Musical Memory Research Articles

Absolute Pitch Acquisition as Memory System with Its' Musical Executive Function from Cognitive Neuropsychological Perspective

Absolute (perfect) pitch is defined as the ability to identify and categorize a musical pitch - tone frequency by its name in the musical equal temperament tuning system without an external reference tone.  The article presents absolute pitch process as long-term working semantic musical memory with musical executive function included in musical practical activity, with the description of similarities between music and language structure in music cognitive neuropsychology studies’ evidence, as a background for cognitive neuropsychological possibilities of its generally available development. The article describes methodological assumptions’ content of empirically developed aural behavioral psychological memory training method ‘absolute pitch ecological practical activity’ (APEPA) for childhood and youth age, based on working memory span, aural cognitive learning ability in music education and performance activity, in cognitive music neuropsychology field.Â

Early Deafened, Late Implanted Cochlear Implant Users Appreciate Music More Than and Identify Music as Well as Postlingual Users.

Introduction: Typical cochlear implant (CI) users, namely postlingually deafened and implanted, report to not enjoy listening to music, and find it difficult to perceive music. Another group of CI users, the early-deafened (during language acquisition) and late-implanted (after a long period of auditory deprivation; EDLI), report a higher music appreciation, but is this related to a better music perception?Materials and Methods: Sixteen EDLI and fifteen postlingually deafened (control group) CI users participated in the study. The inclusion criteria for EDLI were: severe or profound hearing loss onset before the age of 6 years, implantation after the age of 16 years, and CI experience more than 1 year. Subjectively, music perception and appreciation was evaluated using the Dutch Musical Background Questionnaire. Behaviorally, music perception was measured with melodic contour identification (MCI), using two instruments (piano and organ), each tested with and without a masking contour. Semitone distance between successive tones of the target varied from 1 to 3 semitones.Results: Subjectively, the EDLI group reported to appreciate music more than postlingually deafened CI users. Behaviorally, while clinical phoneme recognition test score on average was lower in the EDLI group, melodic contour identification did not significantly differ between the two groups. There was, however, an effect of instrument and masker for both groups; the piano was the best-recognized instrument, and for both instruments, the masker with non-overlapping pitch was best recognized.Discussion: EDLI group reported higher appreciation of music than postlingual control group, even though behaviorally measured music perception did not differ significantly between the two groups. Both surprising findings since EDLI CI users would be expected to have lower outcomes based on the early deafness onset, long duration of auditory deprivation, and on average lower clinical speech scores. Perhaps, the music perception difficulty comes from similar electric hearing limitations in both groups. The higher subjective appreciation in EDLI might be due to the lack of a musical memory, with no ability to compare music heard via the CI to acoustic music perception. Overall, our findings support a benefit from implantation for a positive music experience in EDLI CI users.

Remembering Armenian music in Bolis: Komitas Vardapet in transcultural perspective

This article explores the relationship between music, memory and transcultural processes in late Ottoman Istanbul by studying the writings of the Armenian composer and musicologist Komitas Vardapet (1869–1935). It describes the changing political and intellectual landscape in which Komitas and his contemporaries redefined the collective musical memory of the Armenian people through a process of secularisation and internationalisation. I argue that there was a shift from local transculturalism, in which musical memories were to some extent shared between different ethnic and confessional groups in the Ottoman Empire, to a more global and modern transculturalism, in which consciously differentiated and often antagonistic national musical memories were constructed and disseminated across non-local spaces through new media and discursive strategies. In the process, rural music practices were appropriated from their local and unofficial contexts by urban, cosmopolitan elites and purposefully inscribed as monuments of Armenian cultural memory which have endured to the present.

Music and dreams: A review

The purpose of this paper is to review scientific studies of music dreams and also touch the area of creative music dreams, i.e., dreams inspiring new music. Different types of music dream categories will be defined. In large sample, the percentage of music dreams in relation to all remembered dreams ranges from 4% to 8%. The literature indicates that musicians tend to experience more music dreams than non-musicians. The positive correlation between musical activities in waking life and music dream percentage supports the continuity hypothesis of dreaming. Also in line with the continuity hypothesis are the findings that music dreams are more positively toned than dreams in general. As research regarding this topic is still in its infancy, there are several interesting topics for the future studies, e.g., incubating creative music dreams, stimulating the sleeper with music, or the relationship between music and sleep-dependent memory consolidation.

Music-Evoked Reward and Emotion: Relative Strengths and Response to Intervention of People With ASD.

This review presents research findings showing that music is a unique domain to assess perception, reward, emotion, and associated physiological reactions and neural circuitry of people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). There is growing evidence, reported in several studies in this review article, indicating that music is a relative strength of people with ASD including musical pitch perception, musical memory, and identification of music-evoked emotions. Listening to music activates neural circuits of reward and emotion response, which are described. Research presented shows adults with ASD also activate these systems when listening to music, although there may be developmental differences in the physiological and neural response to music in childhood and adolescence alongside typical behavioral response. Nonetheless, studies reviewed lend support to the use of music therapy and education for people with ASD, specifically to improve social skills and communication. Neural correlates of response to music therapy and education are also discussed. Taken together, findings reviewed provide evidence for music as a strength-based approach for ASD to assess reward and emotion response and as a powerful tool for intervention.

The lifetime soundtrack ‘on the move’: Music, autobiographical memory and mobilities

Music can easily become associated with many activities in everyday life, often recorded within personal memory archives, sometimes maintaining a personal meaning across the lifetime. This article convenes on the interactions between music, memory and mobilities, as it explores the recollection of musical memories that incorporate both music mobilities and corporeal mobilities related to personal travel and movement. Drawing on empirical interview data, this research seeks to understand how music can both accompany and signify acts of ‘being mobile’, where unique conditions of time and space provide for the formation of musical memories. Concurrently, the article considers how autobiographical remembering is affected by the dual activities of music listening and travel, through the conceptual lens of the ‘lifetime soundtrack’. Contrasting with previous research, the memory narratives presented here reveal diversity in the way music, memory and mobilities are simultaneously enacted, and looks to the long-term significance such memories may hold for individuals.

Design of Artificial Music Intelligence System Based on Fuzzy Perception Learning

The music intelligence of simulated human is of great significance in the research of music informatics. The purpose of this paper is to establish a formal system for describing music intelligence from the perspective of music memory-perception relationship, namely artificial music intelligent system. First, music intelligence is defined as the memory-perception ability of music elements, and a music intelligent system based on music memory mapping and music perception inversion is established by applying the principle of relational mapping-inversion. Secondly, from the perspective of music memory-perception fuzziness, music intelligence index based on fuzzy memory-perception and non-fuzzy memory-perception is proposed, and the solution method is given. Finally, a learning model of music intelligent system is established. Research shows that artificial music intelligence system is a kind of learning system of fuzzy memory-perception, the learning system embodies the basic characteristics of the music nervous system of the human brain, and to establish the artificial music intelligence system to explore people’s music intelligence, improve people’s music cognitive ability and value of music research has far-reaching significance.

Lingering Sound: Event-Related Phase-Amplitude Coupling and Phase-Locking in Fronto-Temporo-Parietal Functional Networks During Memory Retrieval of Music Melodies.

Brain oscillations and connectivity have emerged as promising measures of evaluating memory processes, including encoding, maintenance, and retrieval, as well as the related executive function. Although many studies have addressed the neural mechanisms underlying working memory, most of these studies have focused on the visual modality. Neurodynamics and functional connectivity related to auditory working memory are yet to be established. In this study, we explored the dynamic of high density (128-channel) electroencephalography (EEG) in a musical delayed match-to-sample task (DMST), in which 36 participants were recruited and were instructed to recognize and distinguish the target melodies from similar distractors. Event-related spectral perturbations (ERSPs), event-related phase-amplitude couplings (ERPACs), and phase-locking values (PLVs) were used to determine the corresponding brain oscillations and connectivity. First, we observed that low-frequency oscillations in the frontal, temporal, and parietal regions were increased during the processing of both target and distracting melodies. Second, the cross-frequency coupling between low-frequency phases and high-frequency amplitudes was elevated in the frontal and parietal regions when the participants were distinguishing between the target from distractor, suggesting that the phase-amplitude coupling could be an indicator of neural mechanisms underlying memory retrieval. Finally, phase-locking, an index evaluating brain functional connectivity, revealed that there was fronto-temporal phase-locking in the theta band and fronto-parietal phase-locking in the alpha band during the recognition of the two stimuli. These findings suggest the existence of functional connectivity and the phase-amplitude coupling in the neocortex during musical memory retrieval, and provide a highly resolved timeline to evaluate brain dynamics. Furthermore, the inter-regional phase-locking and phase-amplitude coupling among the frontal, temporal and parietal regions occurred at the very beginning of musical memory retrieval, which might reflect the precise timing when cognitive resources were involved in the retrieval of targets and the rejection of similar distractors. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first EEG study employing a naturalistic task to study auditory memory processes and functional connectivity during memory retrieval, results of which can shed light on the use of natural stimuli in studies that are closer to the real-life applications of cognitive evaluations, mental treatments, and brain-computer interface.

Verbal and Musical Short-Term Memory: Evidence for Shared Serial Order Processes?

This study explored the validity of an integrative framework for verbal and musical short-term memory (STM). Following this framework, access to domain-specific long-term knowledge bases supports the processing of musical and verbal item information in STM, while domain-general ordering processes support the representation of serial order information in the two domains. We exposed participants to verbal and musical STM tasks assessing either item information, order information, or both item and order information. Using an interindividual differences approach, we observed that performance in item-based STM tasks was not strongly associated between musical and verbal domains. In contrast, strong between-domain associations were observed for STM tasks assessing processing of verbal order and musical rhythm information. These preliminary results are overall in agreement with an integrative approach of verbal and musical STM. At the same time, the results highlight the difficulty of measuring serial order processing in the musical STM domain in a direct and specific manner.

Experiencing polyphonic music may enhance memories retention

Background and Aim: Early experience, prov­ide opportunity for later associative experiential learning by affecting multisensory systems. This phenomenon may because of the influences which sensory stimuli as sounds would have on non-auditory neural centers rather than just dep-loying hearing system, so the question is wheth­er music as a kind of complex sound source, could help in general cognitive functions such as memory circuits or, conversely, it acts as a distracting factor. This study was investigated the effect of auditory experience with special kind of music, called polyphonic music, on auditory, visual and logical memories function. Methods: Forty volunteers with normal hear­ing, aged 18 to 40 years, were participated in this experimental study. They were performed with Ray auditory verbal learning test, Kim Karad visual memory test, and Wechsler logical memory subtest in two states: no-music con­dition and music condition with a polyphonic piece as background music. Memory functions in these two conditions, and the effect of gender on performances, were compared between con­ditions. Results: Polyphonic music significantly inc­reased auditory, visual and logical memory performance compared with the no-music con­ditions (p < 0.05). No significant difference bet­ween genders was found in memory tasks in both music and no-music conditions (p > 0.05). Conclusion: It seems that presence of poly­phonic music while people had enough auditory experience about it, impress memory perfor­mance. It is possibly owning to multisensory functions of brain and the effect of auditory experiences on cognitive system.

"To Gild Refined Gold," or What Mozart Didn't Want Us to Embellish

The question of adding embellishments in music performance is generally regarded from a primarily practical perspective. In this article I make a case for embellishments as an object of music-theoretical inquiry in their own right. While exploring this question mainly in conjunction with Mozart's music for solo piano, I address the more fundamental question of what makes a given moment in the music suitable for added ornamentation. Tolerance to embellishment is defined as a quality of the melodic surface tantamount to the flexibility and exchangeability of melodic formulations with variants. Thus defined, only some of the embellishments notated by composers are indicative of a flexible melodic surface (optional embellishments), whereas others are shown to be irreducible owing to their participation in substantive thematic processes (obligatory embellishments). My investigation focuses on embellishments introduced in sonata-form recapitulations and other types of recapitulatory restatements (e. g., the return of the refrain in the rondo form). A movement's form and tempo are shown to affect its amenability to added ornamentation. At a local level, I draw on aspects of music perception and musical memory to account for a correlation between a passage's temporal position in the movement and its suitability for added embellishments. I conclude by pointing to a Mozart-specific category of unembellishable motives, demonstrably intended by the composer to be performed with no decoration. Engaging in a dialogue with Robert Levin's recorded embellished version of the slow movement of Mozart's Piano Concerto in A major, K. 488, this primarily theoretical discussion also leads to some tentative practical implications for performance.

Preservation of Musical Memory Throughout the Progression of Alzheimer's Disease? Toward a Reconciliation of Theoretical, Clinical, and Neuroimaging Evidence.

Through this review of 25 clinical and experimental works on long-term musical memories in Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients, we attempt to clarify the conceptual understanding of musical memories, identify their evolution across the stages of the pathology, and propose possible explanations concerning the neural and cognitive mechanisms that underpin the preservation and impairment of certain musical memories. After clarifying the different kind of musical memories, we investigated their alterations throughout AD's progression from mild to severe stages. Both procedural and retrograde semantic memory seem relatively spared in AD, while episodic memory appears to be impaired early. Moreover, partial preservation of music encoding in AD can be revealed through paradigms that are especially designed for AD patients (relying on behavioral cues, using adapted settings, etc.). Although seldomly used, they would definitely help understanding the preserved capacities in every stage of AD. However, more research is needed to better understand this phenomenon and assess its specificity to music or other types of supports. These findings could lead to multiple applications in care settings and research designs, bringing more nuanced understanding of how long-term musical memory degrades throughout the course of AD, and should encourage us to prioritize patients' preserved cognitive abilities in current AD recreational and care programs.

L’Orfeo: memory, recollection, and the tragedy of choosing between seeing and hearing

In the contrast between seeing and hearing at the centre of the myth of Orpheus, the duality of memory and recollection, in Aristotelian terms, emerges, allowing us to reconsider the role of Eurydice in Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo . When Orpheus, in a moment of frenzy and forgetfulness, turns back towards Eurydice he chooses the visibility of the eye over the audibility of the ear. The process of active recollection of the past, which he had initiated with the canzonetta Vi ricorda o boschi ombrosi , ends with the failure of music and the inability to retain the object of his love. Conversely, Eurydice’s words – Ahi, vista troppo dolce – after Orpheus looks at her, reveals a musical connection to past moments. In this way, her singing is the embodiment of the power of music and it creates a musical memory to which Orpheus does not have access.

Music, Memory and Memoir: Critical and creative engagement with an emerging genre

In this article, we outline and explore a plural and flexible methodology for engaging with the contemporary music memoir. These are texts in which narrative experimentation and self-conscious interrogations of voice shape content. They are texts that blur and blend the lines between memory, storytelling and myth. They offer a literate and culturally engaged reader the opportunity to shape their own musical histories and memories. We view these titles as a new and emerging genre. Our work, which we are developing in a forthcoming edited collection entitled Music, Memory and Memoir, approaches this fluid genre with a fluid methodology. We combine scholarly rigor and critical analysis in our readings of text but these combine with an open-ended and reflexive approach to our own critical and cultural voices.

The functional neuroanatomy of musical memory in Alzheimer's disease

BackgroundMemory for music has attracted much recent interest in Alzheimer's disease but the underlying brain mechanisms have not been defined in patients directly. Here we addressed this issue in an Alzheimer's disease cohort using activation fMRI of two core musical memory systems. MethodsWe studied 34 patients with younger onset Alzheimer's disease led either by episodic memory decline (typical Alzheimer's disease) or by visuospatial impairment (posterior cortical atrophy) in relation to 19 age-matched healthy individuals. We designed a novel fMRI paradigm based on passive listening to melodies that were either previously familiar or unfamiliar (musical semantic memory) and either presented singly or repeated (incidental musical episodic memory). ResultsBoth syndromic groups showed significant functional neuroanatomical alterations relative to the healthy control group. For musical semantic memory, disease-associated activation group differences were localised to right inferior frontal cortex (reduced activation in the group with memory-led Alzheimer's disease); while for incidental musical episodic memory, disease-associated activation group differences were localised to precuneus and posterior cingulate cortex (abnormally enhanced activation in the syndromic groups). In post-scan behavioural testing, both patient groups had a deficit of musical episodic memory relative to healthy controls whereas musical semantic memory was unimpaired. ConclusionsOur findings define functional neuroanatomical substrates for the differential involvement of musical semantic and incidental episodic memory in major phenotypes of Alzheimer's disease. The complex dynamic profile of brain activation group differences observed suggests that musical memory may be an informative probe of neural network function in Alzheimer's disease. These findings may guide the development of future musical interventions in dementia.

Striking a Chord

There is much that is lost with dementia. It has been established that whereas some other cognitive functions may be impaired, ‘procedural memory’—'implicit musical memory’—associated with singing, can remain intact even in the advanced stages of dementia. This joint piece focuses on how we can activate what remains through song, to strike a chord, both musically and as a way of keeping in touch with our intimate, core, primary relationships in life. We underline song as a modality of connection, even as we live with the changing constellations of cognitive impairment. Song is not only seen as narrative but also a carrier and a repository of memories; when lyrics of a song are remembered, autobiographical events are recalled for a while. Words or wordlessness are located within a wider bodily assemblage of performativity. Gestures, movements, objects, sounds and settings define the repertoire of song. We contribute to the field of critical dementia studies and music, both from a transnational diasporic perspective, as well as from the intimate zones of being carer-researcher daughters, searching for ways to connect with our parents as they live with dementia. This article considers the relation between song and dementia as inter-generational encounters of exchange and contact within the context of diasporic and transnational familial relations of care.

Effectiveness of Classroom Assessment Techniques in Improving Performance of Students in Music and Piano

The primary objective of this study is to determine the effectiveness of classroom assessment techniques in improving the performance of students in Music. This study used an experimental design (paired t-test) to determine the effectiveness of classroom assessment techniques in teaching Music by using purposive sampling of thirty Grade 10 students from the eight sections of Espiritu Santo Parochial School for the school year 2018-2019. The results of pre-evaluation and post-evaluation were compared to determine the effect of classroom assessment techniques on the performance of the students in Music. The results revealed that the students had a low performance in the pre-evaluation and there was an increase in the students’ performance in the post-evaluation after its implementation with a mean score of 20.77 and a standard deviation of 3.32. The value of t is 6.680 which is significant at p < .01. The result showed that there is a significant difference in the performance of students in music learning in the implementation of classroom assessment techniques. The obtained value of normalized gain (gain of average) was 0.262 inferred to a moderate gain in scores of the students in music learning. The following are the classroom assessment techniques developed and implemented by the researcher (in a large class of 35 to 40 students per class): (1) Music Concept Memory Exercise, (2) Instrumental and Vocal Schematic Processing, (3) Five-Letter Name Pitch Memory Test, and (4) Three-Chord Familiarization Assessment.

In Search of Russia: Sergei Rakhmaninov and the Politics of Musical Memory after 1917

In the aftermath of the October 1917 Revolution, pianist Sergei Rakhmaninov emerged as one of the most visible Russian émigrés. This article draws on personal correspondence from admirers both in emigration and in the Soviet Union together with published articles in the Soviet and émigré press to explore how Rakhmaninov and his music emerged as a space of memory for the lost world of imperial Russia. For émigrés seeking to adapt to life outside the borders of their lost homeland in the 1920s and 1930s, Rakhmaninov and his music came to symbolize the spiritual essence of Russianness, preserved not in the physical space of the homeland, but in the culture of the emigration. Meanwhile, in the Soviet Union Rakhmaninov embodied a past world swept away by the tumult of revolution. Though initially distinct, after the composer's 1943 death, émigré and Soviet interpretations of Rakhmaninov gradually melded into a mutually informed conception of eternalized Russianness.

Juicio emocional y procesamiento musical en pacientes con Demencia Tipo Alzheimer

La música produce reacciones emocionales intensas, similares a las que producen otros estímulos. La capacidad de procesar estímulos musicales requiere de varios componentes de procesamiento e involucra diversas regiones del cerebro. Los pacientes con Demencia Tipo Alzheimer (DTA) presentan alteraciones en la memoria episódica y deficiencias en el procesamiento emocional de los estímulos visuales. El objetivo de este estudio es llevar a cabo una revisión bibliográfica evaluativa para determinar si existen disociaciones entre el juicio emocional musical y el procesamiento de otros aspectos musicales en DTA y brindar una explicación desde los modelos teóricos y bases anatómicas implicadas.&#x0D; Los estudios mostraron que los pacientes con DTA muestran un rendimiento deficiente en algunos aspectos del procesamiento musical, como el global. A pesar de eso, se conserva el procesamiento emocional de las melodías. El componente de procesamiento emocional se conservaría en DTA. Y las áreas activadas son similares a los sujetos sanos, como el giro cingulado, el cerebelo y las áreas frontales. La música parece apuntar a procesos y áreas que se conservan en DTA. Esta revisión muestra la importancia de estudiar las emociones en la música, centrándose en lo que se conserva en DTA. Esta podría ser la clave para explicar la conservación relativa de la memoria musical en esta patología y para desarrollar tratamientos basados ​​en la música.

Ability to process musical pitch is unrelated to the memory advantage for vocal music

Listeners remember vocal melodies better than instrumental melodies, but the origins of the effect are unclear. One explanation for the ‘voice advantage’ is that general perceptual mechanisms enhance processing of conspecific signals. An alternative possibility is that the voice, by virtue of its expressiveness in pitch, simply provides more musical information to the listener. Individuals with congenital amusia provide a unique opportunity to disentangle the effects of conspecific status and vocal expressiveness because they cannot readily process subtleties in musical pitch. Forty-one participants whose musical pitch discrimination ability ranged from congenitally amusic to typical were tested. Participants heard vocal and instrumental melodies during an exposure phase, and heard the same melodies intermixed with timbre-matched foils in a recognition phase. Memory was better for vocal than instrumental melodies, but the magnitude of the advantage was unrelated to musical pitch discrimination or memory overall. The voice enhances melodic memory regardless of music perception ability, ruling out the role of pitch expressiveness in the voice advantage. More importantly, listeners across a wide range of musical ability can benefit from the privileged status of the voice.