With this post, we revive the cycle “Personality and Sound”, dedicated to people who have left a noticeable mark in the study of sound. Today we will talk about a prominent neurobiologist, psychologist, popularizer of science, musician and producer Daniel Levitin. This man is the author, perhaps, of the most famous books in the world describing the neurophysiological mechanisms of perception of musical works.
For quite a long creative and production time, Daniel worked with such bands and artists as Grateful Dead, Blue Oyster Cult, Steve Wonder, Santana, Van Morrison, Eric Klepton. It was Levitin who first discovered the similarity of the pleasure of music with the euphoric effect of narcotic substances and satisfaction with food. Under the cut a few words about the life, work and research of the Canadian-American scientist and musician.
Little biography
Daniel Levitin was born on December 27, 1957 in San Francisco. He is the son of Professor Lloyd Levitin and writer Sonya Levitin. In the future, the love of science and culture, instilled by parents, largely determined his occupation.
After the birth of her son, the Levitin family moved to Dali City (California). In this city, the future scientist and musician attended high school, after which he entered the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The first science that Levitin studied was applied mathematics. After some time, Daniel begins to get involved in music and goes to Berkeley College of Music.
Golden ears, grateful dead, punk rock and stand-up
Passionate love for music and freedom forces Levitin to leave his studies and start the activities of a musician, producer and audio expert. Despite his young age, he is attracted, as a strong philophonist, by companies that produce audio equipment. He also participates as a reviewer and audio expert when testing the Dolby AC compression algorithm.
It is known that since 1984 he has held the posts of director and vice president in the record label 415 music, which is published by bands playing in the style of punk rock and new wave. In the 80s, his production activities are closely connected with such groups as Grateful Dead and Blue Oyster Cult. As a sound producer and sound producer, he collaborates with Steve Wonder, Eric Clapton, Santana and other rock stars of the first magnitude.
It can be assumed that the future scientist thought little about science in that period. The only thing that worried Levitin - a musical and producer activities. It cannot be excluded that, being associated with “Grateful Dead”, he began a study of cognitive psychology as a naturalist of psychoactive drugs, such as LSD-25.
At that time, Levitin is probably in search of himself and is constantly changing creative professions. For example, in 1984, the next star of neuroscience acts as a stand-up comedian in California clubs. In 1989, he was ranked second in the national competition for the winners of the National Lampoon comedy competitions in San Francisco.
Scientific career
The scientific career of a rock musician and producer begins suddenly and develops rapidly. Settled by 1987 (at the age of 30), having earned “some” money on the “new wave”, Levitin returns to higher education. In 1992, he was awarded a bachelor of psychology degree (specialty - cognitive psychology) at Stanford University (honors degree).
One year later, he became a master at the University of Oregon, and in 1996 he defended his doctoral dissertation. In the same period, he receives a so-called. “Postdoctoral scholarship” Interval Research at Stanford University Medical School (Medical Faculty of Stanford University) in connection with research at the interface of psychoacoustics, neurobiology and cognitive psychology.
Notable scientific leaders of the scientist, including such names as Roger Shepard, Michael Posner, Douglas Hinzman, John R. Pierce and Stephen Palmer.
From the late 90s to the present, Daniel Levitin has been a visiting professor at universities like the University of California, Berkeley, Stanford University, Dartmouth College and the University of Oregon Health.
McGill University in Montreal is a permanent place of work for a scientist, where he continues to research and teach for the past ten years.
Research
Levitin was best known as a neurobiologist who specializes in the problems of musical perception of music, musical knowledge and memory. It was he who changed the fundamental ideas about musical memory and refuted the hypothesis of partial memorization and logical “articulation” of a musical work.
Through numerous experiments, Levitin found that, after repeated listening, the memory of a person captures the smallest nuances of musical works with high accuracy.
The researcher on this topic completed the triumphant work "Absolute memory for the musical pace: additional evidence that auditory memory is absolute," thus leaving no white spots in matters relating to musical memory.
40th Symphony of Mozart from memoryAlso, Levitin paid attention to the role and activity of the cerebellum when listening to music. The scientist was able to prove that the cerebellum is responsible for the sense of rhythm and is involved in the perception of new works. He described the details of this in a monograph on his studies “The Neurochemistry of Music. Trends in cognitive sciences ”and other works.
Scientists have found that the emotional perception of a piece of music depends largely on the change in the duration of the notes. In an interview with the Sunday Telegraph, he stated:
“It's amazing how much a change in the time a note sounds in the physical world — sometimes as small as less than a millisecond — affects the emotional response of the brain.”
Exploring the issues of enjoying music, Daniel Levitin was the first to pay attention to the similarity of the neurobiology and physiology of this process to the enjoyment of opiates, food and sex.
So scientists noted the similarity of activity in groups of synapses when using drugs and listening to your favorite works, as well as when eating food. Other types of aesthetic pleasure while not finding so much in common with the physiological and chemical types of buzz.
In recent years, the scientist has somewhat moved away from the issues of musical perception. The focus of his attention is the problems associated with the massive use of gadgets. In his article for the Guardian, he explains why multi-function devices for communication and data processing reduce the effectiveness of human activity, explaining the seemingly mysterious paradox of mobilization.
In addition, the scientist has become one of the world's most famous researchers in the psychology of lies. Based on well-known facts and his own research, he wrote the bestseller of 2016, “Field Guide to Lying: Critical Thinking in the Information Age” (the Russian version is “Guide to Lie”).
Bestselling author
The Lie Guide is not the only popular science book by Daniel Levitin. Thanks to popular science works, he is deservedly considered a prominent popularizer of neurobiology. His most famous books are:
- “This is your brain in music: the science of human obsession” (2006, 2007) - New York Times bestseller list;
- “The World in Six Songs: How the Musical Brain Created Human Nature” (2008) - New York Times bestseller list;
- “Organized mind: linear thinking in the era of information overload (2014).
I highly recommend anyone interested in neuroscience and cognitive psychology, the books listed above. Levitin’s imaginative style and simple, but accurate and succinct explanations for complex processes make it possible to vividly imagine what is happening with our brain and thoroughly understand the processes of thinking and perception.
Total
They say that talented people are talented in everything. Despite the banality and tardiness of this phrase, it is well illustrated by the hero of this material. The diverse interests, activities and achievements of Levitin can not but surprise. His contribution to neuroscience continues to grow.
Interestingly, despite the active research and teaching activities, Levitin did not forget about music. He still plays in the Montreal rock band The Diminished Faculties, whose members are scientists from McGill University.