MetaFilter posts tagged with oliversacks

What language is music?

univac — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 18:52:25 -0800

Western musical intervals are derived from speech tendencies, according to Duke scientists. Specifically, "most of the 12 chromatic scale intervals correspond to peaks of relative power in the normalized spectrum of human vocalizations." A somewhat more layperson-friendly summary of the study is here. Some think that language and musicality evolved in tandem (see the singing Neanderthals), and Mendelssohn thought that the communicative ability of music is even more precise than that of language (as related by Oliver Sacks, at 9:05 - .mp3 link).

A Summer of Madness

vronsky — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 20:02:33 -0800

Oliver Sacks on Manic-Depression.

tales of music and the brain

melissa may — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 08:51:27 -0800

Musicophilia. Metafilter's own digaman interviews Oliver Sacks on his forthcoming book and a lifetime's worth of loving music and studying its effects on the human mind. Music therapy for persons with Alzheimers (pdf). Just in Time by the Grunyons, the a cappella vocal group referenced in the article. Grainy 1986 interview with Dr. Sacks on The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat (worth watching for his glorious beard alone). Wonderful NPR segment on Williams Syndrome. Brief article on hallucinogens, healing, and music.

Music and Amnesia

homunculus — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 21:19:58 -0800

The Abyss. Oliver Sacks writes about Clive Wearing (recently discussed here). [Via MindHacks.] In other neuroscience and memory news, a new study has been published on Patient HM, marking fifty years of his participation in neuroscience research.

Iridium is not a phone company

pxe2000 — Tue, 31 Aug 2004 05:27:32 -0800

A Blog entry about a guy who melted a kilo of Iridium in New Jersey with Oliver Sacks. There are also pictures and movies of the 200,000 eV electron beam furnace in action. Theo Gray, co-founder of Wolfram Research was there too (the pictures are all his). For any laymen who may have wondered in, Iridium is not a phone company, it is a precious metal that shares an element group with the likes of Platinum and Rhodium.

2003ReithLectures

srboisvert — Sat, 24 May 2003 14:35:20 -0800

2003 Reith Lectures. Neuroscientist Vilayanur S. Ramachandran, Director of the Centre for Brain and Cognition at the University of California, talks about a number of fascinating neurological disorders and the insights they provide into mental functioning.