Nature 453, 598-599 (29 May 2008) | doi:10.1038/453598a; Published online 28
May 2008
Essay
Science & Music: The neural roots of music
Laurel Trainor
Abstract
Laurel Trainor explains how the emotional power of music depends on the
structure of the ear, and on our basic encoding of information.
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v453/n7195/full/453598a.html
Editor's Summary
Auditory processing: variations on a theme
In the fourth movement of our series on music, Laurel Trainor relates the
emotional power of music to human biology. Rhythm and pitch derive directly
from the structure of the ear and our basic mechanisms of encoding information.
And neural constraints mean that certain sound patterns are easier to perceive
than others, giving rise to some near-universal features of music. True, we can
adjust our perceptions — so that challenging works like The Rite of Spring may
eventually become mainstream — but the musical language available to composers
is essentially the one that evolved with modern Homo sapiens.
Nature 453, 726-727 (5 June 2008) | doi:10.1038/453726a; Published online 4
June 2008
Essay
Science & Music: Talk of the tone
Aniruddh D. Patel
Abstract
To appreciate how our species makes sense of sound we must study the brain's
response to a wide variety of music, languages and musical languages, urges
Aniruddh D. Patel.
Nature 453, 914-916 (12 June 2008) | doi:10.1038/nature06719; Received 6
October 2007; Accepted 19 March 2008; Published online 11 May 2008
Letter
Ultrasonic frogs show hyperacute phonotaxis to female courtship calls
Jun-Xian Shen1, Albert S. Feng2, Zhi-Min Xu1, Zu-Lin Yu1, Victoria S. Arch3,
Xin-Jian Yu5 & Peter M. Narins3,4
1. State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Science, Institute of
Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
2. Department of Molecular & Integrative Physiology and Beckman Institute,
University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA
3. Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology,
4. Department of Physiological Science, University of California, Los
Angeles, California 90095, USA
5. Shanghai Institutes of Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences,
Shanghai 200032, China
Correspondence to: Jun-Xian Shen1 Correspondence and requests for materials
should be addressed to J.-X.S. (Email:
Abstract
Sound communication plays a vital role in frog reproduction1, 2, in which vocal
advertisement is generally the domain of males. Females are typically silent,
but in a few anuran species they can produce a feeble reciprocal call3 or
rapping sounds4 during courtship. Males of concave-eared torrent frogs
(Odorrana tormota) have demonstrated ultrasonic communication capacity5.
Although females of O. tormota have an unusually well-developed vocal
production system6, it is unclear whether or not they produce calls or are only
passive partners in a communication system dominated by males. Here we show
that before ovulation, gravid females of O. tormota emit calls that are
distinct from males' advertisement calls, having higher fundamental frequencies
and harmonics and shorter call duration. In the field and in a quiet, darkened
indoor arena, these female calls evoke vocalizations and extraordinarily
precise positive phonotaxis (a localization error of
_________________________________________________________________
Connect to the next generation of MSN Messenger
http://imagine-msn.com/messenger/launch80/default.aspx?locale=en-us&source=wlmailtagline
|