Song of the Songbirds

[cienu]

Very interesting article in today's "The Hindu"
http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/article1087484.ece

[vgovindan]

Deleted

[srikant1987]

Interesting and very enlightening article. Thank you, cienu.

[arasi]

Cienu,
Thanks for posting this. Though I'm not a birdwatcher spending hours in the woods with binoculars around my neck, birds have been part of my life in observing and living with nature. I hear the sounds hedge sparrows, blue jays, red cardinals, mocking birds and more in my surroundings.Tthe height of their musical expression comes in spring (mating and nesting time). Just as with humans, long notes (of enticement?) in early spring and later, hurried savAl javab (tani with upa pakka vAdyams).In early summer when they have a nest of fledglings--commands like 'hurry up with the food supply!' to the mate and 'try flying to a higher branch!', urging the young ones to get independent (boot camp fashion).
I have tried singing CM rAgA phrase sounds and saying short sentences with the mocking birds and they truly mimic you!

[vainika]

Vanessa Schipani's article from the-scientist.com has a video too, see http://www.the-scientist.com/news/display/57914/

Another article at the same site 'Musical Pleasure' reports on a Jan 9 2011 Nature Neuroscience finding from McGill University that people experience dopamine release even in anticipation of a pleasurable musical crescendo.

To assess the biological mechanism behind a pleasurable musical experience, the team conducted PET and fMRI brain scans while measuring the "chills" -- aka changes in temperature, skin conductance, heart rate and breathing -- that participants felt in response to their favorite songs, which ranged from classical to jazz to techno and even bagpipes. The researchers found that during peak emotional moments, when patients got the "chills," dopamine was released in two areas of the brain: First, in the caudate, an important part of the brain's learning and memory system, during anticipation of a musical peak, then during the peak experience, in the nucleus accumbens, a key site of reward and pleasure pathways.


g M - P m G - r G - S r G, anyone?

[Nick H]

--- Do we have to give concerts a dopamine score now, then?

[vainika]

--- Do we have to give concerts a dopamine score now, then?

... and by extension, individual rAgas, compositions and composers could have their dopamine ratings too

[Nick H]

I don't care if it does all come down to chemicals --- it's still love!

[vasanthakokilam]