Musician and neuroscientist Daniel Levitin, who followed his popular-science book THIS IS YOUR BRAIN ON MUSIC (2006) with THE WORLD IN SIX SONGS: HOW THE MUSICAL BRAIN CREATED HUMAN NATURE last year, is co-host of an interesting-looking two-hour documentary that explores the science behind music. The program will air on many PBS stations starting at [...]
Over at the Dana Foundation site, there’s a package of news and commentaries (with more coming) on “neuro-education,” the effects of arts training on the brain and the use of what we know about the brain to improve how we teach. Stories include: NEWS: Attention May Link Arts and Intelligence Arts education causes “profound changes” [...]
These are about one-third of the books for sale at the Learning & the Brain conference this weekend in DC. It’s a great conference (which the Dana Foundation helps sponsor), but I was appalled at the number of how-to teaching and learning books that have “Brain” in the title (and what isn’t a “brain-compatible activity”?). [...]
This week, I posted three sets of things important to me: An online piece on cutting-edge neuroscience research, e-mails to corporate people of importance and a snail-mail letter to my grandma. Only one of the three had the benefit of editing—and the other two show it. Rereading some of the e-mails I’ve sent, I find [...]
Check out The White Museum, by George Bilgere. I was tipped to it by a friend who reads The Writer’s Almanac on American Public Media’s site. Last week I stayed on the outside of someone’s white museum, and just that was wonderous strange.
OK, so it’s no big deal, whatever. But after we finished following the students doing a Brain Awareness Week tour at the National Museum of Health and Medicine, writer Aalok Mehta and I got to don the gloves and handle the merchandise just like the kids. The once-living-human brain was smaller than I expected and [...]
Go ahead, celebrate your brain—it’s certainly a writer’s best tool. Brain Awareness Week, this year from today through Sunday (March 16–23) is organized and promoted by The Dana Foundation, whose Web pages I edit. Well into its second decade, BAW can boast more than 2,200 partners offering lectures, lab tours, movies, “brain fairs” and other [...]
A few in the audience for Steven Brown’s lecture “From Mode to Emotion in Musical Communication” here in Washington, D.C., last night weren’t quite ready to receive the conclusions he pitched. Instead of reinforcing our idea that music induces great emotion in the listener, he said, well, maybe we only think it does. “Briefly stated, [...]
update: see video from the event at TheScientist.com (you may have to register) Next Tuesday, March 3, neuroscientists including Dan Levitin (“This is Your Brain on Music) and Joseph LeDoux (“Synaptic Self”) will burn up the Highline Ballroom in New York City along with Rufus Wainwright, Dee Snyder, Lenny Kaye, The Kennedys, Dream Syndicate, and, [...]
The Neurocritic plays host to Encephalon 64, the latest brain-blog carnival. We didn’t make the cut this time (someone may have sent the e-mail too late), but it’s still chock-full of goodies. Highlights for me this time were the images: Jane Mackay’s painting “Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto,” a synesthetic composition bridging the gap between sight [...]
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