More than Tunes in Your Head: Dynamic Aspects of Auditory Imagery for Music

Auditory imagery is more than just mental “replaying” of tunes in one’s head. I will review several studies that capture characteristics of complex and active imagery tasks, using both behavioral and neuroscience approaches. I use behavioral methods to capture people’s ability to make emotion judgments about both heard and imagined music in real time. My neuroimaging studies look at the neural correlates of encoding an imagined melody, anticipating an upcoming tune, and also imagining tunes backwards. Several studies show voxel-by-voxel correlates of neural activity with self-report of imagery vividness. These studies speak to the ways in which musical imagery allows us not just to remember music, but also how we use those memories to judge temporally changing aspects of the musical experience.

(Lifelong) learning in your pocket?

Der Beitrag fokussiert die Entwicklung, den Einsatz und die Nutzung von innovativen Technologien zur Unterstützung von Bildungsszenarien in Schule, Hochschule und Weiterbildung. Ausgehend von den verschiedenen Phasen des Corporate Learning, Social Learning, Mobile Learning und Intelligent Learning wird in einem ersten Abschnitt das Nutzungsverhalten von Technologien durch Kinder, Jugendliche und (junge) Erwachsene in Schule, Studium und Lehre betrachtet. Es folgt die Darstellung technologischer Entwicklungen auf Basis des Technology Life Cycle und die Konsequenzen von unterschiedlichen Entwicklungszuständen und Reifegraden von Technologien wie Content Learning Management, sozialen Netzwerken, mobilen Endgeräten, multidimensionalen und -modalen Räumen bis hin zu Anwendungen augmentierter Realität und des Internets der Dinge, Dienste und Daten für den Einsatz und die Nutzung in Bildungsszenarien. Nach der Darstellung von Anforderungen an digitale Technologien hinsichtlich Inhalte, Didaktik und Methodik wie etwa hinsichtlich der Erstellung von Inhalten, deren Wiederverwendung, Digitalisierung und Auffindbarkeit sowie Standards werden methodische Hinweise zur Nutzung digitaler Technologien zur Interaktion von Lernenden, von Lehrenden, sozialer Interaktion, kollaborativem Autorieren, Kommentierung, Evaluation und Begutachtung gegeben. Abschließend werden - differenziert für Schule und Hochschule - Erkenntnisse zu Rahmenbedingungen, Einflussgrößen, hemmenden und fördernden Faktoren sowie Herausförderungen bei der Einführung und nachhaltigen Implementation digitaler Technologien im schulischen Unterricht, in Lehre, Studium und Weiterbildung im Überblick zusammengefasst.

In your eyes only: deficits in executive functioning after frontal TMS reflect in eye movements

This study investigated the roles of the right and left dorsolateral prefrontal (rDLPFC, lDLPFC) and the medial frontal cortex (MFC) in executive functioning using a theta burst transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) approach. Healthy subjects solved two visual search tasks: a number search task with low cognitive demands, and a number and letter search task with high cognitive demands. To observe how subjects solved the tasks, we assessed their behavior with and without TMS using eye movements when subjects were confronted with specific executive demands. To observe executive functions, we were particularly interested in TMS-induced changes in visual exploration strategies found to be associated with good or bad performance in a control condition without TMS stimulation. TMS left processing time unchanged in both tasks. Inhibition of the rDLPFC resulted in a decrease in anticipatory fixations in the number search task, i.e., a decrease in a good strategy in this low demand task. This was paired with a decrease in stimulus fixations. Together, these results point to a role of the rDLPFC in planning and response selection. Inhibition of the lDLPFC and the MFC resulted in an increase in anticipatory fixations in the number and letter search task, i.e., an increase in the application of a good strategy in this task. We interpret these results as a compensatory strategy to account for TMS-induced deficits in attentional switching when faced with high switching demands. After inhibition of the lDLPFC, an increase in regressive fixations was found in the number and letter search task. In the context of high working memory demands, this strategy appears to support TMS-induced working memory deficits. Combining an experimental TMS approach with the recording of eye movements proved sensitive to discrete decrements of executive functions and allows pinpointing the functional organization of the frontal lobes.

Catalogue of the Hebrew books in the Library of the British Museum London

Catalogue of Hebrew books in the British Museum