Brain Activity Reveals the Melodies That People Imagine
Researchers believe they've found evidence that brain signals reveal the pitches of notes in imagined musical melodies, reports Medical Express: Study participants were 10 epilepsy patients with electrodes on the surfaces of their brains for clinical monitoring. Participants quietly listened to the first bars of children's tunes, then imagined the melodies of subsequent bars before humming their…
Scientists may have discovered how the brain encodes the musical notes people imagine, according to a study published on Medical Express. The research involved ten epilepsy patients, each equipped with electrodes on the outer surface of their brains for clinical monitoring purposes. These participants listened to the opening bars of children's songs, then mentally envisioned the melodies of the following bars before attempting to hum their imagined tunes.
Brain activity from the patients provided insights into the relative pitches within the imagined melodies, according to the study. By analyzing the data and combining note-level pitch predictions over time, researchers were able to recreate the melodic changes that mirrored the structure of the imagined songs. The team's model focuses on decoding relative pitch classes—such as "do," "re," "mi," "fa," "sol," and "la"—rather than pinpointing exact, absolute pitches.
This approach is valuable because people often recognize melodies based on the relationships between notes, even when the same melody is played in a different key.
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