Re: [microsound] noise

[macrosound@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]

I went back and reread the parts of the article that didn't make too much
sense to me at first.  From the article:

'Additional tests on the maturing noise-reared rats showed that their
auditory regions continued to be plastic -- they continued to reorganize
their neural circuitry in response to exposure to sound stimuli alone,
long after the brains of normal rats had ceased rewiring. This suggested
that a "critical period" for exposure-based plasticity in the brain had
been extended.'

Perhaps I am way off, but this sounds like forcible neoteny through
exposure to noise.  Not that every sustained developmental characteristic
is neccesarily positive. For instance, continuing to grow in size
throughout one's life causes terrible health problems (not to mention
social difficulties).  But consider other, less concrete developmental
characteristics: curiosity, tactile exploration.  There are things that we
seem to lose when we leave childhood that could be very beneficial to the
health of our species, or at least interesting to the individual.  It's
impossible for me to say how extension of that "plasticity" of the brain
would be experienced subjectively but I'd sure like to try it.

Do I sound like a mad scientist yet?

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          /MEgAFLAg by: American Catastophe LLC.

jan.larsson wrote:
>
> ?
>
> Actually you are saying that the researchers are right. That children
> needs
> a varying and interesting acoustic environment if they are to develop into
> varying and interesting adults.
>
>
>
> Den 03-04-20 08.52, skrev "macrosound@xxxxxxxxxxxxx"
> <macrosound@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>:
>
>> "we do know that exposing infant rats to specific sound stimuli can
>> induce
>> long-standing representational changes in the brain."
>>
>> Doesn't sound so bad to me.  There was a period of my aural
>> experimentations where I only listened to white noise.  I made several
>> tracks of about 3-4 min in length of steady white noise with the
>> occasional mild filtering.  It profoundly affected my perception of
>> sound.
>> My ears became receptive to dimensions of sound that had previously gone
>> unnoticed.  Dare I call them microsound dimensions.  Subtlety became
>> more
>> important to me.
>>
>> Interesting article.  I still wonder: "Why rats?"
>>
>> --elisha
>>
>>
>> Kim Cascone wrote:
>>> http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2003/04/030418081607.htm
>>>
>
>
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