Vi Wickam - Left-Handed Fiddling Online Marketing Strategist » Health

Can you hear music before it happens?

Vi — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 05:53:03 +0000

I know it sounds like time travel, but most of us can do it to some extent…

As a musician, I am acutely aware of melody. I am always listening for good melodies, and with my musical experience, I can often predict where the melody is going to go before it goes there. Good composers use this human tendency to hear where the melody should go to lull you into a sense of melody, and then add in twists that you are not expecting, which makes the melody more interesting. Combining the expected with the unexpected, the tonic with the dissonant surprises your mind and keeps you actively listening.

The premise of how humans do this was the topic of a new paper published in NeuroImage. “Have you ever accidentally pulled your headphone socket out while listening to music? What happens when the music stops? Psychologists believe that our brains continuously predict what is going to happen next in a piece of music. So, when the music stops, your brain may still have expectations about what should happen next.”

Read the rest of this article:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100115204704.htm

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TV Has a Negative Effect On Parent-Child Interaction

Vi — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 17:32:19 +0000

TV Has a Negative Effect On Parent-child Interactions (Even when you aren’t watching it). A new study looks for the first time at the effect of background TV on interactions between parents and young children. Using an experimental design, researchers found that when a TV was on, both the quantity and quality of interactions between parents and children dropped. This study challenges the common assumption that background TV doesn’t affect very young children if they don’t look at the screen.

This seems like a no brainer to me, but I’m sure there are a lot of people who are tied to having the TV on all of the time who would disagree.

Can you cut the cord between you and your TV for a week? Your kids will thank you for it.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/09/090915100951.htm

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People Turning to Herbal Medicine to Treat H1N1 Swine Flu Symptoms

Vi — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 15:42:26 +0000

In the US, only two products have been approved for the treatment of H1N1 symptoms, and five vaccines to prevent swine flu symptoms in the first place; but this is not necessarily the case in other countries, nor does it keep people from using other products, such as herbal remedies; it only keeps those products from openly claiming to treat symptoms of swine flu. Two different press releases on December 3rd underscore these points.
- Excerpt from Examiner.com

http://www.examiner.com/x-18331-Natural-Health-Examiner~y2009m12d4-H1N1-Swine-Flu-symptoms-have-many-people-turning-to-natural-remedies

For a funny song about the Swine Flu, listen to the Swine Flu Blues:
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/ViWickam

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Proof of the Swine Flu – Pigs Really Do Fly

Vi — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 04:52:52 +0000

I thought this hot air balloon was pretty funny…

Tangentially related, I wrote a song called the Swine Flu Blues, that is available for download on CDBaby.com

http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/ViWickam

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