Identification of speeded and slowed familiar melodies by younger, middle-aged, and older musicians and nonmusicians

There is a range of tempos within which listeners can identify familiar tunes (around 0.8 to 6.0 notes/s). Faster and slower tunes are difficult to identify. The authors assessed fast and slow melody-identification thresholds for 80 listeners ages 17–79 years with expertise varying from musically untrained to professional. On fast-to-slow (FS) trials the tune started at a very fast tempo and slowed until the listener identified it. Slow-to-fast (SF) trials started slow and accelerated. Tunes either retained their natural rhythms or were stylized isochronous versions. Increased expertise led to better performance for both FS and SF thresholds (r = .45). Performance declined uniformly across the 62-year age range in the FS condition (r = .27). SF performance was unaffected by age. Although early encoding processes may slow with age, expertise has a greater effect. Musical expertise involves perceptual learning with melodies at a wide range of tempos.

Musical Expertise and Melodic Structure in Memory for Musical Notation

Two experiments plus a pilot investigated the role of melodic structure on short-term memory for musical notation by musicians and nonmusicians. In the pilot experiment, visually similar melodies that had been rated as either "good" or "bad" were presented briefly, followed by a 15-sec retention interval and then recall. Musicians remembered good melodies better than they remembered bad ones: nonmusicians did not distinguish between them. In the second experiment, good, bad, and random melodies were briefly presented, followed by immediate recall. The advantage of musicians over nonmusicians decreased as the melody type progressed from good to bad to random. In the third experiment, musicians and nonmusicians divided the stimulus melodies into groups. For each melody, the consistency of grouping was correlated with memory performance in the first two experiments. Evidence was found for use of musical groupings by musicians and for use of a simple visual strategy by nonmusicians. The nature of these musical groupings and how they may be learned are considered. The relation of this work to other studies of comprehension of symbolic diagrams is also discussed.

Common parietal activation in musical mental transformations across pitch and time

We previously observed that mental manipulation of the pitch level or temporal organization of melodies results in functional activation in the human intraparietal sulcus (IPS), a region also associated with visuospatial transformation and numerical calculation. Two outstanding questions about these musical transformations are whether pitch and time depend on separate or common processing in IPS, and whether IPS recruitment in melodic tasks varies depending upon the degree of transformation required (as it does in mental rotation). In the present study we sought to answer these questions by applying functional magnetic resonance imaging while musicians performed closely matched mental transposition (pitch transformation) and melody reversal (temporal transformation) tasks. A voxel-wise conjunction analysis showed that in individual subjects, both tasks activated overlapping regions in bilateral IPS, suggesting that a common neural substrate subserves both types of mental transformation. Varying the magnitude of mental pitch transposition resulted in variation of IPS BOLD signal in correlation with the musical key-distance of the transposition, but not with the pitch distance, indicating that the cognitive metric relevant for this type of operation is an abstract one, well described by music-theoretic concepts. These findings support a general role for the IPS in systematically transforming auditory stimulus representations in a nonspatial context. (C) 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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.

Affective and linguistic processing of speech prosody: DC potential studies

Speech melody or prosody subserves linguistic, emotional, and pragmatic functions in speech communication. Prosodic perception is based on the decoding of acoustic cues with a predominant function of frequency-related information perceived as speaker's pitch. Evaluation of prosodic meaning is a cognitive function implemented in cortical and subcortical networks that generate continuously updated affective or linguistic speaker impressions. Various brain-imaging methods allow delineation of neural structures involved in prosody processing. In contrast to functional magnetic resonance imaging techniques, DC (direct current, slow) components of the EEG directly measure cortical activation without temporal delay. Activation patterns obtained with this method are highly task specific and intraindividually reproducible. Studies presented here investigated the topography of prosodic stimulus processing in dependence on acoustic stimulus structure and linguistic or affective task demands, respectively. Data obtained from measuring DC potentials demonstrated that the right hemisphere has a predominant role in processing emotions from the tone of voice, irrespective of emotional valence. However, right hemisphere involvement is modulated by diverse speech and language-related conditions that are associated with a left hemisphere participation in prosody processing. The degree of left hemisphere involvement depends on several factors such as (i) articulatory demands on the perceiver of prosody (possibly, also the poser), (ii) a relative left hemisphere specialization in processing temporal cues mediating prosodic meaning, and (iii) the propensity of prosody to act on the segment level in order to modulate word or sentence meaning. The specific role of top-down effects in terms of either linguistically or affectively oriented attention on lateralization of stimulus processing is not clear and requires further investigations.

Worldwide occurrence of feline hemoplasma infections in wild felid species

While hemoplasma infections in domestic cats are well studied, almost no information is available on their occurrence in wild felids. The aims of the present study were to investigate wild felid species as possible reservoirs of feline hemoplasmas and the molecular characterization of the hemoplasma isolates. Blood samples from the following 257 wild felids were analyzed: 35 Iberian lynxes from Spain, 36 Eurasian lynxes from Switzerland, 31 European wildcats from France, 45 lions from Tanzania, and 110 Brazilian wild felids, including 12 wild felid species kept in zoos and one free-ranging ocelot. Using real-time PCR, feline hemoplasmas were detected in samples of the following species: Iberian lynx, Eurasian lynx, European wildcat, lion, puma, oncilla, Geoffroy's cat, margay, and ocelot. "Candidatus Mycoplasma haemominutum" was the most common feline hemoplasma in Iberian lynxes, Eurasian lynxes, Serengeti lions, and Brazilian wild felids, whereas "Candidatus Mycoplasma turicensis" was the most prevalent in European wildcats; hemoplasma coinfections were frequently observed. Hemoplasma infection was associated with species and free-ranging status of the felids in all animals and with feline leukemia virus provirus-positive status in European wildcats. Phylogenetic analyses of the 16S rRNA and the partial RNase P gene revealed that most hemoplasma isolates exhibit high sequence identities to domestic cat-derived isolates, although some isolates form different subclusters within the phylogenetic tree. In conclusion, 9 out of 15 wild felid species from three different continents were found to be infected with feline hemoplasmas. The effect of feline hemoplasma infections on wild felid populations needs to be further investigated.

Unattended emotional intonations modulate linguistic prosody processing

Prosody or speech melody subserves linguistic (e.g., question intonation) and emotional functions in speech communication. Findings from lesion studies and imaging experiments suggest that, depending on function or acoustic stimulus structure, prosodic speech components are differentially processed in the right and left hemispheres. This direct current (DC) potential study investigated the linguistic processing of digitally manipulated pitch contours of sentences that carried an emotional or neutral intonation. Discrimination of linguistic prosody was better for neutral stimuli as compared to happily as well as fearfully spoken sentences. Brain activation was increased during the processing of happy sentences as compared to neutral utterances. Neither neutral nor emotional stimuli evoked lateralized processing in the left or right hemisphere, indicating bilateral mechanisms of linguistic processing for pitch direction. Acoustic stimulus analysis suggested that prosodic components related to emotional intonation, such as pitch variability, interfered with linguistic processing of pitch course direction.

The Amplifier - v. 8, no. 2

In this issue...United Nations meeting, Newman Club, Sylvia White, Veteran's Day, Glee Club, Montana Power Company, Harvest Festival Dance, Joe Knuckey's Melody Makers

Frequency and significance of HIV infection among patients diagnosed with thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura

BACKGROUND: Case series of patients with a diagnosis of thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP) have reported different frequencies of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection; some series suggest that HIV infection may cause TTP. METHODS: We systematically reviewed all reports of HIV infection in case series of patients with TTP. We analyzed data from the Oklahoma TTP-HUS (hemolytic uremic syndrome) Registry, an inception cohort of 362 consecutive patients, for 1989-2007. RESULTS: Nineteen case series reported the occurrence of HIV infection at the time of diagnosis of TTP in 0%-83% of patients; individual patient data were rarely described. The Oklahoma TTP-HUS Registry determined the HIV status at the time of diagnosis of TTP in 351 (97%) of 362 patients. HIV infection was documented in 6 (1.84%; 95% CI, 0.68%-4.01%) of 326 adult patients (age, 26-51 years); follow-up data were complete for all 6 patients. The period prevalence of HIV infection among all adults in the Oklahoma TTP-HUS Registry region for 1989-2007 was 0.30%. One patient had typical features of TTP with 5 relapses. Five patients had single episodes; in 4, the clinical features that had initially suggested the diagnosis of TTP were subsequently attributed to malignant hypertension (in 3 patients) and disseminated Kaposi sarcoma (in 1 patient). CONCLUSIONS: HIV infection, similar to other inflammatory conditions, may trigger acute episodes of TTP in susceptible patients. More commonly, acquired immunodeficiency syndrome-related disorders may mimic the clinical features of TTP. If the diagnosis of TTP is suggested in a patient with HIV infection, there should be careful evaluation for alternative diagnoses and cautious consideration of plasma exchange, the required treatment for TTP.

Comparison of music perception in bilateral and unilateral cochlear implant users and normal-hearing subjects

Music plays an important role in the daily life of cochlear implant (CI) users, but electrical hearing and speech processing pose challenges for enjoying music. Studies of unilateral CI (UCI) users' music perception have found that these subjects have little difficulty recognizing tempo and rhythm but great difficulty with pitch, interval and melody. The present study is an initial step towards understanding music perception in bilateral CI (BCI) users. The Munich Music Questionnaire was used to investigate music listening habits and enjoyment in 23 BCI users compared to 2 control groups: 23 UCI users and 23 normal-hearing (NH) listeners. Bilateral users appeared to have a number of advantages over unilateral users, though their enjoyment of music did not reach the level of NH listeners.

The influence of emotion clarity on emotional prosody identification in paranoid schizophrenia

Identification of emotional facial expression and emotional prosody (i.e. speech melody) is often impaired in schizophrenia. For facial emotion identification, a recent study suggested that the relative deficit in schizophrenia is enhanced when the presented emotion is easier to recognize. It is unclear whether this effect is specific to face processing or part of a more general emotion recognition deficit.

Yam lieder : nuch Jehudah Halevy

melody by Schneyer. Harmonized by Josef Bonime. Yiddish from H. N. Bialik

Secondary data analysis of lead screening compliance in high-risk children

Introduction. Despite the ban of lead-containing gasoline and paint, childhood lead poisoning remains a public health issue. Furthermore, a Medicaid-eligible child is 8 times more likely to have an elevated blood lead level (EBLL) than a non-Medicaid child, which is the primary reason for the early detection lead screening mandate for ages 12 and 24 months among the Medicaid population. Based on field observations, there was evidence that suggested a screening compliance issue. Objective. The purpose of this study was to analyze blood lead screening compliance in previously lead poisoned Medicaid children and test for an association between timely lead screening and timely childhood immunizations. The mean months between follow-up tests were also examined for a significant difference between the non-compliant and compliant lead screened children. Methods. Access to the surveillance data of all childhood lead poisoned cases in Bexar County was granted by the San Antonio Metropolitan Health District. A database was constructed and analyzed using descriptive statistics, logistic regression methods and non-parametric tests. Lead screening at 12 months of age was analyzed separately from lead screening at 24 months. The small portion of the population who were also related were included in one analysis and removed from a second analysis to check for significance. Gender, ethnicity, age of home, and having a sibling with an EBLL were ruled out as confounders for the association tests but ethnicity and age of home were adjusted in the nonparametric tests. Results. There was a strong significant association between lead screening compliance at 12 months and childhood immunization compliance, with or without including related children (p<0.00). However, there was no significant association between the two variables at the age of 24 months. Furthermore, there was no significant difference between the median of the mean months of follow-up blood tests among the non-compliant and compliant lead screened population for at the 12 month screening group but there was a significant difference at the 24 month screening group (p<0.01). Discussion. Descriptive statistics showed that 61% and 56% of the previously lead poisoned Medicaid population did not receive their 12 and 24 month mandated lead screening on time, respectively. This suggests that their elevated blood lead level may have been diagnosed earlier in their childhood. Furthermore, a child who is compliant with their lead screening at 12 months of age is 2.36 times more likely to also receive their childhood immunizations on time compared to a child who was not compliant with their 12 month screening. Even though there was no statistical significant association found for the 24 month group, the public health significance of a screening compliance issue is no less important. The Texas Medicaid program needs to enforce lead screening compliance because it is evident that there has been no monitoring system in place. Further recommendations include a need for an increased focus on parental education and the importance of taking their children for wellness exams on time.^

The illness experiences of African Americans residing in an inner city community, Houston, Texas

This dissertation documents health and illness in the context of daily life circumstances and structural conditions faced by African American families living in Clover Heights (pseudonym), an inner city public housing project in the Third Ward, Houston, Texas. Drawing from Kleinman's (1980) model of culturally defined health care systems and using the holistic-content approach to narrative analysis (Lieblich, Tuval- Mashiach, & Zilber, 1998) the purpose of this research was to explore the ways in which social and health policy, economic mobility, the inner city environment, and cultural beliefs intertwined with African American families' health related ideas, behaviors, and practices. I recruited six families using a convenience sampling method (Schensul, Schensul, & LeCompte, 1999) and followed them for fourteen months (2010–2011). Family was defined as a household unit, or those living in the same residence, short or long-term. Single, African American women ranging in age from 29–80 years headed all families. All but one family included children or grandchildren 18 years of age and younger, or children or other relative 18 years of age and older. I also recruited six residents with who I became acquainted over the course of the project. I collected data using traditional ethnographic methods including participant-observation, archive review, field notes, mapping, free-listing, in-depth interviews, and life history interviews. ^ Doing ethnography afforded the families who participated in this project the freedom to construct their own experiences of health and illness. My role centered on listening to, learning from, and interpreting participants' narratives, exploring similarities and differences within and across families' experiences. As the research progressed, a pattern concerning diagnosis and pharmacotherapy for children's behavioral and emotional problems, particularly attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and pediatric bipolar disorder (PBD), emerged from my formal interactions with participants and my informal interactions with residents. The findings presented in this dissertation document this pattern, focusing on how mothers and families interpreted, organized, and ascribed meaning to their experiences of ADHD and PBD. ^ In the first manuscript presented here, I documented three mothers' narrative constructions of a child's diagnosis with and pharmacotherapy for ADHD or PBD. Using Gergen's (1997) relational perspective I argued that mothers' knowledge and experiences of ADHD and PBD were not individually constructed, but were linguistically and discursively constituted through various social interactions and relationships, including family, spirituality and faith, community norms, and expert systems of knowledge. Mothers' narratives revealed the complexity of children's behavioral and emotional problems, the daily trials of living through these problems, how they coped with adversity and developed survival strategies, and how they interacted with various institutional authorities involved in evaluating, diagnosing, and encouraging pharmaceutical intervention for children's behavior. The findings highlight the ways in which mothers' social interactions and relationships introduced a scientific language and discourse for explaining children's behavior as mental illness, the discordances between expert systems of knowledge and mothers' understandings, and how discordances reflected mothers' ‘microsources of power’ for producing their own stories and experiences. ^ In the second manuscript presented here, I documented the ways in which structural factors, including gender, race/ethnicity, and socioeconomic status, coupled with a unique cultural and social standpoint (Collins, 1990/2009) influenced the strategies this group of African American mothers employed to understand and respond to ADHD or PBD. The most salient themes related to mother-child relationships coalesced around mothers' beliefs about the etiology of ADHD and PBD, ‘conceptualizing responsibility,’ and ‘protection-survival.’ The findings suggest that even though mothers' strategies varied, they were in pursuit of a common goal. Mothers' challenged the status quo, addressing children's behavioral and emotional problems in the ways that made the most sense to them, specifically protecting their children from further marginalization in society more so than believing these were the best options for their children.^