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posted by cmn32480 on Wednesday August 17 2016, @09:37AM   Printer-friendly
from the note-able-differences dept.

Researchers have performed brain scans on Sting (aka Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner CBE) in order to "make maps of how Sting's brain organizes music":

What does the 1960s Beatles hit "Girl" have in common with Astor Piazzolla's evocative tango composition "Libertango"? Probably not much, to the casual listener. But in the mind of one famously eclectic singer-songwriter, the two songs are highly similar. That's one of the surprising findings of an unusual neuroscience study based on brain scans of the musician Sting.

The paper, published in the journal Neurocase, uses recently developed imaging-analysis techniques to provide a window into the mind of a masterful musician. It also represents an approach that could offer insights into how gifted individuals find connections between seemingly disparate thoughts or sounds, in fields ranging from arts to politics or science.

"These state-of the-art techniques really allowed us to make maps of how Sting's brain organizes music," says lead author Daniel Levitin, a cognitive psychologist at McGill University. "That's important because at the heart of great musicianship is the ability to manipulate in one's mind rich representations of the desired soundscape."

[...] This research was supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.

The real trick involves imprinting Sting's brain patterns on a computer used to conquer Earth. Next on the list... Taylor Swift, Kanye West, and Kim Kardashian.

Measuring the representational space of music with fMRI: a case study with Sting (DOI: 10.1080/13554794.2016.1216572)


Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday August 17 2016, @02:29PM

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Wednesday August 17 2016, @02:29PM (#389127) Journal

    Did I say anywhere in the headline or summary that researchers should not get paid to scan Sting's brain?

    Nope!

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  • (Score: 2) by AthanasiusKircher on Saturday August 20 2016, @08:53PM

    by AthanasiusKircher (5291) on Saturday August 20 2016, @08:53PM (#390706) Journal

    Did I say anywhere in the headline or summary that researchers should not get paid to scan Sting's brain?

    No, you didn't. But the headline draws attention to that fact. If I write a headline saying, "Brand X of children's applesauce found to contain lead," the implication is that it is notable that Brand X contains lead and that the lead content is notable. If, however, it turns out that Brand X's lead levels are actually much lower than the average for applesauce (lead, after all, is a naturally occurring substance), and Brand X turns out to be safer than normal for children, we might say, "The headline drew attention to Brand X in a misleading way." Now, you might counter, "Did the headline say anywhere that the lead levels were high or dangerous?" No, the headline didn't say that. But why mention it?

    As I said, the headline mentions the fact that "researchers get paid" to... do research. That's a weird way to put it. Would you write a headline like, "Researchers get paid to find cure for cancer"? And then there was the mention of the funding source after an ellipsis at the end. Again, why?

    I'm not trying to attack you or be argumentative here, but the coupling of those two things draws attention to the fact that there was funding for the project. Why? Most research has funding that comes from somewhere, and we don't feel the need to draw attention to it. Perhaps you didn't mean to draw attention to it. Fine. Then I think you might ask yourself why you worded things the way you did. Again, I'm not claiming anything nefarious is going on here, only that that submission was reported in an unusual way compared to how people might generally report more "mainstream" research. If you can't see that, I'm not sure what else to say.