RESEARCH ARTICLE
Spontaneous Neuronal Signaling is Inherently Musical and Mathematical: Insight into the Universal Human Affinity for Music
Thomas B. Shea1, *, Ruth Remington2
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2018Volume: 12
First Page: 64
Last Page: 68
Publisher ID: TONEUJ-12-64
DOI: 10.2174/1874205X01812010064
Article History:
Received Date: 27/8/2018Revision Received Date: 8/10/2018
Acceptance Date: 20/10/2018
Electronic publication date: 30/11/2018
Collection year: 2018
open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Objective:
Audio files of spontaneous signal streams generated by ex vivo neuronal networks cultured on multi-electrode arrays generated an oscillating sine wave with an inherent musical quality. This was not anticipated considering that synaptic signals are “all - or – none”, and therefore digital, events.
Methods:
These findings may provide insight into why music can be perceived as pleasurable and invoke a calm mood despite that music is ultimately perceived and stored as a series of digital signals; it is speculated that music may reinforce and/or enhance this spontaneous digital stream.
Results and Conclusion:
These findings also support the relationship between music and mathematics.