Speech and music are traditionally thought to be primarily supported by different hemispheres. A growing body of evidence suggests that speech and music often rely on shared resources in bilateral brain networks, though the right and left hemispheres exhibit some domain-specific specialization. While there is ample research investigating speech deficits in individuals with right hemisphere lesions and amusia, fewer investigate amusia in individuals with left hemisphere lesions and aphasia. Many of the fronto-temporal-parietal regions in the left hemisphere commonly associated with speech processing and production are also implicated in bilateral music processing networks. The current study investigates the relationship between damage to specific regions of interest within these networks, and an individual’s ability to successfully match the pitch and rhythm of a presented melody. Twenty-seven participants with chronic-stroke lesions were given a melody repetition task to hum short novel piano melodies. Participants underwent structural MRI acquisition and were administered an extensive speech and cognitive battery. Pitch and rhythm scores were calculated by correlating participant responses and target piano notes. Production errors were calculated by counting trials with responses that don’t match the target melody’s note count. Overall, performance varied widely, and rhythm scores were significantly correlated. Working memory scores were significantly correlated with rhythm scores and production errors, but not pitch scores. Broca’s area lesions were not associated with significant differences in any of the melody repetition measures, while left Heschl’s gyrus lesions were associated with worse performance on pitch, rhythm, and production errors. Lower rhythm scores were associated with lesions including both the left anterior and posterior superior temporal gyrus, and in participants with damage to the left planum temporale. The other regions of interest were not consistently associated with poorer pitch scores or production errors. Although the present study does have limitations, the current study suggests lesions to left hemisphere regions thought to only affect speech also affect musical pitch and rhythm processing. Therefore, amusia should not be characterized solely as a right hemisphere disorder. Instead, musical abilities of individuals with left hemisphere stroke and aphasia should be characterized to better understand their deficits and mechanisms of impairment.

Music is a pervasive element of human culture that plays a significant role in our social interactions and goals. The current research regarding the evolutionary nature of music remains divisive, with several groups making competing claims about whether music is an evolved trait and, if it is, what function it may serve for survival and reproduction. In an attempt to further define the multiple dimensions of the evolution of music, this study focuses on a specific methodology for determining the relationship between improvisational musical ability, cognitive fitness, and sexual attraction. In Part 1 of this research, piano musicians completed working memory tests and provided 30-second recordings of improvisation. These recordings were heard by participants in Part 2 of the experiment, who rated both the music and a random facial image from an independent database paired with each song. The data revealed that perceived quality of music is positively associated with attractiveness, with a significant effect observed in males of moderate baseline attractiveness. Although the relationship between some working memory measures and musical improvisational ability proved not to be statistically significant, auditory working memory span yielded a marginally significant result. The overall results are consistent with a sexual selection theory of the evolution of musical improvisation and suggest appropriate avenues for future research.

Instrumental music has been used to evoke natural environments and their qualities for centuries, and composers have employed a variety of methods in order to successfully invoke such sensations in their listeners. When composers and sound teams for video game soundtracks write pieces to accompany in-game settings, they may use a similar set of strategies. The nature of these tracks as an accompaniment to an interactive visual media and as a piece that must be able to indefinitely loop leads them to emphasize environment over emotion, and thus draws out or exaggerates these same techniques. This study seeks to understand the relationships between the acoustics of various setting backing tracks and the perceptual qualities of environments that listeners feel they evoke through the statistical method of multidimensional scaling. The relationships of three perceptual factors (coldness, brightness, wetness) and two acoustic factors (beats-per-minute, spectral envelope slope) are of greatest interest in this study.

My research aims to determine the effectiveness of meditation and sleep applications (apps) on the reduction of anxiety and stress in college students, with a focus on sedative piano music. Results showed a significant reduction of stress and anxiety levels in college students when listening to sedative piano music versus non-sedative piano music. Music along with other therapy modalities in meditation and sleep apps show promise in reducing students’ anxiety and stress and promoting their successes.

Recent findings support that facial musculature accounts for a form of phonetic sound symbolism. Yu, McBeath, and Glenberg (2019) found that, in both English words and Mandarin pinyin, words with the middle phoneme /i:/ (as in “gleam”) were rated as more positive than their paired words containing the phoneme /ʌ/ (as in “glum”). The present study tested whether a second largely orthogonal dimension of vowel phoneme production (represented by the phonemes /æ/ vs /u/), is related to a second dimension perpendicular to emotional valence, arousal. Arousal was chosen because it is the second dimension of the Russell Circumplex Model of Affect. In phonetic similarity mappings, this second dimension is typically characterized by oral aperture size and larynx position, but it also appears to follow the continuum of consonance/dissonance. Our findings supported the hypothesis that one-syllable words with the center vowel phoneme /æ/ were reliably rated as more rousing, and less calming, than matched words with the center vowel phoneme /u/. These results extend the Yu, et al. findings regarding the potential contribution of facial musculature to sounds associated with the emotional dimension of arousal, and further confirm a model of sound symbolism related to emotional expression. These findings support that phonemes are not neutral basic units but rather illustrate an innate relationship between embodied emotional expression and speech production.

Color is an inseparable part of our world as it exists in everything we perceive (Hemphill, 1996). With this constant exposure to colors, it has been widely acknowledged that colors have a distinct effect on a person's feelings and emotions (Hemphill, 1996). In fact, researcher have found that color perception evolved as an adaptation to increase fitness for animals (Bryne & Hilbert, 2003). For humans, color is a part of many everyday associations from temperature to traffic lights to sporting events. Taking this a step further, researchers have studied the effects of color on psychological functioning and physiological responses, including anxiety. A substantial body of research developed a base of information to support the idea that color has a significant effect on humans' emotions, perceptions and behaviors. I set out to test the effects of color on test anxiety and the relationship between anxiety and test performance. It was hypothesized that paper colors red, blue, and green would have an effect on anxiety with red having the most robust effect. It was also hypothesized that there would be a correlation between test performance and anxiety. Fifty undergraduate students took a ten-question brainteaser test printed on one of the three paper colors. Results displayed a significant mead difference between the three test group colors and a significant correlation between test performance and anxiety. This study was then repeated using the colors white, blue, and red. Fifty-eight undergraduate students took the same ten-question brainteaser test. These results failed to suggest a significant mean difference between the three test groups and failed to suggest a correlation between performance and anxiety. These findings conflict with the first study, and therefore, are of interest. Possibilities for these findings are the frequency of occurrence of white and social desirability. Future directions include testing for trait anxiety prior to data collection and using physiological measures to test anxiety. Still, these results can be applied in classroom settings, office environments, and airports.