Fw: BrainMusic Public Education: Questions From A High School Student (Washington State)

----- Forwarded Message ----
From: Lesley Groff <lesley@nysgllc.com>
To: J. Epstein <jeeproject@yahoo.com>
Sent: Tuesday, January 2, 2007 9:42:55 AM
Subject: FW: BrainMusic Public Education: Questions From A High School Student (Washington State)

Dear Nate,

Thank you for your email - how wonderful that you are thinking about experiments - the source of empirical knowledge - at such an early age!

When you do an experiment, you need a set of methods that deal with:  1) who you are going to study (perhaps yourself and a few classmates);  2) what the musical backgrounds of your experimental subjects are;  3) what musical stimuli you will use (perhaps one that moves you and one that doesn't); and 4) what responses you will measure (perhaps rating how "emotional" a stimulus makes you feel on a scale of 1 to 10, using a standardized answer sheet, like those in school).

You asked good questions below.  Now do an experiment on music and emotion, following the above hints - and have lots of fun with it, like most of us brain scientists when we do experiments on music!

Please visit the"Auditory Neuroscience" and "Educational Activities" pages at www.brainmusic.org - follow the links on the latter page to my Harvard course syllabus and selected readings, which include some papers on music and emotion.

Sincerely,
Mark Jude Tramo, MD, PhD
Director, The Institute for Music & Brain Science
Dept of Neurology, Harvard Medical School & Massachusetts General Hospital
Steering Committee, Harvard University Mind/Brain/Behavior Interfaculty Initiative
Best Doctors in America®/America’s Top Doctors®/Best of Boston®
Songwriter Member, ASCAP

Mailing Address:  175 Cambridge St, Suite 340, Boston, MA 02114 USA
Email  MTramo@HMS.Harvard.edu
URL  http://www.BrainMusic.org

END

-----Original Message-----
From:   AAnde15875@aol.com [mailto:AAnde15875@aol.com]
Sent:   Sun 10/1/2006 2:04 PM
To:     Tramo, Mark Jude
Cc:    
Subject:        Questions From A High School Student

My name is Nate and I'm freshman at Gig  Harbor High in Washington state. I'm
very interested in your field of study,  about how music affects the brain. I
am a musician myself, so I find this topic  fascinating. I have to do a
project called "Designing an Experiment" on this  topic, so I was wondering what
some of the important questions asked by  scientists are in this field. I listen
to music most of my day, and I was  wondering if it matters what style of
music I listen to. Music affects my moods,  and how focused I am on any sort of
project. Honestly, right now I am listening  to music. I can enjoy any type of
music, but I mostly like classic rock, and  anything that takes some talent
and time to create. My last question is, how  does being a musician affects the
brain positively?


Thanks for your time


sincerely,

Nate Anderson




P.S. I get some extra credit points if you respond to this  email