Mauricio Loureiro

Long-term musical training may improve different forms of visual attention ability

Many studies have suggested that structural and functional cerebral neuroplastic processes result from long-term musical training, which in turn may produce cognitive differences between musicians and non-musicians. We aimed to investigate whether intensive, long-term musical practice is associated with improvements in three different forms of visual attention ability: selective, divided and sustained attention. Musicians from symphony orchestras (n=38) and non-musicians (n=38), who were comparable in age, gender and education, were submitted to three neuropsychological tests, measuring reaction time and accuracy. Musicians showed better performance relative to non-musicians on four variables of the three visual attention tests, and such an advantage could not solely be explained by better sensorimotor integration. Moreover, in the group of musicians, significant correlations were observed between the age at the commencement of musical studies and reaction time in all visual attention tests. The results suggest that musicians present augmented ability in different forms of visual attention, thus illustrating the possible cognitive benefits of long-term musical training.

Musical training, neuroplasticity and cognition

The influence of music on the human brain has been recently investigated in numerous studies. Several investigations have shown that structural and functional cerebral neuroplastic processes emerge as a result of long-term musical training, which in turn may produce cognitive differences between musicians and non-musicians. Musicians can be considered ideal cases for studies on brain adaptation, due to their unique and intensive training experiences. This article presents a review of recent findings showing positive effects of musical training on non-musical cognitive abilities, which probably reflect plastic changes in brains of musicians.

Motion Analysis of Clarinet Performers

In this work we evaluate the gesture consistency of 13 clarinetists during several performances. The goal is to establish an objective relation between their expressive gestural patterns and the music structure of two selected excerpts, by Mozart and Brahms. We present a method to represent, segment and analyse the patterns of recurrence on motion data during musical performances. Physical gestures were extracted during clarinet performances and analysed based on gestural features, comparing different musicians, musical passages and experimental conditions. The gestural aspects of the performances were related to the music structure and its expressive content. Results indicate recurrent sequences of clarinet gestures in regions of the excerpts that were shown to be related to key musical moments.

Representing timbre dynamics of a musical instrument: comparison between GA and PCA

The time-varying spectral characteristics of clarinet sounds were used to build maps with the purpose of representing the great variety of sounds a musical instrument may produce. A database of notes performed in several intensities and covering all the extension of the clarinet was used. This work compares two kinds of orthogonal bases used to create a sound map from time-varying curves of sound partials. The first mapping was derived by principal component analysis and the second was created using multiple wavetable synthesis (MWS) and genetic algorithms. These bases defined spectral sub-spaces capable of representing and grouping all tested sounds, which were validated by auditory tests. Sub-spaces involving larger groups of notes were used to compare the sounds according to the distance metrics of the representation

A Individualidade Musical Na Performance: Conceitos Teóricos, Estratégias Metodológicas E Perspectivas

A individualidade em uma performance musical esta relacionada ao conjunto das caracteristicas comuns as diferentes performances realizadas pelo mesmo musico, a partir das quais e possivel para os ouvintes distinguir o individuo que a realizou. Neste texto, apresentamos alguns estudos importantes que investigam a individualidade musical na performance, e discutimos conceitos teoricos, estrategias metodologicas e resultados importantes ja obtidos a respeito do assunto. A discussao tem como foco trabalhos que tratam da individualidade diretamente, assim como a analise de diferencas individuais em performances e a identificacao automatica de musicos. Primeiramente apresentamos uma reflexao a respeito do que e exatamente a individualidade na performance, e atraves de que meios ela pode ser comunicada/percebida. Em seguida sao discutidos alguns aspectos e desafios do estudo da individualidade na musica popular e erudita, dificuldades metodologicas e as diferencas tipicamente existentes entre performances individuais e em grupo. Por fim, tracamos algumas perspectivas e especulacoes a respeito das possiveis aplicacoes de tais conhecimentos na criacao, escuta e educacao musical.