The Goals and Effects of Music Listening and Their Relationship to the Strength of Music Preference

Individual differences in the strength of music preference are among the most intricate psychological phenomena. While one person gets by very well without music, another person needs to listen to music every day and spends a lot of temporal and financial resources on listening to music, attending concerts, or buying concert tickets. Where do these differences come from? The hypothesis presented in this article is that the strength of music preference is mainly informed by the functions that music fulfills in people’s lives (e.g., to regulate emotions, moods, or physiological arousal; to promote self-awareness; to foster social relatedness). Data were collected with a diary study, in which 121 respondents documented the goals they tried to attain and the effects that actually occurred for up to 5 music-listening episodes per day for 10 successive days. As expected, listeners reporting more intense experience of the functional use of music in the past (1) had a stronger intention to listen to music to attain specific goals in specific situations and (2) showed a larger overall strength of music preference. It is concluded that the functional effectiveness of music listening should be incorporated in existing models and frameworks of music preference to produce better predictions of interindividual differences in the strength of music preference. The predictability of musical style/genre preferences is also discussed with regard to the present results.     

The Origin of the Crustacea*

Pre-Cambrian metamerically segmented bilaterians that ultimately gave rise to crustaceans probably arose from unsegmented flatworms. The recent suggestion that early arthropods, far from possessing a capacious segmented coelome of the annelid type, may never have had such, is attractive. Crustaceans were probably derived from small, segmented, surface-dwelling non-annelidan marine worms with a haemocoele. Their appendages probably originated as simple outgrowths whose shape was maintained by haemocoelic pressure. Possible routes whereby trunk limbs could have been derived from such rudiments are suggested. Trunk limbs would originally be unsegmented, as in many extant branchiopods and in certain Cambrian crustaceans. The evolution of thoracopodal feeding and some of the factors involved in the differentiation of the cephalic appendages are considered, as is the origin of the nauplius larva and the establishment of its feeding mechanism. Certain features of the cephalic region of the adult reflect changes necessitated as a result of the incorporation of the nauplius into the life cycle. Ontogeny would originally be anamorphic and follow the pattern preserved in its most primitive form in certain extant anostracan branchiopods. A reconstruction of the Ur-crustacean is attempted. Justification for features not previously associated with such a reconstruction, such as locomotory antennae, a relatively short trunk with only a short series of limbs and a limbless posterior region, and unsegmented trunk limbs, is provided by fossil evidence, functional considerations and the situation in primitive extant forms. Crustaceans were evidently not derived from any known arthropod clade. Stem lineage forms probably arose from the same group of pre-crustacean ancestors. While the Crustacea appears to be a monophyletic group, the idea that arthropodization must have occurred more than once and that the Arthropoda is a polyphyletic assemblage is supported, and evidence in favour of this view is cited.     

The Interdiction of Music in Islam

There is no authorisation in the Qur'an for the interdiction on music. That interdiction, when it is voiced, is the product of a conviction among some Muslims, supported by hadith (just as it is opposed with hadith) that Islam does not countenance music. In a country such as Pakistan, with a strong tradition of devotional music which (taken with the poetry, with which it is always associated) has become entwined with the identity politics of the provinces or sub‐‘nations’ which make up the vaster nation, a comprehensive ban on music would be impossible to enforce, though there are ‘ulamā’ and sectarian parties who desire it. This paper focuses on an instance where music is even harder to extricate from an accompanying text: the recitation of the Qur'ān. In the eyes of Muslims, Qur'anic recitation is not music. This denial raises further questions about the nature of music and, in particular, its involvement with the ‘extramusical’. Adorno's observations on the relation of music to language, and the anthropologist Friedson's complaint that ethnographers focus on text, at the expense of music, are examined in the light of the circumstance that the world over, music is associated with texts of one kind or another. Even when, as in the case of the ‘curing’ ritual described by Friedson, words are unimportant, or missing, music is seldom a phenomenological whole. Music ‘leans’, or is ‘leant on’: it lends its unrivalled ‘eloquence’ to many a cause, from commodity marketing to the structured working out of ritual, or, among lovers, to the remembered quality of experience. All these potentialities of music are relevant to the question of its interdiction and to the Muslim denial that the recitation of the Qur'ān is music.     

The master trope the poetic polarity: Music

Dialectical Anthropology -     

The Effect of Music on the Human Stress Response

Background

Music listening has been suggested to beneficially impact health via stress-reducing effects. However, the existing literature presents itself with a limited number of investigations and with discrepancies in reported findings that may result from methodological shortcomings (e.g. small sample size, no valid stressor). It was the aim of the current study to address this gap in knowledge and overcome previous shortcomings by thoroughly examining music effects across endocrine, autonomic, cognitive, and emotional domains of the human stress response.

Methods

Sixty healthy female volunteers (mean age = 25 years) were exposed to a standardized psychosocial stress test after having been randomly assigned to one of three different conditions prior to the stress test: 1) relaxing music (‘Miserere’, Allegri) (RM), 2) sound of rippling water (SW), and 3) rest without acoustic stimulation (R). Salivary cortisol and salivary alpha-amylase (sAA), heart rate (HR), respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), subjective stress perception and anxiety were repeatedly assessed in all subjects. We hypothesized that listening to RM prior to the stress test, compared to SW or R would result in a decreased stress response across all measured parameters.

Results

The three conditions significantly differed regarding cortisol response (p = 0.025) to the stressor, with highest concentrations in the RM and lowest in the SW condition. After the stressor, sAA (p=0.026) baseline values were reached considerably faster in the RM group than in the R group. HR and psychological measures did not significantly differ between groups.

Conclusion

Our findings indicate that music listening impacted the psychobiological stress system. Listening to music prior to a standardized stressor predominantly affected the autonomic nervous system (in terms of a faster recovery), and to a lesser degree the endocrine and psychological stress response. These findings may help better understanding the beneficial effects of music on the human body.     

Experiencing of Music as the Basis of the Effectiveness of Music Therapy

In transposing the discussion of L.S. Vygotsky’s ideas to the cross-cultural area of science, the authors summarize the contexts and positions regarding the contribution of the Russian psychological school to the substantiation of musical therapeutic theory and practice. The analysis by Dr. Mastnak of European and American academic periodicals in psychology and music therapy showed that Western science does not have access to all of the content and achievements of Russian and Russian-language psychology. Reading Vygotsky’s works from a musical therapeutic perspective and, in addition, in a cross-cultural interpretation, the authors discuss the abundance of the psychological scientist’s methodological ideas that could provide a theoretical substantiation of effective music therapy.     

The making of "The Genoma Music."

Both genetic and musical sequences are ordered structures composed of combinations of a small number of elements, of nucleotides and musical notes. In the case of the genome, the emergence of cellular functions makes the order meaningful; in the case of musical sequences, the consequence of order is the production of mysterious esthetical effects in the human mind. Can any musical significance be found in DNA sequence? In this work, we present the technique used to convert DNA sequences into musical sequences. The musical equivalent of the sequence of a number of genes, either of fungal origin, such as Candida albicans or Sacharomyces cerevisiae (SLT2), or belonging to the human genome (genes involved in Alzheimer syndrome, blindness, and deafness such as Connexine 26 gene) has been obtained. Non-coding sequences are also important in life and music. The non-coding alphoid sequence has also been translated into a musical sequence, in this case using Fibonacci golden number basic series as structural helper. The elementary musical sequence derived from DNA sequence has served as an imposing frame in which rhythms, sounds, and melodies have been harmonically inserted. The Genoma Music Project is essentially a creative metaphor of the basic unity between the human mind and the natural ordered structure of life.     

The Seven Pipes of the Dakota Sioux*

Abstract

Ceremonial uses of the seven major pipes of the Dakota Sioux are described.     

乳腺癌的治疗进展

乳腺癌是女性最常见的恶性肿瘤之一,是一种严重影响女性身心健康甚至危及生命的恶性肿瘤,男性乳腺癌罕见。目前,乳腺癌的治疗仍以外科治疗为主。乳腺癌的各种治疗手段,如手术治疗、化学治疗、放射治疗、内分泌治疗等,依据各自特点及疗效,在治疗中综合运用,使乳腺癌的临床疗效有了明显提高。随着治疗模式的改变、概念的不断更新以及越来越多的相关治疗机制被发现,能提高患者的综合治疗效果及生活质量,延长生存期。本文根据国内外已发表的乳腺癌治疗相关文献,主要从乳腺癌治疗相关进展及治疗效果等方面进行归纳总结,为制订乳腺癌综合治疗的指南提供一些参考。     

Scale-Free Music of the Brain

Background

There is growing interest in the relation between the brain and music. The appealing similarity between brainwaves and the rhythms of music has motivated many scientists to seek a connection between them. A variety of transferring rules has been utilized to convert the brainwaves into music; and most of them are mainly based on spectra feature of EEG.

Methodology/Principal Findings

In this study, audibly recognizable scale-free music was deduced from individual Electroencephalogram (EEG) waveforms. The translation rules include the direct mapping from the period of an EEG waveform to the duration of a note, the logarithmic mapping of the change of average power of EEG to music intensity according to the Fechner''s law, and a scale-free based mapping from the amplitude of EEG to music pitch according to the power law. To show the actual effect, we applied the deduced sonification rules to EEG segments recorded during rapid-eye movement sleep (REM) and slow-wave sleep (SWS). The resulting music is vivid and different between the two mental states; the melody during REM sleep sounds fast and lively, whereas that in SWS sleep is slow and tranquil. 60 volunteers evaluated 25 music pieces, 10 from REM, 10 from SWS and 5 from white noise (WN), 74.3% experienced a happy emotion from REM and felt boring and drowsy when listening to SWS, and the average accuracy for all the music pieces identification is 86.8%(κ = 0.800, P<0.001). We also applied the method to the EEG data from eyes closed, eyes open and epileptic EEG, and the results showed these mental states can be identified by listeners.

Conclusions/Significance

The sonification rules may identify the mental states of the brain, which provide a real-time strategy for monitoring brain activities and are potentially useful to neurofeedback therapy.     

The jazz of cladistics*

In this metaphorical ‘composition’, I comment on nine ‘dissonant chords’ related to the drowning out of cladistic performance: (1) DNA-based phylogenetic hypotheses supported only by bootstrap values and without molecular synapomorphies; (2) the use of molecular data to the exclusion of morphological data, with the classification of clades diagnosed by morphological plesiomorphies plus bootstrap values; (3) neglect of the results of the congruence test and how they are interpreted; (4) the combination of character optimization using both model-based and parsimony methods, and its consequences; (5) the need to effectively integrate ontogeny and phylogeny; (6) the estimation of the ages of clades based on molecular-clock analyses; (7) the belief that new methods, theories, and hypotheses are more reliable than old ones, with the idea that model-based analyses achieve better results than parsimony analyses; (8) the false assumption of the irrelevance of classification; and (9) clashes amongst cladists themselves, who endorse distinct methods, philosophies, and theories. Finally, I present 10 ‘refrains’ in order to intensify the cladistic performance.     

The Evolution of Feathers*

Existing hypotheses on the evolution of feathers are reviewed with the assumptions that feather evolved from reptilian scales and that pennaceous feathers evolved before downy feathers. Observations with a scanning electron microscope demonstrate that basic to the structure of pennaceous feathers is the lamelliform structure of barbules, the planes of which are oriented at right angles to the plane of the feather vane. Thus the structure of the vane is more open than generally realized. The airtight vane of flight feathers is assumed a later specialization. Most of the existing hypotheses assume that the feather acts as a relatively solid barrier between the skin of the bird and the exterior and they are therefore not in agreement with the actual structure of feathers. A hypothesis is needed which explains the adaptive value of a pennaceous feather being porous. The hypothesis is put foward that feathers evolved due to selection for a water-repellent integument. For purely physical reasons a porous surface repels water drops more strongly than does a solid surface of the same material. Physicists have pointed out that the structure of feathers conforms closely with the theoretical requirements for water-repellency. Possibly feathers started to evolve on reptiles living at the seashore, where the main advantage of increased water-repellency was to reduce cooling from evaporation of water off a wet integument.     

The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music: Africa

The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music: Africa. Ruth Stone. ed. New York: Garland, 1998. 852 pp., scores, and CD.     

The Role of Trait and State Absorption in the Enjoyment of Music

Little is known about the role of state versus trait characteristics on our enjoyment of music. The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of state and trait absorption upon preference for music, particularly preference for music that evokes negative emotions. The sample consisted of 128 participants who were asked to listen to two pieces of self-selected music and rate the music on variables including preference and felt and expressed emotions. Participants completed a brief measure of state absorption after listening to each piece, and a trait absorption inventory. State absorption was strongly positively correlated with music preference, whereas trait absorption was not. Trait absorption was related to preference for negative emotions in music, with chi-square analyses demonstrating greater enjoyment of negative emotions in music among individuals with high trait absorption. This is the first study to show that state and trait absorption have separable and distinct effects on a listener’s music experience, with state characteristics impacting music enjoyment in the moment, and trait characteristics influencing music preference based on its emotional content.     

The histocompatibility complex GLA in the goat*

The current status of research on the major histocompatibility complex of the goat (GLA) is discussed, as well as its similarities to other species, although some of the results are preliminary.     

The Nutrition of the Freshwater Dinoflagellate Ceratium hirundinella*

A defined medium was devised for a freshwater isolate of the dinoflagellate Ceratium hirundinella. Highest cell yields were produced at 7,700–10,000 lux. The optimum pH range was between 7.0 and 7.5: the optimum temperature 21°C. Ceralium hirundinella tolerated a wide range (per liter) of Ca (0.1–100 mg) and Mg (0.1–50 mg) ion concentrations. The optimum range for growth was 20–30 rns Ca and 10–30 mg Mg. Cells cultured in media lacking Ca often became teratological yet motilp and viable. Variations in the Ca:Mg ratio had little effect on cell yield if the sum of the concentrations of the 2 ions remained the same. Organic as well as inorganic sources of N and P were utilized. NH₄ sources became toxic at elevated levels (7 mg N liter^-1). Methionine was not used as N source. Cells could not be completely depleted of P, but concentrations ≤ 0.01 mg P liter^-1 resulted in poor growth. Vitamin B₁₂, but not thiamine or biotin, was required. Highest cell yields were at a PII-metals concentration of 30 ml liter^-1; a t 100-ml liter^-1 cell yield was very low. Additions (per liter) of Fe (0.5 mg) and Mo (0.1 mg) to the basal medium produced higher cell yields, but Cu (0.1 mg) and V (0.1 mg) inhibited growth.     

The role of the shoot apex in geotropism*

Abstract. The belief that the shoot apex plays a special role in geotropism is shown to be erroneous and the implications of this widely held misconception are discussed.