Conference on the Neurobiology of Music; Rockefeller University; New York, New York; May 20-22, 2000

项目摘要纽约科学院会议题为音乐的神经生物学将审查增加的科学工作的动机的想法，音乐提供了一个独特的机会，以更好地了解人类的大脑。 像语言一样，音乐存在于所有人类社会中。 像语言一样，音乐是一种复杂的、受规则支配的活动，是人类特有的。 同样，音乐似乎与特定的大脑结构有关。 然而，与人类大脑的大多数其他高级功能不同，只有少数人通过明确的指导成为熟练的音乐家，尽管对音乐结构的敏感性在生命早期就发展起来了，而大多数人没有有意识的努力。 本次会议的目标是汇集正在研究音乐的领先科学家，以及使用认知科学和神经科学的各种不同方法的科学家。 会议的独创性将有利于跨学科和方法的整合，通过将七个主题下的演讲分组：音乐的起源所有的社会都有音乐。 它不是由一些团体发明并传播到其他团体，就像字母书写系统一样。 相反，音乐似乎是在人类社会的所有形式中自发出现的。 此外，这种出现在人类进化中并不是最近才出现的。 早在4万到8万年前，音乐就出现了。 音乐能力在婴儿期就表现出来了，早在四到六个月大的时候，婴儿就可能表现出对音乐特有的听觉模式的处理方面的倾向。音乐的神经元大脑的神经硬件允许所有的音乐过程发生，但也限制了与音乐相关的感知和运动功能。 反过来，音乐行为也会改变神经模式。 神经结构决定音乐结构并与音乐结构相互作用的具体方式是争论的主题。音乐不是一个单一的功能，一个人有或没有;它涉及多个处理系统，在很大程度上，由非音乐家和音乐家共享。 为了将这些能力映射到人类大脑中，我们必须知道哪些能力是必不可少的，以及它们是如何在功能上组织的。音乐大脑理解听觉过程的第一步发生在世纪后期。 有大量的证据表明，音乐感知分为沿着几个处理组件，其中每一个可能是不同的定位在大脑中。 为了正确映射大脑中的音乐功能，科学家们现在正在使用各种技术，例如大脑成像（MRI和PET）来可视化正常音乐大脑的功能方面。四.音乐作为一种情感的载体大多数实验研究都致力于将音乐结构作为一种非语言语言进行研究，但很少将其作为情感语言进行研究。 最近的研究表明，音乐引发的一些情绪既适合实验研究，又相对一致。 此外，情绪与大脑和生理反应，可能是特定的域。五，音乐专长/大脑可塑性音乐提供了机会，研究早期与晚期学习对大脑可塑性的影响。 研究表明，初级运动皮层和小脑可以通过早期的音乐练习而改变，传统上与语言相关的感受区的形状或大小可能与特定的音乐技能相关。 关键的问题是要具体说明这些大脑变化在多大程度上赋予音乐家质的收益，从而帮助我们理解音乐天赋的本质。音乐的模块化我们把音乐当作一个自治系统，有自己的运作规则。 这种模块化的立场并不是普遍认同的。 对其他人来说，音乐既没有特定的大脑部位，也没有计算特异性。 这些对立立场的主要支持者将为他们的观点辩护。

Project SummaryThe New York Academy of Sciences conference titled The Neurobiology of Music will examine the increase in scientific work motivated by the idea that music offers a unique opportunity to better understand the human brain. Like language, music exists in all human societies. Like language, music is a complex, rule-governed activity that is specific to humans. Similarly, music appears associated with specific brain architecture. However, unlike most other high-level functions of the human brain, only a minority of individuals become proficient musicians through explicit tutoring, although sensitivity to musical structure develops early in life without conscious effort in the large majority of the population. The goal of this conference is to bring together leading scientists who are working on music and who are using a wide range of different methodologies from the cognitive sciences and the neuroscience. The originality of the conference will be to favor integration across disciplines and methodologies, by grouping presentations under seven major themes:I. The Origins of MusicAll societies have music. It was not invented by some groups and spread to others, like the alphabet writing system. Instead, music seems to have emerged spontaneously in all forms of human societies. Moreover, this emergence is not recent in human evolution. Music emerged as early as 40,000 to 80,000 years ago. Music competence is exhibited in infancy, as early as four to six months of age, when infants may show a predisposition for processing aspects of auditory patterns that are specific to music.I. The Neurons of MusicThe neural hardware of the brain allows all musical processes to take place, but also constrains perceptual and motor functions relevant for music. In turn, musical behavior also changes neural pattering. The specific ways in which neural architecture determines and interacts with musical structure is the subject of debate.II. The Musical MindMusic is not a monolithic function that one has or has not; it involves multiple processing systems that are, to a large extent, shared by non-musicians and musicians alike. To map these abilities onto the human brain, we must know what abilities are essential, and how they are functionally organized.III. The Musical BrainFirst steps in understanding auditory processes occurred in the late 19th Century. There is abundant evidence that music perception fractionates along several processing components, each of which may be differentially localized in the brain. To properly map musical functions within the brain, scientists are now using a wide range of technologies, such as brain imaging (MRI and PET) to visualize functional aspects of the normal musical brain. IV. Music as an Emotional LanguageThe majority of experimental studies have been devoted to the study of musical structure as a nonverbal language, but only rarely as an emotional language. Recent work has shown that some emotions elicited by music are both amenable to study experimentally, and relatively consistent across individuals. Moreover, emotions are associated with cerebral and physiological responses that may be specific to the domain.V. Musical Expertise/Brain PlasticityMusic provides the opportunity to study the effects of early versus late learning on brain plasticity. It has been shown that the primary motor cortex and cerebellum can be modified by early practice of music, and that the shape or size of receptive areas traditionally associated with language may correlate with specific musical skills. The key question is to specify to what extent these brain changes confer qualitative gains to the musician, and hence help us to understand the nature of musical talent.VI. Modularity for MusicWe have treated music as if it were an autonomous system, having its own operational rules. This modularity position is not universally shared. For others, music has neither specific brain sites nor computational specificity. Key proponents of these opposite positions will defend their views.