Perceiving musical boundaries

Perceiving musical boundaries

Author: PNAS October 21, 2024 Duration: 10:06

The neuroscience of music perception

Science Sessions are brief conversations with cutting-edge researchers, National Academy members, and policymakers as they discuss topics relevant to today's scientific community. Learn the behind-the-scenes story of work published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), plus a broad range of scientific news about discoveries that affect the world around us.

In this episode, Petri Toiviainen, Ibi Burunat, and Daniel Levitin describe the neuroscience of how musicians and non-musicians perceive boundaries within pieces of music.

In this episode, we cover:
•[00:00] Introduction
•[01:04]  Music neuroscientist Petri Toiviainen, music neuroscientist Ibi Burunat, and cognitive neuroscientist Daniel Levitin introduce the concept of musical boundaries.
•[02:29] Toiviainen and Burunat tell about the musical pieces used in the experiment, as well as the experimental setup.
•[04:05] Levitin explains why musicians and non-musicians were included in the study.
•[04:27] Burunat and Levitin talk about the findings generally.
•[05:50] Toiviainen and Levitin explain how musicians and non-musicians' responses to the music differed. 
•[07:13] Toiviainen and Burunat talk about the caveats and limitations of the study. 
•[08:59] Levitin and Burunat explore the implications of the work for music neuroscience.
•[09:46] Conclusion.

About Our Guests:

Petri Toiviainen
Professor
University of Jyväskylä

Ibi Burunat
Postdoctoral researcher
University of Jyväskylä

Daniel Levitin
Professor emeritus
McGill University

View related content here: https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2319459121

Follow us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts for more captivating discussions on scientific breakthroughs!

Visit Science Sessions on PNAS.org: https://www.pnas.org/about/science-sessions-podcast 

Follow PNAS:
Twitter/X
Facebook
LinkedIn
YouTube
Sign up for the PNAS Highlights newsletter


Tune into PNAS Science Sessions for a direct line to the people shaping modern science. Produced by PNAS, this podcast offers more than just summaries of published research; it’s where you hear the candid, often personal stories behind the headlines. Each episode features concise conversations with the researchers themselves-from emerging voices to established Academy members-alongside the policymakers whose decisions are informed by this work. You’ll get a genuine sense of the questions that drive these experts, the unexpected hurdles they face in their labs and field studies, and why their findings matter right now. The scope is deliberately wide, reflecting the interdisciplinary nature of science itself, covering discoveries that range from microscopic processes to planetary-scale phenomena. This isn't about dry lectures, but about capturing the human endeavor of investigation. For anyone curious about how science actually unfolds and wants to understand the context of breakthroughs as they happen, this podcast serves as an essential, engaging resource. It connects the dots between a published paper in a prestigious journal and the real-world implications that ripple out from it.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

PNAS Science Sessions
Podcast Episodes
Communal nesting in bird-like dinosaur [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 9:38
Mattia Tagliavento talks about the evolutionary transition from dinosaurs to birds using isotopes in Troodon eggshells.
Genomic insights for sea turtle conservation [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 9:26
Blair P. Bentley, Lisa Komoroske, and Camila Mazzoni discuss the role genomic elements play in the evolution of sea turtles.
Math learning through videos [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 10:06
Stanislas Dehaene and Marie Amalric investigate whether short online videos are sufficient to teach mathematics concepts.
Impressionism and air pollution [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 9:51
Anna Lea Albright and Peter Huybers describe how optical effects consistent with air pollution appear in the paintings of Claude Monet and J.M.W. Turner.
How lizards adapt to urban living [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 9:55
Kristin Winchell explains the genetic basis of anole adaptation to urban environments.
The music of Mesozoic bush crickets [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 10:08
Bo Wang and Chunpeng Xu describe how fossilized katydids provide insight into the role of insect sounds in the Mesozoic.