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New neuroscience research uncovers the brain’s unique musical processing pathways

A new study by researchers at UC San Francisco provides new insight into how the brain processes musical melodies. Through precise mapping of the cerebral cortex, the study uncovered that our brains process music by not only discerning pitch and the direction of pitch changes but also by predicting the sequence of upcoming notes, each task managed by distinct sets of neurons. The findings have been published in Science Advances.

Previous research had established that our brains possess specialized mechanisms for processing speech sounds, particularly in recognizing pitch changes that convey meaning and emotion. The researchers hypothesized that a similar, perhaps specialized, set of neurons might exist for music, dedicated to predicting the sequence of notes in a melody, akin to how certain neurons predict speech sounds.

“Music is both uniquely human and universally human. Studying the neuroscience of music can therefore reveal something fundamental about what it means to be human,” said lead author Narayan Sankaran, a postdoctoral fellow in the Kavli Center for Ethics, Science, and the Public at UC Berkeley, who conducted the study while a researcher in the lab of UCSF’s Edward Chang.

METROPOLIS — Fritz Lang — New Version 2022 — 3 Hours — New English Intertitles & Music Soundtrack 4K

METROPOLIS a film by Fritz Lang — Version “Cobra — 2022” — 4K Remastered — 60fps — Also available on UHD 4K download!

Re-edited \& Reframed — New Time Mapping (some technical considerations below):
New Intertitles \& English Adaptation — Screenplay by Maximianno Cobra.

Music — Original Score and Soundtrack (2022)
“Metropolis — Ordo ab Chao” Symphony.
by Maximianno Cobra.

Recorded by TEMPUS Collection — Europa Philharmonia Orchestra.
www.tempuscollection.com.

IMAGINARY STREAMS
Post-production \& Mastering.
www.imaginarystreams.com.

Euclid Begins its 6-Year Survey of the Dark Universe

ESA’s Euclid mission was launched in July 2023 and has already sent home test images showing that its instruments are ready to go. Now, the space telescope begins mapping huge swaths of the sky, focusing on an area for 70 minutes at a time. Throughout its 6-year mission, it will complete 40,000 of these ‘pointings’, eventually observing 1.5 billion galaxies in the sky. Astronomers will use this map to measure how dark matter and dark energy have changed over time.

NASA Europa Clipper is Packed Up for its Trip to Jupiter

A mission more than a decade in the making, NASA’s Europa Clipper is slated to greatly expand our understanding of Jupiter’s icy moon, Europa, including whether it could support life. These findings will be conducted by a suite of powerful instruments contributed by a myriad of academic and research institutions across the United States. Recently, NASA JPL finished installing all these instruments on the pioneering spacecraft, bringing it one major step closer to its launch, which is currently scheduled for October of this year.

“The instruments work together hand in hand to answer our most pressing questions about Europa,” said Dr. Robert Pappalardo, who is the project scientist on Europa Clipper. “We will learn what makes Europa tick, from its core and rocky interior to its ocean and ice shell to its very thin atmosphere and the surrounding space environment.”

The nine instruments that will be responsible for accomplishing the fantastic science during the mission include the Europa Imaging System (EIS), Europa Thermal Emission Imaging System (E-THEMIS), Europa Ultraviolet Spectrograph (Europa-UVS), Mapping Imaging Spectrometer for Europa (MISE), Europa Clipper Magnetometer (ECM), Plasma Instrument for Magnetic Sounding (PIMS), Radar for Europa Assessment and Sounding: Ocean to Near-surface (REASON), MAss Spectrometer for Planetary EXploration/Europa (MASPEX), SUrface Dust Analyzer (SUDA).

Mapping the Brain: The Largest Neuron Projectome Unveiled

Researchers mapped over 10,000 mouse hippocampal #neurons, creating the world’s most comprehensive database of single-neuron #connectivity #patterns.


Summary: Researchers unveiled the most extensive single-neuron projectome database to date, featuring over 10,000 mouse hippocampal neurons.

The study provides an unprecedented view of the spatial connectivity patterns at the mesoscopic level, crucial for understanding learning, memory, and emotional processing in the hippocampus. By employing machine learning algorithms for categorizing axonal trajectories and integrating spatial transcriptome data, researchers identified 43 distinct projectome cell types, revealing intricate projection patterns and soma locations’ correspondence to projection targets.

This work, accessible via the Digital Brain CEBSIT portal, lays the structural foundation for advancing our knowledge of hippocampal functions and their molecular underpinnings.

Google Maps experiments with generative AI to improve discovery

Google Maps is introducing a generative AI feature to help you discover new places, the company announced today.

Using large language models (LLMs), the new feature analyzes the over 250 million locations on Google Maps and contributions from over 300 million Local Guides to pull up suggestions based on what you’re looking for. For instance, if you want to find cool thrift shops in San Francisco, you can search “places with a vintage vibe in SF,” and Maps will generate shopping recommendations organized by categories, as well as “photo carousels and review summaries,” the company explains. The new feature is meant to feel more conversational than the ordinary search experience. If you ask a follow-up question like “How about lunch?” the AI will take your previous interest in vintage and find restaurants that meet the criteria, such as an old-school diner.

The company says the feature should be able to generate recommendations on even the most niche or specific query.

Bodily maps of musical sensations across cultures

“Bodily maps of musical sensations across cultures”


Emotions, bodily sensations and movement are integral parts of musical experiences. Yet, it remains unknown i) whether emotional connotations and structural features of music elicit discrete bodily sensations and ii) whether these sensations are culturally consistent. We addressed these questions in a cross-cultural study with Western (European and North American, n = 903) and East Asian (Chinese, n = 1035). We precented participants with silhouettes of human bodies and asked them to indicate the bodily regions whose activity they felt changing while listening to Western and Asian musical pieces with varying emotional and acoustic qualities. The resulting bodily sensation maps (BSMs) varied as a function of the emotional qualities of the songs, particularly in the limb, chest, and head regions.

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