Danilo Ramos

Time flies with music whatever its emotional valence.

The present study used a temporal bisection task to investigate whether music affects time estimation differently from a matched auditory neutral stimulus, and whether the emotional valence of the musical stimuli (i.e., sad vs. happy music) modulates this effect. The results showed that, compared to sine wave control music, music presented in a major (happy) or a minor (sad) key shifted the bisection function toward the right, thus increasing the bisection point value (point of subjective equality). This indicates that the duration of a melody is judged shorter than that of a non-melodic control stimulus, thus confirming that time flies when we listen to music. Nevertheless, sensitivity to time was similar for all the auditory stimuli. Furthermore, the temporal bisection functions did not differ as a function of musical mode.

Manipulating Greek musical modes and tempo affects perceived musical emotion in musicians and nonmusicians

The combined influence of tempo and mode on emotional responses to music was studied by crossing 7 changes in mode with 3 changes in tempo. Twenty-four musicians aged 19 to 25 years (12 males and 12 females) and 24 nonmusicians aged 17 to 25 years (12 males and 12 females) were required to perform two tasks: 1) listening to different musical excerpts, and 2) associating an emotion to them such as happiness, serenity, fear, anger, or sadness. ANOVA showed that increasing the tempo strongly affected the arousal (F(2,116) = 268.62, mean square error (MSE) = 0.6676, P < 0.001) and, to a lesser extent, the valence of emotional responses (F(6,348) = 8.71, MSE = 0.6196, P < 0.001). Changes in modes modulated the affective valence of the perceived emotions (F(6,348) = 4.24, MSE = 0.6764, P < 0.001). Some interactive effects were found between tempo and mode (F (1,58) = 115.6, MSE = 0.6428, P < 0.001), but, in most cases, the two parameters had additive effects. This finding demonstrates that small changes in the pitch structures of modes modulate the emotions associated with the pieces, confirming the cognitive foundation of emotional responses to music.

MUSICAL MODE AND ESTIMATION OF TIME

This study assesses whether different musical modes can influence the subjective estimation of time. The three musical stimuli, each of 64.3 sec. duration, had the same harmonic structure, although each was constructed in a different mode: Ionian (major), Aeolian (minor), or Locrian (diminished) mode. Study participants were 108 undergraduate students (56 men and 52 women) in Education (n = 41), Psychology (n = 32), or Law (n = 35), ages 17 to 35 years and nonmusicians, who were divided into three groups by the musical stimuli presented. Participants listened to the stimulus, made a temporal estimation of the stimulus duration, and provided a written verbal rating of mood state. Analysis of variance indicated the Locrian stimulus was estimated as longer than the Aeolian and Ionian stimuli which suggested the dissonant (unpleasant) stimuli was associated with a longer estimated duration than consonant (pleasant) stimuli.

Medicina convertida: entrevista com Luiza Garnelo

“De repente eu estou me sentindo uma decana dando entrevista para o pessoal da USP”, brinca Luiza Garnelo logo que chegamos para o encontro marcado. Decerto que sua extensa experiencia etnografica junto aos povos amazonicos do Rio Negro contribui para esta jocosa impressao. Como o habito faz o monge, a etnografia faz decana a antropologa, replicamos. Nascida em Manaus, Maria Luiza Garnelo Pereira formou-se bacharel em Medicina pela Universidade Federal do Amazonas (UFAM) em 1980, depois bacharel em Filosofia pela mesma instituicao em 1989, ainda mestra em Ciencias Sociais pela Pontificia Universidade Catolica de Sao Paulo (PUC-SP) em 1992, e finalmente doutora em Antropologia pela Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP) em 2002. Atualmente e pesquisadora da Fundacao Oswaldo Cruz em Manaus (FIOCRUZ) e tambem professora da UFAM. Especialista em antropologia da saude, Garnelo estuda os sistemas tradicionais de doenca e cura de populacoes indigenas do Alto Rio Negro, em especial dos Baniwa. Medica convertida em antropologa, contudo nao abandonou aquela atividade em suas frequentes estadas em campo. Notavel trajetoria ambidestra, tambem de engajamentos e reflexoes, que podemos captar nesta entrevista realizada em Sao Paulo, setembro de 2009.