Exploring the pathways to meaning in music using EEG and fMRI

old_uid2483
titleExploring the pathways to meaning in music using EEG and fMRI
start_date2007/03/21
schedule10h
onlineno
location_infobât. Laboratoire de recherche, 3e étage, salle de réunion (laboratoire de virologie)
summaryWhether music is capable of communicating meaning is a question musicians and scholars have debated for centuries. Recent neuroscientific evidence suggests that under certain constrained circumstances, music can prime meaningful semantic concepts. The present data discusses several issues arising out of this previous study: (1) Do basic musical features, such as auditory roughness, possess semantic properties? (2) Given the different nature of auditory input, can we entertain the possibility of musical meaning being represented in a similar way to meaning in language? and (3) What is the possibility of meaning in non-referential musical pieces? Using EEG and fMRI in both musicians and nonmusicians, we have been able to provide some tentative answers to these issues suggesting that musical expertise plays a dominant role in the representation of musical meaning, whereas non-referential music appears to be meaningful to all listeners familiar with Western music.
responsiblesGrimault