---------- Forwarded Message ----------
Date: Wednesday, November 28, 2001, 10:44 AM +0000
From: Ian Pitchford <ian.pitchford@scientist.com>
To: evolutionary-psychology@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [evol-psych] Brain helps deaf enjoy music
BBC NEWS ONLINE
Wednesday, 28 November, 2001, 00:29 GMT
Brain helps deaf enjoy music
Scientists believe they have discovered why deaf people can enjoy listening
to music and why some can perform or, like Beethoven, even compose.
Dr Dean Shibata, assistant professor of radiology at the University of
Washington, has found that deaf people sense musical vibrations in the part
of the brain other people use for hearing.
These musical vibrations are, he believes, likely to be "every bit as real"
as actually hearing the sounds.
Dr Shibata told the 87th Scientific Assembly and Annual Meeting of the
Radiological Society of North America, in Chicago, that deaf people and
those with hearing may have similar experiences when they listen to music.
Full text
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/health/newsid_1678000/1678419.stm
______
Public release date: 27-Nov-2001
University of Washington
http://www.washington.edu/
Brains of deaf people rewire to ‘hear’ music
CHICAGO (Nov. 27) -- Deaf people sense vibration in the part of the brain
that other people use for hearing – which helps explain how deaf musicians
can sense music, and how deaf people can enjoy concerts and other musical
events.
"These findings suggest that the experience deaf people have when ‘feeling’
music is similar to the experience other people have when hearing music. The
perception of the musical vibrations by the deaf is likely every bit as
real as the equivalent sounds, since they are ultimately processed in the
same part of the brain," says Dr. Dean Shibata, assistant professor of
radiology at the University of Washington.
Shibata presented his findings at the 87th Scientific Assembly and Annual
Meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) here the week of
Nov. 26.
"The brain is incredibly adaptable. In someone who is deaf, the young brain
takes advantage of valuable real estate in the brain by processing
vibrations in the part of the brain that would otherwise be used to process
sound," Shibata says.
Shibata performed the research while on the faculty at the University of
Rochester School of Medicine in New York. The deaf students in the study
came from the National Technical Institute of the Deaf at the Rochester
Institute of Technology. Shibata used functional magnetic resonance imaging
(fMRI) to compare brain activity between 10 volunteers from the college and
11 volunteers with normal hearing. They agreed to let Shibata scan their
brains while subjected to intermittent vibrations on their hands.
Both groups showed brain activity in the part of the brain that normally
processes vibrations. But in addition, the deaf students showed brain
activity in a golf ball-sized area, the auditory cortex, otherwise usually
only active during auditory stimulation. The people with normal hearing did
not show such brain activity.
"These findings illustrate how altered experience can affect brain
organization. It was once thought that brains were just hard-wired at birth,
and particular areas of the brain always did one function, no matter what
else happened. It turns out that, fortunately, our genes do not directly
dictate the wiring of our brains. Our genes do provide a developmental
strategy – all the parts of the brain will be used to maximal efficiency,"
Shibata says.
The findings may explain how deaf people can enjoy music and how some become
performers. Shibata uses an example from the National Technical Institute of
the Deaf in Rochester, a college where musical productions are an important
part of the deaf culture. Audience members attending musicals are provided
with balloons which they can hold on their fingertips in order to "feel"
the musical vibrations.
"Vibrational information has essentially the same features as sound
information – so it makes sense that in the deaf, one modality may replace
the other modality in the same processing area of the brain. It’s the
nature of the information, not the modality of the information, that seems
to be important to the developing brain."
Neurosurgeons should be aware of the findings before performing surgery on a
deaf patient; in particular, a surgeon should be careful while operating
around a deaf person’s auditory cortex, since it clearly does have a
function, Shibata says.
In addition, Shibata says, the research is important because it suggests
that it may be helpful to expose deaf children to music early in life so
that their brain "music centers" may have the stimulus to develop.
Similarly, tactile devices have been made to help convert speech sounds to
vibrations in order to assist in communication. It might be helpful to
expose young children to these devices early while their brains are still
developing, rather than later, he says.
The findings are compatible with Shibata’s previous research into the
flexibility and adaptability of the brain in deaf people. Last summer,
Shibata published a paper in which he and colleagues showed that portions
of the temporal lobe usually involved in auditory processing are much more
active during certain visual tasks in deaf people.
Shibata performed his research using the same sort of MRI scanner that he
uses clinically to study the brains of his patients at the University of
Washington. However, with fMRI scans, the machine measures blood flow in
the brain, and "lights up" to show what parts of the brain are active. The
fMRI is still largely a research tool, but shows promise in helping to
localize vital areas of the brain before surgery and is sometimes performed
on patients at UW Medical Center.
###
The RSNA, based in Oak Brook, Ill., is an association of more than 30,000
radiologists and physicists in medicine dedicated to education and research
in the science of radiology.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2001-11/uow-bod111901.php
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