#neuroscience

The latest neural network models are brilliant at mimicking aspects of cognition, but mistaking that for explaining consciousness is like confusing a weather simulation with the storm itself. We still lack even a theory of how subjective experience arises from computation. #neuroscience #consciousness #AI

Do octopus brains work like humans’—or is there another way to be smart? https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/do-octopus-brains-work-like-humans-or-is-there-another-way-to-be-smart/ #biology #neuroscience #science #STEM

How individual consciousness works – and makes us unique https://theconversation.com/how-individual-consciousness-works-and-makes-us-unique-281512 #cognition #neuroscience #science #STEM

“There’s a feeling I love almost more than anything: the feeling of sinking into a good book while the world around me fades away. My breathing slows, my shoulders drop, and the mental chatter in the back of my mind goes quiet. […] Reading uses some of the oldest circuitry in the human brain. For most of our evolutionary history, we were readers - just not of books. We read animal tracks in mud, storm patterns in clouds, danger signals in the rustle of leaves.” Interesting read on reading: https://bigthink.com/mind-behavior/how-reading-books-regulates-your-nervous-system/ #reading #neuroscience

That music can serve more than purely aesthetic or entertainment purposes is no longer a surprising idea. Across many cultures and historical periods, music has functioned as a means of regulating mood, attention, and bodily states. Over the past decades, clinical research has begun to examine these effects with greater methodological care. Within psychiatry and psychology, music-based interventions now appear in studies addressing anxiety disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and related conditions. Structured musical interventions - such as guided listening, improvisation-based music therapy, or therapist-led sessions - can reduce obsessive symptoms, lower anxiety, and ease depressive comorbidity when used alongside established forms of treatment. Controlled studies report measurable improvements in anxiety and obsessive symptoms when music therapy accompanies standard care. At the same time, sample sizes remain limited, and further research is required. Music also relates to cognitive and emotional mechanisms that are relevant to OCD. Studies indicate that individuals with obsessive-compulsive personality traits often show heightened sensitivity to musical tension and a strong preference for harmonic resolution. These observations suggest links between musical structure, predictive processing in the brain, and the regulation of intrusive thoughts. The intersection of neuroscience, psychology, and musical practice therefore forms a productive field of investigation. Musical processes operate simultaneously on several levels: rhythm can synchronize breathing and autonomic activity, tonal expectation structures attention, and deep musical immersion alters the subjective experience of time as well as aspects of cognitive control. These characteristics make music a complex medium within therapeutic contexts. I examined these questions in greater detail last year, focusing on anxiety disorders and obsessive-compulsive conditions, the current evidence base, and practical forms of music-based interventions in clinical settings. Read the full essay: https://tomkolbe.com/2025/08/25/music-based-interventions-for-anxiety-obsessive-compulsive-and-related-disorders-effects-applications-and-evidence/ #MusicTherapy #MusicAndMentalHealth #Neuroscience #Psychology #OCD #AnxietyResearch #MusicAndTheBrain #MusicResearch #MusicAndHealth

“The Science of Musical Creativity: Bridging Intuition, Cognition, and Artistic Expression” Since the research for my planned book on this topic is taking longer than expected, I am publishing an essay on the subject today. Consider it a piece of weekend reading for anyone interested. Musicians and music creators who reflect on how to establish a meaningful connection with listeners might find the article worthwhile. The essay examines how insights from cognitive science help illuminate the way listeners perceive rhythm, harmony, expectation, and emotional tension in music. It looks at how intuitive creative decisions often correspond to perceptual mechanisms studied in neuroscience and music psychology, and how this knowledge can support composition, arrangement, and production without reducing music to formulas. The aim is to show how artistic intuition and scientific understanding interact in shaping musical experience. https://tomkolbe.com/2026/03/06/the-science-of-musical-creativity-bridging-intuition-cognition-and-artistic-expression/ #Music #MusicTheory #MusicCognition #Neuroscience #Creativity #MusicProduction #Composition

Receptive aphasia is one of the most challenging — and often misunderstood — consequences of stroke. Survivors can hear perfectly well, yet struggle to understand spoken words. This happens when stroke damage affects the brain's language processing centers, particularly Wernicke's area in the left hemisphere. Learn more at https://provadivita.org.es/why-the-brain-misunderstands-speech-after-stroke-and-what-it-means-for-recovery/ #StrokeRecovery #ReceptiveAphasia #SpeechComprehension #BrainHealth #StrokeAwareness #Neuroscience

In the study I would like to briefly introduce here, the focus is on the relationship between meditation and music – a pairing that is widely discussed, yet often without much precision. The study examines how music that reliably induces aesthetic chills interacts with meditative processes, with particular attention to affective intensity, self-transcendence, emotional permeability, and subjective insight. The work does not establish clinical efficacy. Its relevance lies in showing how music can modulate inner states that, in clinical contexts, are regarded as markers of change. The analysis is process-oriented and based on self-reports rather than clinical outcomes. In medical terms, this is not therapeutic evidence, but a contribution to understanding state-dependent mechanisms – potentially of interest to both musicians working with affect and clinicians concerned with contextual modulation. Open access study: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1589132/full #MusicResearch #Neuroscience #Psychology #Meditation #AffectiveStates #Musicians #Clinicians

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