[NewMusic] improv brain shutdown

[Matt Davignon]

Heh, I misread that at first, to say "...while a small region involved
in organizing self-inflating thoughts and behaviors is highly
activated."

Matt

On Wed, Feb 27, 2008 at 1:06 PM, Tim Perkis <tim at perkis.com> wrote:
>
>       Study: Prefrontal Cortex In Jazz Musicians Winds Down When
>       Improvising
>
>  <http://www.scientificblogging.com/psychobiology>
>
>  Scientists funded by the National Institute on Deafness and Other
>  Communication Disorders (NIDCD) have found that, when jazz musicians are
>  engaged in the highly creative and spontaneous activity known as
>  improvisation, a large region of the brain involved in monitoring one's
>  performance is shut down, while a small region involved in organizing
>  self-initiated thoughts and behaviors is highly activated.
>
>  ...All of this was accomplished while the musicians lay on their backs
>  with their heads and torsos inside an fMRI scanner and their knees bent
>  upward. The plastic keyboard, which was shortened to fit inside the
>  scanner and which had its magnetic parts removed for safety, rested on
>  the musicians' knees....
>
>  http://www.scientificblogging.com/news_releases/study_prefrontal_cortex_in_jazz_musicians_winds_down_when_improvising
>
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