Music and speech based on human biology

A pair of studies by Duke University neuroscientists shows powerful new evidence of a deep biological link between human music and speech.

The two new studies found that the musical scales most commonly used over the centuries are those that come closest to mimicking the physics of the human voice, and that we understand emotions expressed through music because the music mimics the way emotions are expressed in speech. Composers have long exploited the perception of minor chord music as sad and major chord music as happy, now the Duke team thinks they know why.

In a paper appearing in the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America (JASA), the Duke team, led by Dale Purves, a professor of neurobiology, found that sad or happy speech can be categorized in major and minor intervals, just as music can. So your mother was right: It’s not only the words you say, but how you say them.

In a second paper appearing Dec. 3 in the online journal PLOS One, Kamraan Gill, another member of the team, found the most commonly used musical scales are also based on the physics of the vocal tones humans produce.

“There is a strong biological basis to the aesthetics of sound,” Purves said. “Humans prefer tone combinations that are similar to those found in speech.”

… Although there are literally millions of scales that could be used to divide the octave, most human music is based on scales comprised of only five to seven tones. The researchers argue the preference for these particular tone collections is based on how closely they approximate the harmonic series of tones produced by humans.

Though they only worked with western music and spoken English, there is reason to believe these findings are more widely applicable. Most of the frequency ratios of the chromatic musical scale can be found in the speech of a variety of languages. Their analysis included speakers of Mandarin Chinese, said Duke neuroscience graduate student Daniel Bowling, who is the first author on the JASA paper, and this showed similar results.

“Our appreciation of music is a happy byproduct of the biological advantages of speech and our need to understand its emotional content,” Purves said.

It would be hard to say whether singing or speech came first, but graduate student Dan Bowling supposes “emotional communication in both speech and music is rooted in earlier non-lingual vocalizations that expressed emotion.”

via Music and speech based on human biology.

Researchers demonstrate a better way for computers to ‘see’

Taking inspiration from genetic screening techniques, researchers from Harvard and MIT have demonstrated a way to build better artificial visual systems with the help of low-cost, high-performance gaming hardware.

The neural processing involved in visually recognizing even the simplest object in a natural environment is profound—and profoundly difficult to mimic. Neuroscientists have made broad advances in understanding the visual system, but much of the inner workings of biologically-based systems remain a mystery.

Using Graphics Processing Units (GPUs), the same technology video game designers use to render life-like graphics, researchers are now making progress faster than ever before. A new study, co-led by David Cox, Principal Investigator of the Visual Neuroscience Group at the Rowland Institute at Harvard, and Nicolas Pinto, a Ph.D. Candidate in James DiCarlo’s laboratory at the McGovern Institute for Brain Research and the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT, was published in the November 26th issue of PLoS Computational Biology.

“Reverse engineering a biological visual system—a system with hundreds of millions of processing units—and building an artificial system that works the same way is a daunting task,” says Cox. “It is not enough to simply assemble together a huge amount of computing power. We have to figure out how to put all the parts together so that they can do what our brains can do.”

“While studying the brain has yielded critical information about how the brain is wired, we currently don’t have enough information to build a computer system that works like the brain does,” adds Pinto. “Even if we take all of the clues that we have available from experimental neuroscience, there is still an enormous range of possible models for us to explore.”

To tackle this problem, the team drew inspiration from screening techniques in molecular biology, where a multitude of candidate organisms or compounds are screened in parallel to find those that have a particular property of interest. Rather than building a single model and seeing how well it could recognize visual objects, the team constructed thousands of candidate models, and screened for those that performed best on an object recognition task.

The resulting models outperformed a crop of state-of-the-art computer vision systems across a range of test sets, more accurately identifying a range of objects on random natural backgrounds with variation in position, scale, and rotation.

Using ordinary computer processing units, the effort would have required either years of time or millions of dollars of computing hardware. Instead, by harnessing modern graphics hardware, the analysis was done in just one week, and at a small fraction of the cost.

“GPUs are a real game-changer for scientific computing. We made a powerful parallel computing system from cheap, readily available off-the-shelf components, delivering over hundred-fold speed-ups relative to conventional methods,” says Pinto. “With this expanded computational power, we can discover new vision models that traditional methods miss.”

This high-throughput approach could be applied to other areas of computer vision, such as face identification, object tracking, pedestrian detection for automotive applications, and gesture and action recognition. Moreover, as scientists understand better what components make a good artificial vision system, they can use these hints when studying real brains to understand them better as well.

“Reverse and forward engineering the brain is a virtuous cycle. The more we learn about one, the more we can learn about the other,” says Cox. “Tightly coupling experimental neuroscience and computer engineering holds the promise to greatly accelerate both fields.”

…video is available here: http://vimeo.com/7945275

via Researchers demonstrate a better way for computers to ‘see’.

Breakthrough microRNA-targeted therapy holds promise as new treatment for hepatitis C

A study published online in this week’s Science shows that SPC3649, a breakthrough microRNA-targeted therapy developed by Santaris Pharma A/S using its proprietary Locked Nucleic Acid (LNA) technology, holds promise as a novel treatment for patients infected with the Hepatitis C virus (HCV).

The World Health Organization estimates about 3% of the world’s population has been infected with HCV and that some 170 million are chronic carriers at risk of developing liver cirrhosis and/or liver cancer . Approximately 3-4 million Americans are chronically infected with an estimated 40,000 new infections per year . In Europe, there are about 4 million carriers .

Santaris Pharma A/S, the first company to have advanced both mRNA and microRNA targeted drugs into clinical trials, is an international biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of RNA-targeted therapies for a range of diseases including metabolic disorders, infectious and inflammatory diseases, cancer and rare genetic disorders.

In this preclinical study, SPC3649 successfully inhibited miR-122, a liver-expressed microRNA important for Hepatitis C viral replication. By inhibiting miR-122, SPC3649 dramatically reduced Hepatitis C virus in the liver and in the bloodstream in chimpanzees chronically infected with the Hepatitis C virus . Four HCV chronically infected chimpanzees were treated weekly with 5 or 1 mg/kg of SPC3649 for 12 weeks followed by a treatment free period of 17 weeks. The two animals that received the 5 mg/kg dose had a significant decline in viral levels in the blood and liver of approximately 2.5 orders of magnitude or approximately 350 fold .

“In collaborating with Santaris Pharma, we proved that the drug worked exceptionally well in treating HCV infections in chimpanzees,” said Robert Lanford, Ph.D., a scientist at the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research and one of the lead authors on the study. “The current standard anti-HCV treatment, which combines pegylated interferon-alpha with ribavirin, is effective in only about 50% of patients and is often associated with severe side effects. Because of the unique mechanism of action of SPC3649 and its tolerability profile, this new therapy could have the potential to replace interferon to treat disease progression or be combined with current treatments.”

SPC3649 provided continued efficacy in the animals up to several months after the treatment period with no adverse events and no evidence of viral rebound or resistance, an important factor that distinguishes SPC3649 from direct antiviral HCV therapeutics.

Current antiviral therapies that target the virus directly are challenged as the HCV continually mutates to develop resistance to treatment. Because SPC3649 inhibits miR-122, an important microRNA involved in HCV replication, the HCV is blocked from replicating without the apparent selection of resistant mutants. SPC3649 has other important properties that make it attractive as a therapeutic agent for HCV. The preclinical data show changes in the expression of key genes that may help patients who do not respond to interferon treatment to become responsive.

SPC3649 is the first microRNA-targeted drug to enter human clinical trials and is currently undergoing Phase 1 clinical studies in healthy volunteers. These preclinical data provide even greater impetus to further examine the potential of SPC3649 for treating patients infected with HCV. …

via New data show breakthrough microRNA-targeted therapy holds promise as new treatment for hepatitis C.

Hepatitis C is an infectious disease affecting the liver, caused by the hepatitis C virus (HCV).^[1] The infection is often asymptomatic, but once established, chronic infection can progress to scarring of the liver (fibrosis), and advanced scarring (cirrhosis) which is generally apparent after many years. In some cases, those with cirrhosis will go on to develop liver failure or other complications of cirrhosis, including liver cancer.^[1]

… An estimated 270-300 million people worldwide are infected with hepatitis C. Hepatitis C is a strictly human disease. It cannot be contracted from or given to any other animal. Chimpanzees can be infected with the virus in the laboratory, but do not develop the disease, which has made research more difficult. No vaccine against hepatitis C is available. The existence of hepatitis C (originally “non-A non-B hepatitis”) was postulated in the 1970s and proved conclusively in 1989. It is one of five known hepatitis viruses: A, B, C, D, and E.

via wikipedia

Eigenharp Alpha, the future of music?

Interesting new instrument for electronic sounding music.

Mindfulness relieves anxiety and depression in secondary education teachers

UGR News A doctoral thesis carried out at the University of Granada has proved that a mental training based on mindfulness –an emotional self-regulating tool that consists in focusing on what we are doing, thinking about or feeling at every moment- helps to fight against psychological diseases such as anxiety, depression, concern or complaints about health, very common among secondary education teachers, and is very positive for emotional regulation.

This research work has analysed the psycho-physiological mechanisms related to the mindfulness, checking the effectiveness of a training programme that works as an emotional self-regulating tool. Mindfulness is a type of mental training increasingly popular in the U.S., based on the practice of self-awareness and in terms such as attention, awareness and the reference to a specific moment.

The work, developed by Luis Carlos Delgado Pastor and supervised by professor Jaime Vila Castellar, of the department of Personality, Assessment and Psychological Treatment, has confirmed the effectiveness of training mindfulness abilities applying it to two different groups with defined features: a 20-girls sample with high-level concern and a group of 25 secondary education teachers.

Improvement in both groups

Besides, as a consequence of the mental training, both the girls with chronic concern and the teachers improved their subjective rates of anxiety, depression, concern, complaints about health and emotional regulation, together with certain con psycho-physiological such as, for example, cardiac, muscular and respiratory variables.

Delgado Pastor says that, in the light of the results obtained, they have proved the “effectiveness of training mindfulness abilities and human values in the teaching sector as an emotional self-regulating tool, stress prevention for teachers and students, as well as to facilitate the teaching-learning process”.

Accordingly, says the UGR researchers, mindfulness is also useful for persons who are suffering from desadaptative emotional processes, such as chronic concern, anxiety and depression.

via A new mental treatment based on attention improves anxiety and depression in secondary education teachers.

Related:

Mindfulness training busts stress

…  others, including Waugh, were taught techniques to cultivate mindfulness, such as yoga poses, breathing methods, stretches and meditation — all designed to help workers cope with too many e-mails, ringing phones and the occasional nasty co-worker.Lead investigator Kimberly Williams said the goal was to relieve stress. “Mindfulness means to pay full attention to what you are doing, moment by moment,” she said. “We taught them how to recognize sources of stress, how stress impacts them, and then what they could do to come out of the vicious cycle of stress reactivity.”

The program lasted eight weeks and participants were followed for an additional three months. Williams said they found those who received the mindfulness training “had significantly less daily hassles, psychological distress and significantly fewer medical symptoms” — like lower blood pressure and fewer aches and pains — than those who were handed a pamphlet. …

The mindfulness exercises in the WVU study included “deep tasting,” where participants spent time eating a raisin: They looked at it, smelled it, and took small bites to savor the taste. “It brings an awareness to the body that normally is always being rushed,” said Williams, who emphasized the need to slow down. … – cnn

Tips I like:  Focus on the present, just sit in silence doing nothing for at least 5 minutes per day, eat slowly and savor you food, put space between things, when talking to someone, be present and enjoy listening to them. When frustrated, relax.

Mindfulness Tips I dislike:

“Do one thing at a time.”

Come on. This is not even possible. Our brains are parallel processors and there are always many things going on. Doing one thing is an illusion.

“Do one thing slowly and deliberately.” and “Do less”

These are both fine if you are immortal, but I have a lot I want to do.

Lifelong memories linked to stable nerve connections

Our ability to learn new information and adapt to changes in our daily environment, as well as to retain lifelong memories, appears to lie in the minute junctions where nerve cells communicate, according to a new study by NYU Langone Medicine Center researchers. The study is published online this week in the journal Nature.

The scientists, led by Wen-Biao Gan, PhD, associate professor of physiology and neuroscience at NYU School of Medicine, discovered that a delicate balancing act occurs in the brain where neuronal connections are continually being formed, eliminated, and maintained. This feat allows the brain to integrate new information without jeopardizing already established memories, the new study suggests.

Using a powerful optical imaging technique called two-photon microscopy, Dr. Gan and colleagues at The Helen and Martin Kimmel Center for Biology and Medicine at the Skirball Institute of Biomolecular Medicine, viewed the precise changes that take place at synapses, the junctions where nerve cells communicate, in the wake of learning a new task or being exposed to a novel situation. New knowledge, explains Dr. Gan, prompts alterations in the dendritic spines, the knobby protrusions along the branching ends of nerve cells. With learning, spines are gained and others lost.

“We’ve known for a long time that the brain remodels after learning,” says Dr. Gan “Our studies show that the brain does this in two ways: by adding a tiny fraction of new connections to the brain’s neural circuitry and eliminating old ones.”

Dr. Gan and his associates tracked changes in the brains of mice before and after experiencing a new stimulus (a string of beads hung at different places along the cage) or learning a new task (running on an accelerated spinning wheel). To open a window to the brain, the team shaved away the skull over the animals’ cortex in which the nerve dendrites were lit up by fluorescent proteins. Then, using a two-photon microscope, they snapped photos of the dendrites after the animals learned to stay on the running wheel or encountered the newly positioned beads. The team began photographing the mice when they were a month old and followed them through adulthood.

When the team compared the photos across the months, they observed new spines emerging in response to the beads’ placement or learning to run on the wheel. They saw, too, that as the mice became improved at spinning the wheel, a minute fraction of new spines continued to persist. The researchers also noted that at the same time as these new and lasting spines were created, a corresponding number of older spines that had been formed early in the animals’ development before the experiment began, disappeared.

Despite the rise and fall of dendritic spines, the animals’ brain circuitry remained overwhelmingly secure. A mouse neuron can carry ten thousand spines on its dendrites. Over months, about 100 spines were either gained or lost on each nerve cell after exposure to new experience while the majority of existing spines are maintained.

The study gives a clue as to how it is possible for humans, who have hundreds of thousands of spines on one neuron, to live each day, constantly experiencing and learning new things, without losing existing memories. “The brain is a dynamic and stable organ,” says Dr. Gan….

via Lifelong memories linked to stable nerve connections.

A Window that Washes Itself?

TAU’s new nano-material may revolutionize solar panels and batteries too

A coating on windows or solar panels that repels grime and dirt? Expanded battery storage capacities for the next electric car? New Tel Aviv University research, just published in Nature Nanotechnology, details a breakthrough in assembling peptides at the nano-scale level that could make these futuristic visions come true in just a few years.

Operating in the range of 100 nanometers (roughly one-billionth of a meter) and even smaller, graduate student Lihi Adler-Abramovich and a team working under Prof. Ehud Gazit in TAU’s Department of Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology have found a novel way to control the atoms and molecules of peptides so that they “grow” to resemble small forests of grass. These “peptide forests” repel dust and water — a perfect self-cleaning coating for windows or solar panels which, when dirty, become far less efficient.

“This is beautiful and protean research,” says Adler-Abramovich, a Ph.D. candidate. “It began as an attempt to find a new cure for Alzheimer’s disease. To our surprise, it also had implications for electric cars, solar energy and construction.”

As cheap as the sweetener in your soda

A world leader in nanotechnology research, Prof. Gazit has been developing arrays of self-assembling peptides made from proteins for the past six years. His lab, in collaboration with a group led by Prof. Gil Rosenman of TAU’s Faculty of Engineering, has been working on new applications for this basic science for the last two years.

Using a variety of peptides, which are as simple and inexpensive to produce as the artificial sweetener aspartame, the researchers create their “self-assembled nano-tubules” in a vacuum under high temperatures. These nano-tubules can withstand extreme heat and are resistant to water.

“We are not manufacturing the actual material but developing a basic-science technology that could lead to self-cleaning windows and more efficient energy storage devices in just a few years,” says Adler-Abramovich. “As scientists, we focus on pure research. Thanks to Prof. Gazit’s work on beta amyloid proteins, we were able to develop a technique that enables short peptides to ‘self-assemble,’ forming an entirely new kind of coating which is also a super-capacitor.”

As a capacitor with unusually high energy density, the nano-tech material could give existing electric batteries a boost — necessary to start an electric car, go up a hill, or pass other cars and trucks on the highway. One of the limitations of the electric car is thrust, and the team thinks their research could lead to a solution to this difficult problem.

“Our technology may lead to a storage material with a high density,” says Adler-Abramovich. “This is important when you need to generate a lot of energy in a short period of time. It could also be incorporated into today’s lithium batteries,” she adds.

Windex a thing of the past?

Coated with the new material, the sealed outer windows of skyscrapers may never need to be washed again — the TAU lab’s material can repel rainwater, as well as the dust and dirt it carries. The efficiency of solar energy panels could be improved as well, as a rain shower would pull away any dust that might have accumulated on the panels. It means saving money on maintenance and cleaning, which is especially a problem in dusty deserts, where most solar farms are installed today.

The lab has already been approached to develop its coating technology commercially. And Prof. Gazit has a contract with drug mega-developer Merck to continue his work on short peptides for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease — as he had originally foreseen.

via American Friends of Tel Aviv University: A Window that Washes Itself?.

Is this the world’s tallest man?

An Indonesian man, Suparwono, has been officially measured after claims that he could be the world’s tallest man.

The Indonesian Museum of Records made a formal measurement of Suparwono’s height after claims that he could be almost 8ft 10in tall.

The current record holder is Sultan Kosen from Turkey, who is 8ft 1in, while the world’s tallest ever man, the American Robert Wadlow, died in 1940 measuring over 8ft 11in.

However, after measuring Suparwono in both a lying and a standing position, the museum found that the 25-year-old was just 7ft 11in – two inches shorter than Kosen.

This makes him the tallest man in Indonesia, but does not qualify him for the Guinness Book of World Records.

“We had reports this morning including the result of measurements from a hospital which were 2.71 metres,” said museum director Ngadri. “But we have to stick to our measurement.”

Suparwono, who comes from the village of Tri Tunggal Jaya on the island of Sumatra, was first identified as a world record holder when a relative invited neighbours to take pictures of him.

He lives with his parents and earns money doing odd jobs around the village. He eats almost seven pounds of rice and 15 eggs a day.

“I started to realise my exceptional height when I was 10 years old,” he said. “At that time, I was already the tallest at my school and in my village.”

Suharto said he felt “proud” of his height, but added: “It also gives me problems because I can't live like normal people.”

via Is this the world’s tallest man? – Telegraph.

Suparwono, who like many Indonesians goes by only one name, said he felt ‘proud’ of his height but added: ‘It also gives me problems as I can’t live like normal people.’ - metro

Our feet can talk, says study

Eye contact, and body language, have long been considered tell-tale signs of cheating, nervousness, sexual attraction and lying.

But Prof Geoffrey Beattie, Head of School and Dean of Psychological Sciences at the University of Manchester, said that many people will often have no idea about the secret messages their feet are giving out.

According the research compiled on behalf of shoemakers Jeffery West, if a woman fancies someone and is laughing, her foot will move away from her body and she will have an open leg posture.

If her feet are crossed, or tucked away under her body then she isn't attracted to you. Men on the other hand don't signal sexual attraction with their feet.

Liars keep their feet unnaturally still, to try and distract people away from their fibbing. Women do judge men on their shoes – how stylish, clean and expensive they look and whether they match an outfit.

If a man is nervous, he will show his feelings by increasing his foot movement. Women however, do the opposite, and keep their feet still if they are nervous.

Alpha males and females have a low level of leg and foot movement because they like to dominate and control the conversation and the same goes for their body.

Extroverts do likewise but for different reasons, while shy people have frequent movements.

Arrogant people also keep their bodies more in check and use less foot movement.

Prof Beattie, resident psychologist on all the Big Brother shows, said: “Whilst people might know what their facial expression or hands might be imparting, they will often have no idea whether their feet are moving or the messages their feet are sending out.

“The secret language of feet can reveal a great deal about our personality, what we think of the person we're talking to and even our emotional and psychological state, they are a fascinating channel of nonverbal communication.

“Compiling this research has been a revelation. The reason our feet may be giving us away is that they are part of the body from which we have the least internal feedback.”

via Our feet can talk, says study – Telegraph.

First Superbright Antimatter Supernova Observed

The supernova 2007bi, circled in the image above, might be the first confirmation of a pair-instability supernova. Image Credit: Nearby Supernova Factory

The supernova 2007bi wasn’t your typical supernova: it was 10 times brighter than a Type Ia supernova, making it one of the most energetic supernova events ever recorded. Astronomers from the University of California Berkeley have analyzed the explosion, which was recorded by a robotic survey in 2007, and found that it is likely the first confirmed observation ever made of a pair-instability supernova, a type of extremely energetic supernova that has been theorized but never directly confirmed.

The confirmed observation of a pair-instability supernova has been long-awaited – the theory that they exist has been around since the 1960′s – but it appears as if the wait is over. The supernova 2007bi, seen by the Nearby Supernova Factory in April of 2007, is the first observed supernova that fits the bill for the unfathomably huge proportions of pair-instability supernovae explosions. A team of astronomers led by Alex Filippenko of the University of California Berkeley published their analysis in in the December 3rd issue of Nature. The discovery was initially made by the Nearby Supernova Factory, and emission spectra of the event was taken with the Keck Telescope and Very Large Telescope in Chile 

These type of supernovae occur only in stars above 100 solar masses, and are incredibly bright. Energetic gamma rays are created by the intense heat in the core of the star. These gamma rays, in turn, create antimatter pairs of electrons and positrons. Because of this antimatter production, the outward pressure exerted by the nuclear reactions in the core of the star is lessened, and gravity takes over, quickly collapsing the massive core of the star and creating a supernova.

via Superbright Supernova First Observed of Antimatter Variety | Universe Today.