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题为音乐神经生物学的会议将审查科学工作的增加，这是由音乐提供了更好地了解人脑的独特机会这一想法推动的。就像语言一样，音乐存在于所有人类社会中。就像语言一样，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，与人脑的大多数其他高级功能不同，只有少数人通过明确的辅导成为熟练的音乐家，尽管大多数人在生命早期就对音乐结构产生了敏感，而不是有意识地努力。这次会议的目标是将致力于音乐的顶尖科学家聚集在一起，他们使用了认知科学和神经科学的各种不同方法。这次会议的创新之处将是支持跨学科和方法论的融合，将演讲分成七大主题：一、音乐的起源所有社会都有音乐。它并不是由一些群体发明的，而是传播到了其他群体，比如字母书写系统。相反，音乐似乎自发地出现在人类社会的所有形式中。此外，在人类进化中，这种出现并不是最近的事情。音乐最早出现在四、八万年前。音乐能力在婴儿期表现出来，早在四到六个月大的时候，婴儿就可能表现出处理音乐特有的听觉模式方面的倾向。i.音乐的神经元大脑的神经硬件允许所有音乐过程的发生，但也限制了与音乐相关的知觉和运动功能。反过来，音乐行为也改变了神经模式。神经结构决定音乐结构并与之相互作用的具体方式是争论的主题。ii.音乐心灵音乐不是一个人具有或没有的单一功能；它涉及在很大程度上由非音乐家和音乐家共享的多个处理系统。为了将这些能力映射到人脑上，我们必须知道哪些能力是基本的，以及它们是如何功能组织的。3.音乐大脑理解听觉过程的第一步发生在19世纪末。有大量证据表明，音乐知觉沿着几个处理组件进行分离，每个处理组件可能在大脑中有不同的定位。为了正确地描绘大脑中的音乐功能，科学家现在正在使用一系列技术，例如大脑成像(MRI和PET)来可视化正常音乐大脑的功能方面。音乐作为一种情感语言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来研究，但很少将其作为一种情感语言来研究。最近的研究表明，音乐引发的一些情绪既可以通过实验研究，也可以在不同的个体之间保持相对一致。此外，情绪与大脑和生理反应有关，这些反应可能是该领域特有的。五、音乐专长/大脑可塑性音乐提供了研究早学习和晚学习对大脑可塑性的影响的机会。研究表明，初级运动皮质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接受区的形状或大小可能与特定的音乐技能相关。关键的问题是具体说明这些大脑的变化在多大程度上赋予音乐家质量上的收益，从而帮助我们理解音乐天赋的本质。VI.音乐的模块化我们把音乐视为一个自治的系统，有自己的操作规则。这种模块化立场并不是所有人都认同的。对于其他人来说，音乐既没有特定的大脑部位，也没有计算的特异性。这些对立立场的主要支持者将为自己的观点辩护。

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.