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The Digital Brain

July 28th, 2009

NewScientist has an article, Evesdropping on the Music of the Brain, in which they described how philosopher Dan Lloyd created software that gave a musical interpretation to signals generated by a functional MRI. While brain music is interesting by itself, NewScientist asked if there could be other uses for the information presented in this way.

Could identifying such aural differences ever be useful? Daniel Levitin, a neuroscientist at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, thinks they might. He says brain music’s killer application might be in allowing researchers to home in on patterns that suggest a particular region is interesting and that wouldn’t be detectable using the eye alone. They could analyse these regions more closely using conventional imaging.

His colleague Didier Grandjean at the University of Geneva in Switzerland says that brain music might help identify temporal patterns in particular. “Melodies are a much better way to build complex mental representations over time than anything the eye can do,” he says.

I can imagine that the visualization (MRI pictures) and the “music” could be useful for bio-feedback as well as for diagnosis. For example, the TED Conference has a four minute video by Christopher deCharms on using MRI to control your brain in order to manage your pain.

Coaching moment: As medical diagnostic and interpretive procedures become more creative and useful, we are at greater risk for being denied medical insurance or benefits, or otherwise marginalized by our records. This is a most important time to make your voice heard in the health care matter that is being discussed in Congress right now. Do you want health care that is based on risk (calculated by your insurers) or based on your health? Here’s a link to find out about the proposed health care legislation or to identify and contact your senators and representatives. I strongly urge you to speak for yourself on this issue.

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