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Mar 16, 2009 08:01 PM | 16
Ever wonder how musicians manage to play in unison? Credit their brain waves: they synchronize before and while musicians play a composition, according to new research.
German scientists report in BMC Neuroscience that they measured the brain waves of eight pairs of guitarists using electroencephalography (EEG) while they played a modern jazz piece called "Fusion #1" (by Alexander Buck). The researchers found that the guitarists' brain waves were aligned most during three pivotal times: when they were syncing up with a metronome, when they began playing the piece and at points during the composition that demanded the most synchrony.
The synchrony was most prominent in the frontal and central parts of the brain that regulate motor function. "Whenever synchrony of behavior was high, synchrony of brain waves were also high," Ulman Lindenberger, a director the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin, tells ScientificAmerican.com. But, "we can't assign a causal role to that synchronizing."
While brain synchrony during a duet seems like a given, it's a mystery how it happens, says Lindenberger, a psychologist. "One could speculate that this may be related to mirror neurons, the capacity of primates and humans to imagine the action of the other person while performing actions yourself," he says. "The mirror neuron system could be active during synchronized guitar playing."
Lindenberger says that inter-brain synchrony may also help explain humans' ability to engage in a host of other activities and behaviors that involve couples or teams, such as dancing, boxing, tennis and mother–child bonding. "People have an extraordinary capacity to synchronize their actions," he says. "When two people concentrate on the same thing, gestures and head movements are highly coordinated and supported by brain synchronicity. We think what we are getting through music has wider implications and social bonding behaviors are part of those wider implications."
Image of guitar duet by phoosh via Flickr
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music,
synchrony,
brain waves,
EEG
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16 Comments
Add CommentThis seems to me like putting the cart in front of the horse.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe musicians brainwaves are synchronized during pivotal times NOT because of other musicians brain waves influence. Throughout the aforementioned critical moments the musicians sync to the tempo, rhythm and the pulsation (that is the style) of the piece they are playing. Correspondingly their "brain waves" adjust to the same "metronome" - the combination of tempo, rhythm and feeling and thus appear in sync on the EEG.
This is my personal opinion, but nevertheless based on my 25+ years as a piano player (last 15 of them performing jazz compositions - both solo and in different formations)
I agree with Nirel that there is an externally-based synchronicity that predominates in much of the musical experience, but there is also the ability of the participants to adjust to each other in the process of performance; I would agree that the reason there is synchronicity is that the players agree on that external concept. It doesn't seem a mystery to me at all that we would behave in a unified manner because we musicians are all responding to an agreed-upon concept of what the music requires. What I find interesting is that individuals' respective personalities play a role in this contingent on the musical context.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI am more often than not an accompanist, so I get to witness this firsthand. Chorally, we all subordinate to the conductor, so I have to override the inclinations of the choir to speed up on 16th note passages or lag behind in the soft sections in order to synch with the baton. When I accompany a soloist (depending on the individual's proficiency) I either adapt to his/her tempo, etc., or influence it. In a small band setting, it is more give-and-take though there is usually a predominant personality who establishes the parameters (or assigns that duty, like the drummer being assigned to set and keep a steady tempo--ever tried to play with a drummer who can't keep the beat? YIKES!!!!) So sometimes is it not the metronome that dictates synchronicity as much as whoever is the most, well, assertive in controlling such matters. All that to say--just because there is brainwave synchronicity doesn't mean that there is any causative or correlative factor neurologically as much as just the agreement on the parts of the participants to behave in a unified manner; that connotes an understanding of music concepts in general and the musical composition in particular.
Sorry, it's Kirel, not Nirel. Also, the research is interesting--I'm glad to see the interest in learning more about the physiology and other neurological processes of music. Thanks!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisProbably there is an element of feedback - the capacity for synchronicity coupled with external triggers, like the baton or metronome. The capacity for synchronicity keeps players in sync longer than the external trigger alone would, but the trigger helps establish the initial connection.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSinging in choirs, I've experienced some amazing synchronicity, particularly in improvisational singing - where 40 plus people, singing 4 or more parts are improvising together around a known melody and text - and weaving harmonies in sync with each other, not only within each part, but across the whole, on the fly, with few if any sour notes.
we all believe the sky is blue, not only in guitaritsts metronomical measurements, but in the slowing and accents of the played piece, the flow of the musicians, the contrbution to the feelings being communicated
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thismusic is it's own animal
musicians, just zoo keepers
I see that they have found out that musicians brain waves are in sync with each other it makes a lot of sense, but i doubt that there brains are communicating or psychically connected, through these "mirror neurons". I would assume that all activities people do together cause there brains to become in sync. However, more prevalent in music due to the amount of senses used to play the music, all the same neurons are firing. The two musicians are using their visual nerves to read the same pattern of notes. They are using their auditory nerves to hear the same amount of vibrations in the air. They are both stroking the same strings at the same time, using the same nerve endings in each finger. NO WONDER THEIR BRAIN PATTERNS ARE IN SYNC!!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI would hypothesize that if you put an EEG machine on all the slaves in one of those viking long ships while the drummer beats the drum for them to row, their brains would synchronize, just like I'm sure if you tortured two people the same exact way at the same time while playing the same sound their brains would be in sync too!!! Yesterday i ran a mile with my friend Eric and while keeping up with him i noticed my breath began to become in sync with his breathing pattern. As i continued to run with him i tried to obstruct this breathing pattern but i could not our breathing continued to be in sync from that point on until the mile was over unless one of us slowed down. I'm sure that if you hooked us up to an EEG machine at that moment our brain patterns would have been similar but probably not in sync due to the lack of senses we were using. Neither of us were listening to the same music or focusing on the same point on the track in front of us.
There are still some interesting questions, even assuming each individual musicial synchronizes to one leader (metronome, drummer, dominant musician, etc).
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisQ: If an individual musician plays out-of-sync consciously, will his brainwaves be out-of-sync?
Q: In the example above, If his brainwaves are out-of-sync, does this suggest he controls his brainwaves?
Q: If an individual musician plays out-of-sync unconsciosly (e.g., the drummer who can't keep time), are his brainwaves out-of-sync?
The mirror neurons do not communicate with each other, but instead they fire in response to the actions of another. When I am playing a piece of music with someone else, I try to have the entire song in my head at that point in time (or as much as I can, some songs get incredibly complicated). If everyone in a group was attempting to imagine the same piece of music while it was playing (especially if members were trying to mimic others in some way) then the brain waves should be the same. Basically that was a long way of saying that if people are working together to create something melodious, then it would be natural for their brains to be working similarly.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI think it's probably biological and induced by pheromones and hormones. The rewards being great, and the brain-patterns created by this. This observation is prompted by the known tendency of women in close proximity for a fair old time to synch their menstrual cycles. If they can do it, others can in other areas. Behaviour is infectious in all sorts of ways, for both good and bad (ie it's infectious, maybe even addictive, regardless of whether the sign attached to it is plus or minus).
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt seems likely to me that musicians pick up on visual and auditory clues from one another. Mirror neurons may play a part in this. It is certainly easier to keep in time in a small group, or if in an orchestra if you can see the conductor easily. I wonder how people cope in recording studios when they are in a different environment and are only hearing a backing track for example thru headphones. What about those pieces of music where one person plays all the tracks layered together? Similarly it is easier to stay in tune when singing or playing if those around you are in tune, some people find this easier than others. I know some musicians who tap their feet and others who sway in time and yet others who find this behaviour most distracting and irritating. In general however we communicate better when we mirror the posture and actions of the people we are communicating with and perhaps music is a special case of this.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI would assume when musicians are synchronized by their brain waves, they are also in "groove". Anybody who has experienced that know how it feels totally different from not being in groove.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI agree that there seems to be little reason to speculate on some kind of specific physiological mechanism underlying inter-person synchronicity (e.g. mirror neurons which respond to another person's musical activities). It would appear to be perfectly parsimonious to presume that if two individuals can separately produce music at a given beat then they should also be able to produce a harmonious melody without any additional mental hardware.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisBut hey, what do I know>
I'm not sure why this nearly 2 year old 'News Blog' is being reposted, but the earlier commentators raise much the same issues that came to me: the is no control here to determine what EEG monitored activity results from a 'mirror neuron system' rather than simply the product of purposeful, intentionally coincidental intellectual and physical activity.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisthe role of "mirror neurons" is for us to be able to predict the actions of others by modeling (mirroring) the external world. in so doing, we can become in sync to each other even after an initial (metronome) and external stimulus has stopped. this is so because, now, we are anticipating the actions of others and we can duplicate this using our mental model.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI'm a language teacher. If / when language is music, rather than noise, my students and myself are in sync and in perfect harmony.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAnother aspect of time synchronisation I’ve often wondered about is that when running with someone else. People automatically run at the same pace without any conscious effort (assuming similar physical abilities). You would expect some effort to be necessary to keep the same pace but evolution has built in a mechanism. I wonder if it’s the same one as this.
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