The human knowledge system: music and brain coherence

Multi-Modal Integration of EEG-fNIRS for Characterization of Brain Activity Evoked by Preferred Music

Music can effectively improve people's emotions, and has now become an effective auxiliary treatment method in modern medicine. With the rapid development of neuroimaging, the relationship between music and brain function has attracted much attention. In this study, we proposed an integrated framework of multi-modal electroencephalogram (EEG) and functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) from data collection to data analysis to explore the effects of music (especially personal preferred music) on brain activity. During the experiment, each subject was listening to two different kinds of music, namely personal preferred music and neutral music. In analyzing the synchronization signals of EEG and fNIRS, we found that music promotes the activity of the brain (especially the prefrontal lobe), and the activation induced by preferred music is stronger than that of neutral music. For the multi-modal features of EEG and fNIRS, we proposed an improved Normalized-ReliefF method to fuse and optimize them and found that it can effectively improve the accuracy of distinguishing between the brain activity evoked by preferred music and neutral music (up to 98.38%). Our work provides an objective reference based on neuroimaging for the research and application of personalized music therapy.

Macromusophagy: A solo piano musical representation of macroautophagy

Macroautophagy is a complex process involving dynamic membrane rearrangements in which parts of the cytoplasm are sequestered within double-membrane phagophores. Upon completion, these structures mature into autophagosomes that fuse with the yeast vacuole or mammalian lysosome, leading to degradation of the cargo and release of the resulting macromolecules back into the cytosol. How can the complexities of macroautophagy best be conveyed to an audience that is composed primarily of people who are not experts in this topic, and possibly not even scientists? The literature on learning is vast, and difficult to summarize, but there are certain themes that frequently appear. First, people learn in different ways. Thus, for example, while lectures are effective for conveying information to part of the audience, some will benefit tremendously from alternative methods of presentation. The latter can be visual (taking the form of illustrations, videos, or even physical movement), tactile or audible. Second, a line of research suggests that the engagement of more than one part of the brain (dual channels) improves learning. We decided to explore these concepts focusing on an audible format through a collaborative approach by combining a scientific explanation of macroautophagy with a musical score that was composed specifically to represent this process.