Does the brain naturally compose melodies to rival those by Mozart or Chopin? Researchers at the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) think so. What鈥檚 more, they suggest that piano renditions of an individual鈥檚 cerebral music can help in dealing with insomnia and fatigue in the aftermath of a stressful experience. Psychologists, however, are sceptical of their claims.
The DHS researchers on the programme and in the hope to record the brain鈥檚 natural activity during periods of calm or alertness. 鈥� a company specialising in neurotraining in Purcellville, Virginia 鈥� will convert the signal into an audible polyphonic melody. Individuals will be asked to listen to the tracks at various times during the day to either soothe the nerves or improve concentration levels.
Such technology was requested by local firefighters, coast guards, bomb squads and others working within the DHS, says DHS science spokesman John Verrico.
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Listen to an alertness track, which DHS researchers suggest has a 鈥淢ozart sound鈥�, or try the 鈥渕elodic, subdued Chopin sonata鈥� relaxing track.
, a psychologist at the University of Sheffield, UK, thinks the proposed work taps into a number of well-established research areas. 鈥淏ut I don鈥檛 think they have a clue about what they鈥檙e trying to do,鈥� he adds.
A little mood music
Biofeedback involves taking signals from the body and playing them back to individuals to affect their performance. 鈥淚t鈥檚 been used on and off for 20 years,鈥� says Parsons. In 2004 and colleagues at Stanford University showed that recording brain activity using a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanner and then playing it back to volunteers helped them control pain. There are even proposals to use the biofeedback effect in the next generation of computer games.
鈥淏ut the idea of making music from the brain and playing it back to an individual to recreate the original mood is crazy,鈥� Parsons says.
Instead, he thinks it鈥檚 likely that the proposed mood-altering powers of the music are due not because the melodies emerge from the individual鈥檚 brain, but simply because they are melodies in the first place. 鈥淚f you鈥檙e looking at music modulating someone鈥檚 emotions, then lots of studies show that,鈥� he says. There is ongoing research to test the claims of music therapists.
Verrico thinks that underestimates personal taste in music. 鈥淪ome people can listen to first chords of and feel their eyelids getting heavy, but others can listen to the whole thing without an impact,鈥� he says. 鈥淭his study is more personalised that traditional music therapy because it鈥檚 designed to sync up to what activates the individual鈥檚 brain.鈥�
Key signatures
But , a psychologist at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin, Germany, thinks that the brain is unlikely to respond particularly to its own music. Part of the problem is that converting the brain waves to an audible melody would likely strip the signal of its signature, leaving the individual unaware that the music is their own. That music might impact mood, but it鈥檚 鈥渉ighly questionable whether the effects would be any different if it was [from] the same person鈥檚 brain or some other brain,鈥� says Lindenberger.
Parsons says that unless volunteers in the experiments are not told the provenance of the music they are played, yet another well-known phenomenon could be at work. 鈥淚t sounds like a big fat placebo effect,鈥� he says. The placebo effect can produce powerful outcomes in treatment, and DHS researchers must be careful to guard against it influencing their studies, says Parsons.
While the study has some degree of coherency, 鈥渢he researchers are mixing [a number of theoretical ideas] into a brood that makes no sense,鈥� says Parsons.
