Mar 06 2009
Gag Me with a Word Combo
Did you know that human beings are capable of “neural clairvoyance”? Yes, this from a science article about fMRI research on brain wave activity.
Neural clairvoyance?! You’ve got to be kidding me. Are we also capable of anal telekinesis? And who was this Claire that was voyant? What did she see?
Okay, all this amounts to much ado about very little. The author(s) of the article, Wave Of Brain Activity Linked To Anticipation Captured, were describing what happened when they measured the brain waves of student volunteers. And the word choice was mildly stupid. The finding was not. The subjects brought in their favorite music CDs. And -
The scientists examined brain images during the silence between songs, and found it brimming with activity. Other students who listened to music they had never heard in sequence before did not have that same neural bustle.
Interesting. But neural clairvoyance? Okay, I’ll get over it.
As many if not most people have experienced, when playing a vinyl record 8-track, cassette, CD, I have noticed how the words and rhythm of the next song bubble into consciousness as soon as one song ends and before the next begins.
Two more nuggets from the piece -
“It is not trivial to store a temporal sequence in the brain, because the brain doesn’t have any moving parts like a tape recorder or CD player. The whole brain needs to be involved because it has to be ready to execute that sequence.“
[T]he researchers found that during the anticipatory silence between the songs excitatory signals passed from the prefrontal cortex to the nearby premotor cortex. The prefrontal cortex is the brain’s “executive” center, which plans and orchestrates complex cognitive behaviors. The premotor cortex and its associated systems, which include the basal ganglia and the cerebellum, is involved in preparing the body to act – perhaps to move or to sing.
Wait. My ESP is kicking in now. If you find the above material thought-provoking, you too may have extra scientific perceptions.
