The music lovers were right: Pink Floyd continue to make history. On this occasion, as a pioneering band in advancing with the machine-brain fusion. a group of researchers from the University of California has discovered how to reconstruct a song through neural movements. The theme chosen has been Another Brick in the Wallthe emblematic anthem of the British group, because “it is the hallmark of the underground English”, as explained by the scientist Ludovic Bellie in an article he has published in the journal PLOS Biology.
During the experiment, they observed the neural reaction of 29 volunteers listening to this kind of classic rock. Through electrodes placed in the cerebral cortex, they recorded the electrical activity and seizures that were repeated during the three minutes that the song lasts.
The novelty of this assay has not been to use Sound as a method for examine the auditory cortex (located in the temporal lobes), but to include elements such as prosody, rhythm and intonation in the test. This, as stated in the article itself, “could contribute to the development of a general auditory decoder that includes the prosodic elements of speech based on relatively few well-placed electrodes.
To achieve these results, the 347 electrodes placed they were located in three strategic regions of the cerebral cortex: the area of sensory perception (CMS), the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and the first temporal gyrus (GTS). The latter has been essential to observe its response to the sound of the electric guitar.
The result has been achieved through the process of ‘avlation‘, which consists of a virtual learning method by which certain registration channels are eliminated from the IA. This tactic is very useful to know the possible interactions between the original components.