Biomusicology (OUR MUSICAL NATURE) with Dr. David Bashwiner

Music. Emotion. Brain waves. Whale songs. Toadfish. Distant moons. Loud apes. And why it’s worth it to practice piano. Brilliant and warm musician and assistant professor at Albuquerque's University of New Mexico, Dr. David Bashwiner is a theoretical, neuro- and Biomusicologist. Settling into his office (with a baby grand) we covered everything from bird songs to aquatic echolocation, how scales work, major vs. minor keys and their impact on the brain, music therapies, white noise, binaural beats, mole crickets, fandom as identity, spider guitar strings, Baby Mozart, so-called perfect pitch, and so much more. Stay tuned for a bonus episode hosted by Podmother Jarrett Sleeper about getting more creative musically. Go bang on something. Hard.

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Visit Dr. Bashwiner’s website and follow him on Google Scholar

A donation went to APS International High School


Links to things we discussed:

Musical Exemplarity in the Notational Treatises of Johannes Tinctoris (c. 1435-1511)

Jupiter's Moons 

The 5/4 Trick - How Harry Connick Jr. tricked an entire audience 

Great-tailed Grackle Calling & Bathing

Midshipman Vocalizations | Ocean Conservation Research

Midbrain node for context-specific vocalisation in fish | Nature Communications

Noise-Induced Changes to Vocalizations and Male Parental Care in Wild Plainfin Midshipman Fish | Springer Nature Link 

How Music Works   

The Science Behind Acoustic Waves

Song learning in zebra finches: some effects of song model availability on what is learnt and when - ScienceDirect

The ecology of zebra finch song and its implications for vocal communication in multi-level societies  

Early experience shapes vocal neural coding and perception in songbirds

Developmental experience alters information coding in auditory midbrain and forebrain neurons

Vocalizations — Gibbon SSP

Loop | Joseph Jordania

Why Do People Sing? Music in Human Evolution   

Music as aposematic signal: predator defense strategies in early human evolution

Songs of the Humpback Whale (1970) by Roger Payne

Whale song shows language-like statistical structure

Whale songs can spread between groups nearly 8000 kilometres apart

A predicted humpback whale hearing curve based on modified behavioral observation audiometry data

Singing humpbacks are exploring, not courting, UB researcher says

Evolutionary novelties underlie sound production in baleen whales

Acoustic properties of humpback whale song

The Sonar Model for Humpback Whale Song Revised

Is Culture Dying? | The New Yorker

Can monoculture survive the algorithm?

Is This the Worst-Ever Era of American Pop Culture? - The Atlantic

Colors of noise

Plant bioacoustics: The sound expression of stress

PlantWave

Review of electroencephalography signals approaches for mental stress assessment - PubMed

The impact of music on the bioelectrical oscillations of the brain - PMC

Music tempo modulates emotional states as revealed through EEG insights | Scientific Reports

(PDF) Musical Emotion: Toward a Biologically Grounded Theory       

Mozart effect–Shmozart effect: A meta-analysis

How musical training affects cognitive development: rhythm, reward, and other modulating variables

Personalized Theta and Beta Binaural Beats for Brain Entrainment: An Electroencephalographic Analysis

Binaural beats to entrain the brain? A systematic review of the effects of binaural beat stimulation on brain oscillatory activity, and the implications for psychological research and intervention

Audiovisual gamma stimulation for the treatment of neurodegeneration

Evidence that gamma rhythm stimulation can treat neurological disorders is emerging

Music and spatial task performance

Tinnitus or electricity? Or both?

The Mechanism and Efficiency of Sound Production in Mole Crickets

The Tuned Singing Burrow of Mole Crickets 

Nonlinear coupling dynamics within and between brains during romantic kissing as compared to joint passive tasks

Absolute pitch exhibits phenotypic and genetic overlap with synesthesia

Inter-Brain Synchronization: "My fascination with the topic continues to this day!


Other episodes you may enjoy:

Mnemonology (MEMORY)

Eudemonology (HAPPINESS)

Molecular Neurobiology (BRAIN CHEMICALS)

Salugenology (WHY HUMANS REQUIRE HOBBIES)

Ornithology (BIRDS)

Mantodeology (PRAYING MANTISES)

Primatology (APES & MONKEYS)

Misophonology (DISTRACTING SOUND & NOISE RAGE)

Attention-Deficit Neuropsychology (ADHD)

Funology (YES, FUN)


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Editing by Mercedes Maitland of Maitland Audio Productions and Jake Chaffee

Managing Director: Susan Hale

Scheduling Producer: Noel Dilworth 

Transcripts by Aveline Malek

Website by Kelly R. Dwyer

Theme song by Nick Thorburn

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Cnidariology (CORAL) Encore with Shayle Matsuda