full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Frederick Streeter Barrett: The neuroscience of psychedelic drugs, music and nostalgia

Unscramble the Blue Letters

To try to get a better understanding of how music may tap into nostalgia and what that may be doing in the bairn, I began to work with computational models of music cognition. I applied these mleods to interrogate brain activity that was recorded while people were listening to nostalgia-evoking and nonnostalgia-evoking music. And importantly, at least to a brain geek like me, I found that nostalgia was able to recruit a wide network of brain regions involved in mlplitue levels of different ctiogvine processes. Whereas nonnostalgic music could recruit brain roignes such as Heschl's gyurs, involved in basic auditory processing, or Broca's area, which is involved in processing grammar and syntax not only in language but also in music, nostalgia was able to recruit these brain regions and more. Brain regions such as the substantia nriga involved in reward processing or the anterior isulna involved in the visceral experience of emoiton or brain regions in the inferior frontal gyrus that are ilnoevvd in ahuaocbtoiprigal memories. Nostalgia was also able to recruit a wide nroewtk of brain regions in prefrontal, frontal, cintluage, insular, patrieal, occipital and subcortical brain regions that span nearly all of our cognitive faculties. This may explain why nostalgia can have such an outsized impact on us.

Open Cloze

To try to get a better understanding of how music may tap into nostalgia and what that may be doing in the _____, I began to work with computational models of music cognition. I applied these ______ to interrogate brain activity that was recorded while people were listening to nostalgia-evoking and nonnostalgia-evoking music. And importantly, at least to a brain geek like me, I found that nostalgia was able to recruit a wide network of brain regions involved in ________ levels of different _________ processes. Whereas nonnostalgic music could recruit brain _______ such as Heschl's _____, involved in basic auditory processing, or Broca's area, which is involved in processing grammar and syntax not only in language but also in music, nostalgia was able to recruit these brain regions and more. Brain regions such as the substantia _____ involved in reward processing or the anterior ______ involved in the visceral experience of _______ or brain regions in the inferior frontal gyrus that are ________ in ________________ memories. Nostalgia was also able to recruit a wide _______ of brain regions in prefrontal, frontal, _________, insular, ________, occipital and subcortical brain regions that span nearly all of our cognitive faculties. This may explain why nostalgia can have such an outsized impact on us.

Solution

  1. nigra
  2. insula
  3. emotion
  4. autobiographical
  5. parietal
  6. cognitive
  7. regions
  8. multiple
  9. network
  10. cingulate
  11. models
  12. gyrus
  13. involved
  14. brain

Original Text

To try to get a better understanding of how music may tap into nostalgia and what that may be doing in the brain, I began to work with computational models of music cognition. I applied these models to interrogate brain activity that was recorded while people were listening to nostalgia-evoking and nonnostalgia-evoking music. And importantly, at least to a brain geek like me, I found that nostalgia was able to recruit a wide network of brain regions involved in multiple levels of different cognitive processes. Whereas nonnostalgic music could recruit brain regions such as Heschl's gyrus, involved in basic auditory processing, or Broca's area, which is involved in processing grammar and syntax not only in language but also in music, nostalgia was able to recruit these brain regions and more. Brain regions such as the substantia nigra involved in reward processing or the anterior insula involved in the visceral experience of emotion or brain regions in the inferior frontal gyrus that are involved in autobiographical memories. Nostalgia was also able to recruit a wide network of brain regions in prefrontal, frontal, cingulate, insular, parietal, occipital and subcortical brain regions that span nearly all of our cognitive faculties. This may explain why nostalgia can have such an outsized impact on us.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
brain regions 12
psychedelic drugs 5
wide range 4
negative affect 4
entire brain 3
therapeutic effects 2
punk band 2
autobiographical memories 2
computational models 2
music cognition 2
interrogate brain 2
brain activity 2
wide network 2
regions involved 2
recruit brain 2
psychedelic experience 2
psychedelic experiences 2
increase positive 2
music listening 2
mental imagery 2
single high 2
high dose 2
major depressive 2
depression severity 2
amygdala response 2
mood disorders 2
expect psychedelic 2
save lives 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
interrogate brain activity 2
brain regions involved 2
recruit brain regions 2
single high dose 2
expect psychedelic drugs 2

Important Words

  1. activity
  2. anterior
  3. applied
  4. area
  5. auditory
  6. autobiographical
  7. basic
  8. began
  9. brain
  10. cingulate
  11. cognition
  12. cognitive
  13. computational
  14. emotion
  15. experience
  16. explain
  17. faculties
  18. frontal
  19. geek
  20. grammar
  21. gyrus
  22. impact
  23. importantly
  24. inferior
  25. insula
  26. insular
  27. interrogate
  28. involved
  29. language
  30. levels
  31. listening
  32. memories
  33. models
  34. multiple
  35. music
  36. network
  37. nigra
  38. nonnostalgic
  39. nostalgia
  40. occipital
  41. outsized
  42. parietal
  43. people
  44. prefrontal
  45. processes
  46. processing
  47. recorded
  48. recruit
  49. regions
  50. reward
  51. span
  52. subcortical
  53. substantia
  54. syntax
  55. tap
  56. understanding
  57. visceral
  58. wide
  59. work