A Song for the Ages – Some Roguish Thoughts on the Role of Music in the Memory, Meaning, and Metaphysics of Aging

Without music, life would be a mistake ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

In this segment, I would like to bring together a few (seemingly) disparate ideas that connect humans as aging entities as creative agents and active listeners to the construction of their environments in this regard: MUSIC.

I consider music as something both scientific (to be understood and empirically tested) and metaphysical (to be appreciated as beyond our comprehension – and that is OK as the rhythm, the lyrics, the tone, the flow, the harmony, the effect create an alchemical magic in mind, body, and soul) – and that is a rare combination indeed.  Music is an enigma – and Enigma is music. Music is synthetic and analytic – necessary and contingent. I am thinking about music and feeling about music. I am writing about music – a posteriori – but I wonder if music is as a priori as defining the ‘triangle.”

In other words, we can analyze and dissect, and gain a degree of knowledge, but it still does not equate to total depth and breadth of what it is. I believe it is one aspect of human existence which will defy scientism such that as you dig deeper and deeper and follow the reductionism inward through the vestibulocochlear nerve and toward the synapses and neurotransmitters and we will find biochemicals and space – but where is the swirl of meaning and affect and transcendental “vibes”? It’s there, but here, and over there too. The experience is total – soma, germline, brain, mind, skin, hair, memory, movement, dance, rhythmic, spiritual, and existential. The power and the anti-power of music. Even the dour Arthur Schopenhauer found a special significance to the importance of music:

To stimulate the knowledge of these Ideas by depicting individual things (for works of art are themselves always such) is the aim of all the other non-musical arts . . . [but] music, since it passes over the Ideas, is . . . quite independent of the phenomenal world, positively ignores it, and, to a certain extent, could still exist even if there were no world at all, which cannot be said of the other arts.

The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy noted that,

Often considered to be a thoroughgoing pessimist, Schopenhauer in fact advocated ways — via artistic, moral and ascetic forms of awareness — to overcome a frustration-filled and fundamentally painful human condition. Since his death in 1860, his philosophy has had a special attraction for those who wonder about life’s meaning, along with those engaged in music, literature, and the visual arts. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/schopenhauer/

We create it and then it creates us. Music as the Ouroboros. It is an extension of us – perhaps both limbic and cortex – reaching out and extended outward beyond the cranial sphere and in-between and among us – connecting and weaving, energizing the many-into-one; the ultimate e-pluribus-unum. Anthems, ballads, beauty, angst, tranquility, marching, percussion, horns, strings, quartets, symphonies – our gift and each generation stamps its identity along with it and then carries it onward – to the grave, but it all joins in the magic and memetic swirl of humanity. Music as the gift from the creator and the gift is returned many-times over as the listener is a viable part of the process. Pure reciprocation and essential as breathing. Perhaps it is instinctual (see connection below to PBS series and Oliver Sacks).

I also see (listen?) music as breadcrumbs along our trail of human development. Music as the transportation device in memory. A ontological magic carpet. In addition, there is the passage of time, the anchor points of time, and the ability of music to serve as a cognitive wonderment, a mechanism to trigger reflection and contemplation. As I have suggested many times over in these blog segments, even as we are surrounded by the onslaught of biomedical findings, the scientific management of aging (as Thomas Cole would call it), and the promise of technological wonders that await us in this century (perhaps immortality? – as Aubrey de Grey might see it), I still need to have that deepening connection to not only the present (oops it just moved on, now it is the past; nope, got it! The present – right NOW ! Ah, no, it too has passed), but the unfolding slices and streaming media that reels backward along the pathways of our human development that have intersected each and every one of us – along the journey to the present – now.

We can sense that our on-going aging process is the accumulation of experiences, stories, people, landscapes and visions. We try to understand and create patterns from all of the kaleidoscopic memories and events which have been embellished and enhanced, elevated and manipulated into a Kantian mash of things-unto-themselves – where we believe that what was {what we were} is exactly the way that it was – and that was what happened (with a high degree of probability) but can we really know for sure with the highest degree of reliability and validity – that what was – was what it was. Or are our perceptions and memories only (and barely) able to glimpse the surface or an angle or the flash and glint of what was? It is true the photo albums, the videos and other media can provide a more certain foundation, but like the Zapruder film we see it unfolding, but what happened – really? Thus, the kaleidoscopic experience – and with time, the angles and the perspectives, the people, all age – and the images, the experiences are both there – and here, but still transformed.

We can rely on our senses to perhaps to allow for the possibility of “involuntary memory” which, as an example, set the stage for the great fictional work of Marcel Proust and À la recherche du temps perdu (or in English, In Search of Lost Time) –

“She sent out for one of those short, plump little cakes called petites madeleines, which look as though they had been moulded in the fluted scallop of a pilgrim’s shell. And soon, mechanically, weary after a dull day with the prospect of a depressing morrow, I raised to my lips a spoonful of the tea in which I had soaked a morsel of the cake. No sooner had the warm liquid, and the crumbs with it, touched my palate than a shudder ran through my whole body, and I stopped, intent upon the extraordinary changes that were taking place…at once the vicissitudes of life had become indifferent to me, its disasters innocuous, its brevity illusory…”

So, perhaps you have had a sensory trigger – many times over. And then there is the rush (often instantaneously) through time – to a place and moment – and there is the involuntary response of emotion, affect, and the re-enactment (or is it simply a pristine review of the scene?) of the experience as it was. The re-experiencing may be vivid and lucid or perhaps a momentary flash of hazy recollection – but the neurons firing and the synapses connecting, and the bundled cords of biochemical messages fly to their designated way stations igniting the response – and the overwhelming reaction.

I am sure this has happened to you many times over your life course. Perhaps you were driving your car –and the “old” song on the FM station comes up – and then turn up the volume to get the essence of it all {if the people driving around you or on the sidewalks could only know what this means to you! – If they only knew – but then they do – they know exactly what you are going through) or you find an box or container with some LP records – the covers and then you pull out the vinyl and marvel at the magic of ridges and the needle that would transmit history, time, and the intersect of the days in school, on the job, that summer, and that lover, and that day with sun and storm, heat and wind, thunder and the rush of clouds in the sky.

I am sure this is part of the fascinating work that Oliver Sacks is engaged in and I hope you can follow up on his book: Musicophilia (see: http://musicophilia.com/

– and then PBS special that is forthcoming and to air later this month. 

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/musicminds/ask.html

            Now, if may share a few trigger points along my life course as example and then end up with one song that is simply haunting the neurons right out of me (at this point).

            I have organized my iTunes playlist(s) into several categories, which roughly correspond to the following (as examples).

For the Brain (examples: Purple Haze, Jimi Hendrix; Crystal Ship, The Doors; Wake Up, Stop Dreaming, Wang Chung; Man on the Moon, REM)

For the Body: (examples: Crash Into Me, Dave Matthews Band; Big Legged Woman, Freddie King; Go All the Way, The Raspberries; God Part II, U2; Smooth, Santana and Rob Thomas (How can you not get hot and begin the dance with this one?); Let Love Take Control, Tab Benoit)

For the Fight: (examples: Street Fighting Man, Rolling Stones; Out of Control, The Eagles; Breed, Nirvana; City of Angels, Wang Chung;

For the Soul (examples: Instant Karma, John Lennon; Vide Cor Meum; Bruckner, Missa Solemis in B Flat Minor; Rachmaninov: Vespers, Op. 37; Faure: Requiem)

Some songs defy categories and I do not know where the hell to place them – I have another category that simply says “HAUNTING”

Jocelyn Pook’s: Dionysus  

Dean Can Dance: Cantara

The Allman Brothers: In Memory of Elizabeth Reed

And as a final example, here is another “haunting” song that I just added to the list and I cannot figure it out (yet – or maybe never will); it “sounds” familiar – and yet I am sure it is not.

I came across “it” by accident. I was listening to a box-set list by Crosby, Stills and Nash and trying to weave in the essence of songs like “Long Time Gone”, “Carry On” and “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes,” but it was another song on the list, that I guess I had always skipped over – and paid no attention to.

The song is Laughing. It is from If I Could Only Remember My Name, which is David Crosby’s first solo album (1971).  The song has this straight to the limbic/cortex drive and when Joni Mitchell’s voice joins in at the end and you have Jerry Garcia’s Pedal Steel Guitar at work – well, the reaction is unearthly and grounded – it is deeply philosophical (think: Plato’s cave metaphor) and I believe it is a mirror. But after listening, there is no longer any mirror; just dust glittering in the rays of the sun…

And all of the books could never convey the essence – of laughing.

The truth of it all.

Life – laughing. Dionysus. Odysseus. Cantara…. In Memory of…

I want to be laughing – as I die.

I want music played at my funeral. For you and for me.

But in the mean time… I will be singing.

thanks, Scott D. Wright

To Be Net Savvy is Good for Your Grey Matter As We Gray {Aging Article of the Month}

Welcome to the Research Article on Aging —- of the Month ! 

“Your Brain on Google: 
Patterns of Cerebral Activation During Internet Searching”
Small GW, Moody TD, Siddarth P, Bookheimer SY 
The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry: 2009 Feb;17(2):116-126. 

Selected by Scott D. Wright, Ph.D. –   for Rogue Scholarship on Aging
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To be Net Savvy is Good for for Your Grey Matter As We Gray
{I wonder what Aubrey de Grey thinks of that?}

                                              

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THE ARTICLE: 

Your Brain on Google: Patterns of Cerebral Activation During Internet Searching.

 

Small GW, Moody TD, Siddarth P, Bookheimer SY  (see info below)

The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry: 2009 Feb;17(2):116-126.

http://journals.lww.com/ajgponline/Abstract/2009/02000/Your_Brain_on_Google__Patterns_of_Cerebral.4.aspx

Functional MRI brain scans show how searching the Internet dramatically engages brain neural networks (in red). The image on the left displays brain activity while reading a book; the image on the right displays activity while engaging in an Internet search. (Credit: UCLA Newsroom) See full news release below or at http://newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/ucla-study-finds-that-searching-64348.aspx

CONCLUSION:
Although the present findings must be interpreted cautiously in light of the exploratory design of this study, they suggest that Internet searching may engage a greater extent of neural circuitry not activated while reading text pages but only in people with prior computer and Internet search experience. These observations suggest that in middle-aged and older adults, prior experience with Internet searching may alter the brain’s responsiveness in neural circuits controlling decision making and complex reasoning. (Full Abstract listed below)

Authors from the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences and Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, (GWS, TDM, PS, SYB), the Mary S. Easton Center for Alzheimer’s Disease Research and Center on Aging (GWS), University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA.

  See great comments (go to top of this post and click “Comments” from jenninboise and my response with further related articles and links such as “Is Google making Us Stupid” - thanks jenninboise for your comments !

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Your Brain on Google: 
Patterns of Cerebral Activation During Internet Searching. 
The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry:2009 Feb;17(2):116-126.

http://journals.lww.com/ajgponline/Abstract/2009/02000/Your_Brain_on_Google__Patterns_of_Cerebral.4.aspx

Small GW, Moody TD, Siddarth P, Bookheimer SY

Abstract

OBJECTIVE:: Previous research suggests that engaging in mentally stimulating tasks may improve brain health and cognitive abilities. Using computer search engines to find information on the Internet has become a frequent daily activity of people at any age, including middle-aged and older adults. As a preliminary means of exploring the possible influence of Internet experience on brain activation patterns, the authors performed functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the brain in older persons during search engine use and explored whether prior search engine experience was associated with the pattern of brain activation during Internet use. DESIGN:: Cross-sectional, exploratory observational study PARTICIPANTS:: The authors studied 24 subjects (age, 55-76 years) who were neurologically normal, of whom 12 had minimal Internet search engine experience (Net Naive group) and 12 had more extensive experience (Net Savvy group). The mean age and level of education were similar in the two groups. MEASUREMENTS:: Patterns of brain activation during functional MRI scanning were determined while subjects performed a novel Internet search task, or a control task of reading text on a computer screen formatted to simulate the prototypic layout of a printed book, where the content was matched in all respects, in comparison with a nontext control task. RESULTS:: The text reading task activated brain regions controlling language, reading, memory, and visual abilities, including left inferior frontal, temporal, posterior cingulate, parietal, and occipital regions, and both the magnitude and the extent of brain activation were similar in the Net Naive and Net Savvy groups. During the Internet search task, the Net Naive group showed an activation pattern similar to that of their text reading task, whereas the Net Savvy group demonstrated significant increases in signal intensity in additional regions controlling decision making, complex reasoning, and vision, including the frontal pole, anterior temporal region, anterior and posterior cingulate, and hippocampus. Internet searching was associated with a more than twofold increase in the extent of activation in the major regional clusters in the Net Savvy group compared with the Net Naive group (21,782 versus 8,646 total activated voxels). CONCLUSION:: Although the present findings must be interpreted cautiously in light of the exploratory design of this study, they suggest that Internet searching may engage a greater extent of neural circuitry not activated while reading text pages but only in people with prior computer and Internet search experience. These observations suggest that in middle-aged and older adults, prior experience with Internet searching may alter the brain’s responsiveness in neural circuits controlling decision making and complex reasoning.

Press Release:
UCLA study finds that searching the Internet increases brain function

By Rachel Champeau | 10/14/2008 8:00:00 AM

UCLA scientists have found that for computer-savvy middle-aged and older adults, searching the Internet triggers key centers in the brain that control decision-making and complex reasoning. The findings demonstrate that Web search activity may help stimulate and possibly improve brain function.

The study, the first of its kind to assess the impact of Internet searching on brain performance, is currently in press at the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry and will appear in an upcoming issue.

“The study results are encouraging, that emerging computerized technologies may have physiological effects and potential benefits for middle-aged and older adults,” said principal investigator Dr. Gary Small, a professor at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA who holds UCLA’s Parlow-Solomon Chair on Aging. “Internet searching engages complicated brain activity, which may help exercise and improve brain function.”

As the brain ages, a number of structural and functional changes occur, including atrophy, reductions in cell activity, and increases in deposits of amyloid plaques and tau tangles, which can impact cognitive function.

Small noted that pursuing activities that keep the mind engaged may help preserve brain health and cognitive ability. Traditionally, these include games such as crossword puzzles, but with the advent of technology, scientists are beginning to assess the influence of computer use — including the Internet.

Additional details on the study and further research on the impact of computer technologies on the aging brain are highlighted in Small’s new book, “iBrain: Surviving the Technological Alteration of the Modern Mind,” published today.

For the study, the UCLA team worked with 24 neurologically normal research volunteers between the ages of 55 and 76. Half of the study participants had experience searching the Internet, while the other half had no experience. Age, educational level and gender were similar between the two groups.

Study participants performed Web searches and book-reading tasks while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans, which recorded the subtle brain-circuitry changes experienced during these activities. This type of scan tracks the intensity of cell responses in the brain by measuring the level of cerebral blood flow during cognitive tasks.

All study participants showed significant brain activity during the book-reading task, demonstrating use of the regions controlling language, reading, memory and visual abilities, which are located in the temporal, parietal, occipital and other areas of the brain.

Internet searches revealed a major difference between the two groups. While all participants demonstrated the same brain activity that was seen during the book-reading task, the Web-savvy group also registered activity in the frontal, temporal and cingulate areas of the brain, which control decision-making and complex reasoning.

“Our most striking finding was that Internet searching appears to engage a greater extent of neural circuitry that is not activated during reading — but only in those with prior Internet experience,” said Small, who is also the director of UCLA’s Memory and Aging Research Center.

In fact, researchers found that during Web searching, volunteers with prior experience registered a twofold increase in brain activation when compared with those with little Internet experience. The tiniest measurable unit of brain activity registered by the fMRI is called a voxel. Scientists discovered that during Internet searching, those with prior experience sparked 21,782 voxels, compared with only 8,646 voxels for those with less experience.

Compared with simple reading, the Internet’s wealth of choices requires that people make decisions about what to click on in order to pursue more information, an activity that engages important cognitive circuits in the brain.

“A simple, everyday task like searching the Web appears to enhance brain circuitry in older adults, demonstrating that our brains are sensitive and can continue to learn as we grow older,” Small said.

Small added that the minimal brain activation found in the less experienced Internet group may be due to participants not quite grasping the strategies needed to successfully engage in an Internet search, which is common while learning a new activity.

“With more time on the Internet, they may demonstrate the same brain activation patterns as the more experienced group,” he said.

Researchers noted that additional studies will address both the positive and negative influences of these emerging technologies on the aging brain.

The study was funded by the Parvin Foundation.

Additional study authors include Teena D. Moody, Ph.D., a senior research associate at UCLA’s Semel Institute, and Susan Y. Bookheimer, Ph.D., a professor of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences at the Semel Institute.