Scientists extract music from the mind

A computer model used brain data to re-create a Pink Floyd song

In what seems like something out of a sci-fi movie, scientists have plucked the famous Pink Floyd song “Another Brick in the Wall” from individuals’ brains.

Previously, researchers have used electrodes, computer models and brain scans to decode and reconstruct individual words and entire thoughts from peoples brain activity (SN: 6/3/23, P. 14).

The new study, published August 15 in PLOS Biology, adds music into the mix, showing that songs can also be decoded from brain activity and revealing how different brain areas pick up an array of acoustic elements. The finding may eventually help improve communication devices used by people with paralysis or other conditions that limit the ability to speak.

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Science visualized

A classic brain map gets an update

The traditional view of how the human brain controls voluntary movement might not tell the whole story.

The motor homunculus, a diagram of the primary motor cortex, has reigned supreme in neuroscience since the 1930s. It shows how this narrow brain region is divided into sections, each assigned to a body part that can be controlled voluntarily. The space each part spans on the motor cortex is proportional to how much control one has over that part.

A new map reveals that in addition to having regions devoted to specific body parts, three newfound areas control integrative, whole-body actions. And representations of where specific body parts fall on this map are organized differently than previously thought, researchers report in the May 11 Nature.

For decades, research in monkeys has hinted that something about the classic view was amiss. Scientists conducting this research "have known for 50 years that the homunculus isn't quite right," says Evan Gordon, a neuroscientist at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

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Brains may have a playfulness switch

Blocking the activity of certain cells reduces play behavior in rats.

Rats are extremely playful creatures.They love playing chase and they literally jump for joy when tickled. Central to this play- fulness, a new study finds, are nerve cells in a specific region of the brain.

Neurons in the periaqueductal gray, or PAG, are active in rats during different kinds of play, scientists report July 28 in Neuron. Blocking the activity of those neurons makes the rodents much less playful.

The results give insight into a poorly understood behavior, particularly in terms of how play is controlled in the brain.

When scientists tickled lab rats (one shown) and played a game with them, nerve cells in a brain region called the PAG became active. The team suspects that this region controls playfulness.“There are prejudices that it’s childish and not important, but play is an underrated behavior,” says Michael Brecht, a neuro- scientist at Humboldt University of Berlin.

Scientists think play helps animals develop resilience. Some researchers even relate the behavior to optimal functioning, For people, “when you’re playing, you’re being your most creative, thoughtful, interactive self)” says Jeffrey Burgdorf, a neuroscientist at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., who was not involved in the study. This is the opposite of some depressive states, and Burgdorf’s own research aims to turn understanding of the neuroscience of play into new therapies for mood disorders. In the study, Brecht and colleagues got lab rats used to being tickled and played with in a game of chase-the-hand.

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