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Music, an abstract stimulus, can arouse feelings of euphoria and craving, similar to tangible rewards that involve the striatal dopaminergic system. Using the neurochemical specificity of [11C]raclopride positron emission tomography scanning, combined with psychophysiological measures of autonomic nervous system activity, we found endogenous dopamine release in the striatum at peak emotional arousal during music listening. To examine the time course of dopamine release, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging with the same stimuli and listeners, and found a functional dissociation: the caudate was more involved during the anticipation and the nucleus accumbens was more involved during the experience of peak emotional responses to music. These results indicate that intense pleasure in response to music can lead to dopamine release in the striatal system. Notably, the anticipation of an abstract reward can result in dopamine release in an anatomical pathway distinct from that associated with the peak pleasure itself. Our results help to explain why music is of such high value across all human societies.

ScienceDaily (Jan. 12, 2011) - Scientists have found that the pleasurable experience of listening to music releases dopamine, a neurotransmitter in the brain important for more tangible pleasures associated with rewards such as food, drugs and sex. The new study from The Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital -- The Neuro at McGill University also reveals that even the anticipation of pleasurable music induces dopamine release [as is the case with food, drug, and sex cues]. Published in the journal Nature Neuroscience, the results suggest why music, which has no obvious survival value, is so significant across human society.

Invaluable resource for universities, music schools, public libraries, schools, music professionals and collectors

ScienceDaily (Oct. 17, 2011) - Auditory working memory and attention, for example the ability to hear and then remember instructions while completing a task, are a necessary part of musical ability. But musical ability is also related to verbal memory and literacy in childhood.

Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics

"Magenta is a Google Brain project to ask and answer the questions, "Can we use machine learning to create compelling art and music? If so, how? If not, why not?" Our work is done in TensorFlow, and we regularly release our models and tools in open source. These are accompanied by demos, tutorial blog postings and technical papers. To follow our progress, watch our GitHub and join our discussion group."

"Introducing A.I. Experiments. Explore machine learning by playing with pictures, language, music, code, and more."

RANDOM.ORG offers true random numbers to anyone on the Internet. The randomness comes from atmospheric noise, which for many purposes is better than the pseudo-random number algorithms typically used in computer programs. People use RANDOM.ORG for holding drawings, lotteries and sweepstakes, to drive games and gambling sites, for scientific applications and for art and music.

Library Catalog: Search for Books, Journals, Music and More

HOW do people acquire high levels of skill in science, business, music, the arts and sports? This has long been a topic of intense debate in psychology. Research has shown that intellectual ability matters for success in many fields - and not just up to a point.

The Known Universe takes viewers from the Himalayas through our atmosphere and the inky black of space to the afterglow of the Big Bang. Every star, planet, and quasar seen in the film is possible because of the world's most complete four-dimensional map of the universe, the Digital Universe Atlas that is maintained and updated by astrophysicists at the American Museum of Natural History. The new film, created by the Museum,  is part of an exhibition, Visions of the Cosmos: From the Milky Ocean to an Evolving Universe, at the Rubin Museum of Art in Manhattan through May 2010.     Data: Digital Universe, American Museum of Natural History  http://www.haydenplanetarium.org/universe/    Visualization Software:  Uniview by SCISS    Director: Carter Emmart  Curator: Ben R. Oppenheimer  Producer: Michael Hoffman  Executive Producer: Ro Kinzler  Co-Executive Producer: Martin Brauen  Manager, Digital Universe Atlas: Brian Abbott    Music: Suke Cerulo    For more information visit http://www.amnh.org

Science is becoming increasingly interested in the relationship between sound and the brain. An expert explains

"The DiRT Directory is a registry of digital research tools for scholarly use. DiRT makes it easy for digital humanists and others conducting digital research to find and compare resources ranging from content management systems to music OCR, statistical analysis packages to mindmapping software."

"The Decentralized Library of Alexandria is an open-source standard in active development to allow users to publish and distribute original content themselves, from music to videos to feature films, 3d printable inventions, recipes, books and just about anything else. It is a unified, ever-growing library of art, history and culture which users interact with through a variety of front end apps. A native browser is in continuing development, but the Alexandria standard can also be used by other open source developers and even current industry incumbents like YouTube, Soundcloud, iTunes and Netflix to offer a far superior value proposition to content providers and a better experience for users than currently available."

"This Disgraceful video was published by the European Commission for a campaign designed to attract more women to a career in science. The commission said that the video had to "speak their language to get their attention" and that it was intended to be "fun, catchy" and strike a chord with young people. "I would encourage everyone to have a look at the wider campaign and the many videos already online of female researchers talking about their jobs and lives," The original video was taken down after it received so many negative comments. "

" "Atmen wir bewusst langsam und tief aus, verlangsamt sich unser Herzschlag, atmen wir tief ein, beschleunigt er sich leicht", so die Forscher. Das Ausatmen aktiviert einen Nerv des vegetativen Nervensystems, den Vagusnerv, der direkt auf das Schrittmacherzentrum des Herzens wirkt. Dadurch schlägt das Herz langsamer. Beim Einatmen löst sich diese "Bremse" und die Herzfrequenz erhöht sich wieder. Besonders stark ausgeprägt ist dieser Effekt beispielsweise beim Yoga-Atmen oder anderen bewussten Atemtechniken. Das erkläre, warum diese auch eine positive Wirkung auf die Herzgesundheit und den Blutdruck haben, so die Forscher. Wie wirken Summen, Mantra und eine Hymne auf das Herz? Genau an dieser Stelle setzt die aktuelle Studie von Vickhoff und seinen Kollegen an: Sie wollten wissen, ob auch das Singen im Chor einen Yoga-ähnlichen Effekt auf die Herzfrequenzvariabilität hat"

"Wenn Gitarristen im Duett musizieren, synchronisiert sich die Aktivität ihrer Hirnwellen. Dies hatten Wissenschaftler um Ulman Lindenberger vom Max-Planck-Institut für Bildungsforschung in Berlin bereits 2009 herausgefunden. Jetzt sind die Wissenschaftler einen Schritt weiter gegangen und haben die Hirnaktivität von jeweils zwei Gitarrenspielern untersucht, die ein Musikstück mit zwei unterschiedlichen Stimmen wiedergaben. Hiermit wollten sie herausfinden, ob die Synchronisation der Hirnwellen auch dann zustande kommen würde, wenn die beiden Gitarrenspieler eben nicht genau das Gleiche spielten"

"Das Hörzentrum von Probanden, die in ihrer Kindheit oder Jugend 4 bis 14 Jahre lang musiziert hatten, reagierte deutlich schneller auf die Silbe als das der Studienteilnehmer, die niemals Musikunterricht bekommen hatten. Die Nervenreaktion war im Durchschnitt eine Millisekunde schneller"