Jazz your Lifes

Jazz Improvisation Transports the Human Brain to a Different Realtiy
New research by John Hopkins University and National Institute of Health scientists found that the brains of improvising jazz musicians operate in a fundamentally different way than those of musicians playing a memorized, composed melody. .
The study was under the direction of Charles Limb, a hearing specialist at Johns Hopkins Hospital and teacher at the University, lecturer on the neuroscience of music and music perception at Peabody Conservatory of Music, is also a jazz saxophonist.
Jazz and the Brain Research Methods
Designing effective equipment for watching the brain at work is difficult. Limb and Allen Braun, who co-authored the paper published in the journal PLoS One, used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to look into their subject brains. The device emits a strong magnetic field, which creates images based on the movement of blood through the brain. Interpreting the images is based on the idea that blood flows in larger amounts to active areas of the brain.
A Jazz Instrument that would Work inside a Scanner
The researchers created a keyboard with no magnetic parts that could be linked to a computer outside the scanner. It plays like a piano, but when someone presses a key, it actually sends a signal to a computer, which then sends a sound sample from a real piano into a set of headphones worn by the musician in the scanner.
The musicians had to play inside the machine, where conditions are noisy and very tight. Laying on their backs during the scans, the musicians had to elevate their knees and place the keyboard on their thighs.
Jazz versus Memorized Melodies
While playing a musical scale or memorized memory, the part of the brain called the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex was active, an area that is typically linked to self-monitoring activities and motor control.
When the subjects improvised, this part of the brain slowed down markedly, which was accompanied by a dramatic increase in activity in an area called the medial prefrontal cortex. This part of the brain is instrumental to self-initiated thoughts and creative behavior. The researchers had expected an increase in activity in the area associated with creativity but were surprised at the inactivity of the self-monitoring area.
Jazz and Creativity in the Brain
Jazz improvisation has shown that the part of the brain that governs self-censoring and inhibition shuts down and the part linked to creative behavior becomes rambunctiously active. Even though the physical motions are the same, even though the rhythms may be the same, even though it is still music, the musical apparently thinks in a different way.
The research may spawn more studies about the nature of creativity and open the door for examining other artist in the midst of creation.

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