Re: Possible connection to 4S ?

[Guest guest]

Not sure about that but my instincts tell me that 4S might have MORE traffic on

the neural highways rather than less traffic....

Dr. J

>

> Hi All,

>

> I just read this article that the Associated Press put out and I know it's a

reach but maybe there is some kind of connection between this study and 4s since

they both involve the way in which sounds are perceived. I would love to hear

what everyone thinks about this. Dr. J, any thoughts?

>

> Best to everyone,

> Elaine

>

>

> MSNBC.com

>

>

> No karaoke for you! Bad wiring spells tone-deaf

> People who can't carry a tune have differences in brain circuits, scans show

> The Associated Press

> updated 9:10 a.m. ET, Wed., Aug 19, 2009

> NEW YORK - Do your friends cover their ears when you sing along with the

radio? Does the choir director ask you to lip-sync?

>

> If you're one of the unlucky people who is tone-deaf, it turns out your brain

may have a wiring problem. That's what new research published Wednesday

suggests.

>

> People who are tone-deaf can't detect differences in musical pitch but usually

have normal hearing and speech. Tone-deafness runs in families, and estimates of

how many people have the problem range from 4 percent to 17 percent.

>

> In the small study done in Boston, brain scans showed there was a difference

in a particular brain circuit between those who were tone-deaf and those who

weren't. Among the tone-deaf, researchers discovered there were fewer

connections between two areas of the brain that perceive and produce sounds.

>

> The study's lead author, Psyche Loui, likened the connection to a highway

between two islands in the brain.

>

> In tone-deaf people, " there's less traffic on the highway, " said Loui, who

studies music and the brain at Harvard Medical School and is also a musician.

>

> Loui and her colleagues took brain scans of 20 people, half of them tone-deaf.

Those who were tone-deaf had fewer nerve fibers between the frontal and temporal

regions of the brain, or in some cases the fibers couldn't be detected at all.

>

> The researchers reported their findings in Wednesday's issue of the Journal of

Neuroscience.

>

> " It's a new piece in our understanding of tone-deafness and the processes that

are involved in the perception of pitch in general, " said Nina Kraus of

Northwestern University, who wasn't involved in the research.

>

> Loui said the brain connection they examined was long known to be involved in

language. " Now that we know which brain pathways to train, " she said, there may

be ways to help people with tone-deafness, and perhaps those with other language

disorders.

>