Expectation and musical perception
The PBS series "Closer to Truth" did a episode on "How Do Human Brains Experience Music?"
https://youtu.be/1TsitZvvcsw?si=UnTa-wlFnrrFiTnB
in which they explained the complex pathway by which the brain turns perception of sound into recognizable speech or music. Most significantly Prof Elizabeth Margulis of Princeton states that prior knowledge in the brain actually changes what we perceive when listening to music. The whole show is worth watching but at least check out her segment around the 23 minute mark.
What I get from this is that when listening to music the issue of expectation bias is HUGE. If the brain is expecting something it can open the door to hearing it, and the reverse is also true.
I see relevance here to the many on-going discussions on this forum. What do you think?
Some of you may beinterested in Dr. Margulis books or the work of her Music Cogntion Lab at
What is sad is that most people looking for a good sound think that investing in a 100,000 bucks gear system ( with not even a dedicated room acoustic) is the key...Instead of studying basic mechanical,electrical and acoustical knowledge... it is why i cannot take seriously most audio thread which are about gear expanse and branded name consumerism... |
I’m glad you like the link @mahgister, you were one of the people I was thinking of when I decided to post it. I have enjoyed some of your postings on the nature of music and sound. I totally agree that price and sound quality of audio gear have a weak correlation after a certain dollar threshold is crossed. Isn’t it interesting that Dr. Margulis and the inventor to the BAACH system that you admire are both at Princeton? I live about a 90 minute drive from there and would love to find a way to talk to these people or at least hear them. I even drove to Princeton one time for an audiophile meeting just on the hope that I might make a connection, but alas, no luck. Btw the twitter link you provided did not work for me.
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Thanks indeed for this interesting information... The link does not work anymore...😁 But the image i suggested to understand how 2 or 3 or many patterns conjointed can create a new emerging pattern which wait to be perceived, this image is in this wikipedia article : music and sound are as in these images set a soul steganography...A fractals set of meanings made flesh by sound flows... Music is the best means and tool with mathematics , especially geometry, with Nature forms and colors, to increase attention and intention ...As said Goethe an act of "exact sensorial imagination"... A mandala or a mantra, a prayer as well as a creative act... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steganography
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That is a perfect analogy for something demonstrated in an earlier portion of the Closer to Truth episode where a very familiar tune is played but it has been altered to randomly assign each note to an octave above or below it. It is unrecognizable. Then they play it unaltered after which you hear the altered version once more and it can be recognized. You hear it differently with the added knowledge. It is also why they find people from different cultures will have different emotional reactions to the same music. |
