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understood nowadays, but an important piece of the jigsaw is missing: the way they
cooperate in ensembles of millions has been
cult to understand. This
piece of the puzzle is important because it most probably holds the key to unlock
our understanding the origins of the mind.
There has been a school of thought, which considered that the mind is divorced
from the brain. What is more, it has been suggested that minds would not even need
brains to exist. Although the separation between mind and brain still has currency in
some circles, nowadays it is common sense to consider the mind as resulting from
the functioning of the brain. However, we do not have a clear understanding of how
brain activity actually gives rise to the mind.
Much research is being developed from a number of approaches all over the
globe to understand how the brain gives rise to the mind. Our research is looking
into establishing a musical approach to understand the brain. We believe that the
brain can be viewed as a colossal, extraordinarily large symphonic orchestra and the
mind as a correspondingly complicated symphony. The
'
mind as music
'
hypothesis
is explored in length in Lloyd (
2011
).
At Plymouth University
fiendishly dif
s Interdisciplinary Centre for Computer Music
Research, we are looking into the relationship between music and a speci
'
c aspect
of our mind:
emotions
. We hope to be able to determine which aspects of a musical
composition elicit speci
c emotions on listeners. The hypothesis is that if one can
predict which musical features are likely to cause the feeling of, say, joy or sadness,
then it might be possible to build technology that would allow new music to steer
our emotions more effectively. For example, it would be highly bene
cial for
humankind if physicians could have the option to prescribe a musical composition
as part of the treatment to help take a patient out of depression. Not unlike chemists,
future musicians could be trained with the skill to compose with speci
c musical
ingredients aimed at inducing particular affect in listeners. Our work is aimed at
making this ambitious dream a reality, but the challenges to achieve this are not
trivial.
Similar to the fact that we have unique
fingerprints, which differ from person to
person, our brains are also unique. Indeed, the mechanisms whereby we make sense
of music differ from person to person. Even though all human brains share a
common basic plan, the detailed neurological circuitry differs from one person to
another. Unlike our
fingerprints, however, our brain circuits are continually
changing and this makes scienti
c research into unveiling how the brain functions
rather challenging. Paradoxically, it seems that the more we study the brain, the
more difficult it becomes to draw firm conclusions. A balance needs to be estab-
lished between identifying the commonalities and acknowledging the differences of
our brains.
Symphony of Minds Listening
is inspired by the later: it is an artistic
expression of how different brains construct their own unique reality.
