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Mind, Brain, & Behavior 91: Music and the Brain
Harvard College, 2007-2008 Academic Year
Spring Term
Syllabus
Last Update: 4/2/08
CONTENTS:
Course Website
Classroom & Time
Professor
Course Description
Prerequisites
Books (required)
Books (recommended)
Other Reading
Requirements
Lectures & Seminars
Problem Sets
Selected Readings and associated Thought Questions
The URL is http://www.brainmusic.org. Follow the path: Educational Activities -> Ear, Brain, & Music to get to the entire SYLLABUS. Take the short cut Educational Activities -> Selected Reading to jump to the weekly list of professional journal articles covering each week's theme - e.g, pitch, harmony, talent, creativity.
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Mark Jude Tramo, M.D., Ph.D.
Harvard Medical
School, Department of Neurology
Harvard University, Mind/Brain/Behavior Interfaculty Initiative
FAS Standing Committee on
Mind/Brain/Behavior
Email (preferred means of contact): mtramo@hms.harvard.edu
Surface Mail:
Dr MJ Tramo, Institute for Music & Brain Science
Harvard Med Sch & Mass General Hospital
175 Cambridge Street, Suite 340
Boston, MA 02114 USA
Telephone = 617-726-5409
Fax = 781-990-1397
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Wednesdays 6:30-8:30P
Offices of the Harvard University Mind/Brain/Behavior Interfaculty Initiative
42 Church Street, 2nd Floor, Rm 227
(Enter on Church St between Brattle St and Mass Ave; please see sign above intercom re: access)
*At the street entrance, please follow the directions posted near intercom in order to gain entry; after registration, your ID cards will be coded for access.
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Mind, Brain, & Behavior takes a multidisciplinary approach to understanding neural systems contributing to music perception, performance, and cognition. Students are expected to master topics in acoustics, music theory, psychophysics, cognitive psychology, neurophysiology, neuroanatomy, and neurology. After a series of lectures by Professor Tramo that establishes a common foundation in functional neuroanatomy, auditory physiology, and psychoacoustics for students from diverse backgrounds, seminars develop analytical skills through critical appraisals of "primary-source", experimental literature published in peer-reviewed science, medical, music, and education journals. Homework problem sets from Rossing's standard text, Science of Sound, instill confidence that working knowledge of basic auditory science - decibels, resonance, formants, and so on - has been gained, leaving seminar time for provocative discussions of neuroscientific data collection and analysis methods, results, interpretation, and corroboration.
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Secondary school mathematics and physics. If you are not familiar with the vocabulary of music, get the Harvard Dictionary of Music, which is listed below under Recommended Books.
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- Music, Language, and the Brain, Aniruddh D. Patel, PhD, 2007
- Introduction to the Psychology of Hearing, 5th Edition, Brian Moore, PhD, 2003
- Cognitive Neuroscience of Music, Peretz and Zatorre, ed., 2003
- Music and Emotion: Theory and Research, Sloboda and Juslin, ed., 2001
- Signals and Systems for Speech and Hearing, Rosen and Howell, 1991
- Emotion and Meaning in Music, Leonard B. Meyer, 1961
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Other Reading |
- Fundamentals of Hearing, Fifth Edition: An Introduction, William A. Yost, 2006 - general psychoacoustics, some auditory physiology
- The Mammalian Auditory Pathway: Neurophysiology, A. Popper, PhD and R. Fay, PhD, 1992 - a collection of rigorous auditory physiology review papers
- Psychology of Music, 2nd edition, Diana Deutsch, PhD, ed., 1999 - review papers of empirical and theoretical work on various aspects of music perception, performance, and cognition.
- Cognitive Foundations of Musical Pitch, C. Krumhansl, PhD, 1990 - review of classic, orignal experiments demonstrting implicit knowledge of tonal hierarchies and how this influences harmony and melody perception
- The Unanswered Question, L. Bernstein, 1976 - his Norton Lectures at Harvard, in which he attempts to develop concepts of musical phonology, syntax, and semantics analogous to those developed in linguistics by Chomsky and others
- The Harvard Dictionary of Music: Fourth Edition, D.M. Randel, 2003 - a valuable aid if the vocabulary is new to you, fun if you haven't looked up the words recently
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Grading is based on:
1. Attendance.
2. Weekly participation in seminar
discussions that reflects completion of weekly reading assignments
.
3. Performance on homework problem sets .
4. Seminar presentations of two or more of
the Selected Readings.
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