Re: [escepticos] Parte 2

["planetario" <planetario@...>]

Lo que comentaba Accipiter sobre: "Alguien se ha dedicado a estudiar
seriamente (nadie me hable de
maguferíos varios, que ya me los conozco) que tipos de música o piezas
concretas provocan con mas frecuencia unas u otras reacciones anímicas? ¿Hay
personas propensas a ello y otras que no lo están, o se trata de una
circunstacia generalizada entre la población humana? Por cierto, ¿alguien ha
demostrado que alguna otra especie animal tenga capacidad para apreciar la
música (tal como la entendemos), o es algo completamente privativo del
Hombre?"

me ha hecho recordar algo que leí hace medio año sobre preferencias
musicales afectadas por condiciones mentales... he recuperado la nota de
prensa del asunto de sciencedaily. Ahí va. Saludos,

Javier Armentia.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2000/12/001226082511.htm
Source:   American Academy Of Neurology (http://www.aan.com/)
Date:   Posted 12/26/2000

Study Finds Dementia May Affect Musical Tastes

St. Paul, MN -- Appreciating music for the first time, or switching
preferences from classical to "pop" music, can be a behavior resulting from
dementia, as reported in Neurology, the scientific journal of the American
Academy of Neurology.
Dementia is often characterized by a loss of reasoning abilities, language
skills and memory. But researchers at the National Centre for Research and
Care of Alzheimers Disease in Brescia, Italy, found that two of the patients
who had acquired frontotemporal dementia, subsequently acquired something
new: an appreciation for a kind of music they previously disliked.

In one example cited in the study, a 68-year-old lawyer developed
progressing apathy, indifference to his work, and a loss of inhibition,
judgment, and speaking and abstract thinking skills. About two years after
his diagnosis, he began to listen at full volume to a popular Italian pop
music band. Formerly a classical music listener, he had once referred to pop
music as "mere noise."

In another example, a 73-year-old homemaker developed apathy and loss of
interest in her children. About a year after her diagnosis, she developed an
interest in music, where she had barely tolerated easy-listening tunes
before, and began sharing her 11-year-old granddaughter's interest in pop
music.

"Our patients developed a new attitude to appreciate a kind of music that
they used to dislike," said study author Giovanni B. Frisoni, MD. "Although
it cannot be claimed that such behavior is specific to dementia, the
behavior is unlikely in other types of dementia such as Alzheimer's disease.
In fact, it never came out during history collection in any of the 1,500 new
Azheimer's patients seen in our center in the last five years, while it was
detected in two of the 46 new dementia patients seen in the same period."

Frisoni offered some possible explanations for the change in musical
preferences. First, the change of behavior could be tied to a change in one'
s attitude toward novelty. "To people over age 60, pop music is considered
novel. Previous studies have suggested that novelty is managed by the brain'
s right frontal lobe, and a predominance of the right over the left frontal
lobe might lead to novelty seeking," he said. Second, lesions may have
damaged the brain's frontal and temporal lobe, involved in the perception of
pitch, timbre, rhythm, and familiarity. Frisoni added that there is no
accounting for musical taste, and that his study does not imply that pop
music listeners have frontal dysfunction.

Another study by neurologists at the University of California-Los Angeles
released in 1998 reported similar findings: dementia brings out artistic
talents in people who never had them before. In that study, it was observed
that patients developed artistic talents, including music and drawing, which
flourished while the dementia worsened.