states such as desires to oneself and others (theory of the mind) (Hasenkamp et al., 2012). As the subjects drew attention back to their breaths, the default network shuts off and a cluster in the dorsolateral prefrontal region remains active. This region is responsible for high cognitive processes such as organization, planning, etc…. It makes sense that your dorsolateral prefrontal region turns off when your mind wanders since there is no need for the higher processes when you’re not actively thinking.

Thus during the first 10 minutes of every morning lecture, my dorsolateral prefrontal cortex is highly active and maintained. Then, perhaps due to fatigue or boredom, my dorsolateral prefrontal activity starts to wane and my default network kicks in. I am now suddenly at the top of the Eiffel tower, taking in the beautiful scenery. At some point I realize I’m in class and my dorsolateral prefrontal cortex reactivates and my default network becomes quiet again. Whether the activity of the default network causes one to wander or vice versa is unknown. However I personally believe that the over activation of my default network is what causes me to lose crucial participation points in my class.

~James Eun

Hasenkamp W, Wilson-Mendenhall CD, Duncan E, Barsalou LW (2012) Mind wandering and attention during focused meditation: a fine-grained temporal analysis of fluctuating cognitive states. NeuroImage 59:750-760.

Visiting the Pont de Arts bridge in front of the Institut de France in Paris will leave you with a sense of true French “amour.” On father’s day, I had the opportunity to see the bridge up close. Despite seeing plenty of couples taking wedding pictures in front of the Eiffel Tower, buying macaroons at Laduree on the Avenue des Champs-Élysées, and enjoying an afternoon together in the gardens at the Palace of Versailles, the romance of this city hadn’t quite hit me. The instant I walked on to this bridge, I didn’t even notice the gorgeous view because I couldn’t see anything past the chain-linked railings on either side. I think I’m just starting to understand why Paris is known as the city of love.

Looking at the Institut de France from the Pont de Arts bridge

On either side of the bridge, you will see thousands of locks that have been secured to the railings. The locks are on every grate all the way up from the bridge planks to the top of the fence. From a distance, the sides of the bridge appear to be completely opaque. I was actually worried that there might not be room to put more locks somewhere along the grates overlooking the Seine. To make sure the love that the lock represents lasts forever, the tradition is to throw the keys over the bridge and into the river after you secure the lock to the bridge. While this may be an act of littering, I guess the French disregard it for the sake of romance.

While plenty of couples do this to ensure their relationship will last forever, plenty of people do it for their families as well. As a girl who has grown up in a big family, I can never imagine life without them. My childhood was filled with memories at our lake cabin in Wisconsin, vacations to places like Colorado, Canada, and Grand Cayman, and most importantly, partying like pirates on Halloween. To sum up my feelings in a few short words, my mom is more than my best friend and my dad is larger than life. I can’t forget my amazing sisters Carley and Kris, and my best brother Tim too. (I promise I’ll get to talking about how this relates to neuroscience, and ignore the shoutouts if you want, but being in a city thriving on emotion has me feeling very sentimental!)

In order to recognize the faces of people that you are familiar with, your brain has created special networks for processing this visual information (Arsalidou et al., 2010). This especially holds true for the faces of parents. On either side of the brain, people have two areas known as the fusiform gyri that are thought to help recognize faces (Barton et al., 2002). The fusiform gyrus on the right side of the brain has been noted to be especially important in recognizing facial configuration (Barton et al., 2002). When this part of the brain is damaged, people present symptoms of prosopagnosia and cannot recognize faces (Barton et al., 2002). Due to an underlying emotional connection children typically have with their parents, other areas of the brain beyond the fusiform gyrus have been implicated in recognizing the two familiar faces of their parents (Arsalidou et al., 2010).

The highlighted part shows the fusiform gyrus

One of the cruxes of the study of parental face recognition performed by Arsalidou and associates in 2010 hinged upon the subjects growing up living with both parents, having both parents alive at the time of the study, and remaining in regular contact with their parents (Arsalidou et al., 2010). For people who grew up raised by another important adult figures, these areas of the brain may or may not be activating in the same way, but that was not considered as a part of this study (Arsalidou et al., 2010). The areas of the brain that activated when looking at the faces were measured by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) (Arsalidou et al., 2010). fMRI is a non-invasive way to measure the change in blood flow to certain regions in the brain; areas with the most blood flow are considered to be the most activated during a specific task.

When looking at pictures of their mother, the subjects’ fMRI scans showed the most parts of the brain being activated compared to all other presented faces (Arsalidou et al., 2010). This extensive activation suggests that the mother’s face is the most important face a person can recognize (Arsalidou et al., 2010). Many structures including the middle temporal gyrus and inferior frontal gyrus were activated in comparison to known, but not personally relevant, celebrity female faces (Arsalidou et al., 2010). These areas of the brain are located near the fusiform gyrus within the temporal lobe, which is located on the side of the brain (Arsalidou et al., 2010). The activation of the middle temporal and inferior frontal gyrus when looking at your mother’s face, areas thought to be related to processing recognition of your own face, seems to show that there may be an overlap in processing both the face of your mother and the appearance of your own face (Arsalidou et al., 2010). This may be due to an overlap between memories of your mother with memories you have of yourself given the very strong emotional attachment between mother and child (Arsalidou et al., 2010).

The highlighted part shows the temporal lobe

The faces of fathers specifically activated the caudate when compared to other known, but not personally applicable, celebrity males (Arsalidou et al., 2010). The caudate is a brain area associated with the memory of feelings of love or reward (Arsalidou et al., 2010). This brain structure was also active when the subjects looked at their mothers’ faces; however, other brain structures were more predominantly active than the caudate (Arsalidou et al., 2010). The caudate appears to contribute to a feeling of endearment we have towards our parents (Arsalidou et al., 2010).

The highlighted structure is the caudate

To sum up the findings, distinct patterns of areas in your brain are activated when you see the faces of people you are attached to, like your mother and father. From an evolutionary standpoint, this is very important for recognizing the people who will love and take care of you from every single other person in the world (Arsalidou et al., 2010). Greater activation when looking at your mother’s face may be due to the extensive emotional memory connection between a mother and child (Arsalidou et al., 2010). Significant activation in the caudate from seeing your father’s face may indicate our feeling of paternal love (Arsalidou et al., 2010). These patterns of activation are very important to a human being given the highly social nature of our species and how much we are emotionally attached to the people who raise us.

So, for the two people who have loved me more than anyone else in the world, I happily left a lock on the bridge. While I can’t wait to return home and have my brain activated in the specific patterns that only looking at the faces of my mother and father can do, I have a new appreciation of the amount of love shown in various ways throughout this city. I plan on enjoying every aspect of my last two weeks here, and hope to stumble upon more treasures like this bridge. No one in my family has ventured to Europe before I took this trip, and I hope that I can someday bring them back to show them the lock I left on the bridge for all of us.

Lots and lots of locks

One in a million

Sending my love all the way back to the crazy, fun, and cortically irreplaceable family I have back in Minnesota,

~ Emily Aidan Berthiaume

Works Cited

Arsalidou, M., Barbeau, E. J., Bayless, S. J., Taylor, M. J. (2010) Brain responses differ to faces of mothers and fathers. Brain and Cognition 74:47-51.

Barton, J. J.S., Press, D. Z., Keenan, J. P., O’Connor, M. (2002) Lesions of the fusiform face area impair perception of facial configuration in prosopagnosia. Neurology 58:71-78.

The Pont de Arts bridge is located to the right of the word "Seine" on the river