Musical enjoyment does not enhance walking speed in healthy adults during music-based auditory cueing

BackgroundRhythmic Auditory Stimulation (RAS) involves synchronizing footsteps to music or a metronome to improve gait speed and stability in patients with neurological disorders, such as Parkinson’s disease. However, responses to RAS vary across individuals, perhaps because of differences in enjoyment of the music or in musical abilities.Research questionIntuitively, musical enjoyment may influence gait responses to RAS, but enjoyment has not been systematically manipulated nor the effects empirically assessed. In addition, differences in beat perception ability are likely to influence gait responses to music, particularly when synchronizing to the beat. Therefore, we asked: how does music enjoyment alter gait, and do gait parameters differ between individuals with good versus poor beat perception ability, specifically when instructed to ‘walk freely’ versus ‘synchronize to the beat’?MethodYoung adults and older adults walked on a pressure sensor walkway in silence and to music that they had rated as either high or low in enjoyment, as well as a metronome. All stimuli were presented at 15 % faster than baseline cadence. Participants either walked freely to the music or synchronized to the beat.ResultsMusic enjoyment had no significant effects on gait in either younger or older adults. Compared to baseline, younger adults walked faster (by taking longer strides) to music than the metronome, whereas older adults walked faster (by taking more steps per minute) to the metronome than music. When instructed to synchronize vs. walk freely, young adults walked faster, but older adults walked slower. Finally, regardless of instruction type, young adults with poor beat perception took shorter and slower strides to the music, whereas older adults with poor beat perception took slower strides to the music.SignificanceBeat perception ability, instruction type, and age affect gait more than music enjoyment does, and thus should be considered when optimizing RAS outcomes.     

Visual working memory and perception speed of 3- to 6-year-old children tested with a Matrix Film Battery Test

In this study the visual working memory (VWM) and perception speed of 60 children between the ages of three and six years were tested with an age-based, easy-to-handle Matrix Film Battery Test (reliability R?=?.71). It was thereby affirmed that the VWM is age dependent (correlation coefficient r?=?.66***) as expected. Furthermore, a significant gender effect was found (partial correlation coefficient r_p?=?.42***) indicating that boys generally have a better VWM: they are able to memorise more items and they can process visual information faster. Given that the test was repeated during a period of eight months, strong learning effects could be detected which show that the VWM can be trained and that the test itself is also a good training tool.     

莎拉·布莱曼与西方古典音乐传播

莎拉·布莱曼是当代著名跨界音乐女高音歌唱家之一。她以独特的演唱风格和舞台艺术魅力风靡世界,推动了西方古典音乐传播。文章着眼于她独特的演唱风格和舞台艺术表演,从跨界音乐的角度入手,分析并诠释了诸多西方古典声乐作品。这些声乐作品在她的演唱下由本位的高深难懂,转为通俗化被广大听众所接受。在西方古典音乐传播的过程和流行音乐商业化不断发展的当代环境下,她的演唱形式开拓了一条大众审美和社会音乐需求的西方古典音乐传播道路。