The science news of the week: Surely everyone is familiar with the phenomenon of an intrusive melody that mysteriously pops into your head and refuses to go away, so much so that sometimes you even start humming it out loud, then shaking yourself, but the melody continues to haunt you like an annoying parasite. In English, this phenomenon is aptly described as an earworm that has taken up residence and is eating away at your brain. In fact, as American scientists have discovered, this worm itself does not sleep at night and disturbs your sleep, sometimes even waking you up in the middle of the night by this very melody or song. “Our brains are wired to continue processing music even after it stops playing,” explains neurobiologist Michael Scallin of Baylor University in Texas (his research was published in Psychological Science).
Michael conducted laboratory tests on 50 volunteers and interviewed about 200 people to determine how listening to music before sleep affected the quality of sleep. He was particularly interested in “earworms,” or what scientists call involuntary musical imagery. Almost all of the participants in the experiment admitted to having music playing in their heads, and those whose melodies turned out to be the catchiest reported that they often occurred in the middle of the night. Interestingly, instrumental versions appeared in their heads (and disrupted normal sleep patterns) twice as often as melodies with vocals. “We assumed that intrusive melodies could occur in people’s heads as they tried to fall asleep, but we never expected to discover that some people regularly wake up because music starts playing in their heads,” Skallin admits. Scanning the brains of people who reported being disturbed by “earworms” at night revealed that slow oscillations associated with memory retrieval occur during sleep. The brain region in which these oscillations were observed, the primary auditory cortex, is also involved in processing intrusive melodies during waking. So, while specialists used to recommend that people with insomnia listen to soothing and relaxing music, the authors of a new study question the benefits of such recommendations, and even suggest that music before bed may be harmful because our brains continue to process musical information for several hours after we turn it off. “If you don’t want a sticky motive swirling around in your head,” Skallin says, “it’s better to do some cognitive activity before bed, such as making a list of tasks for tomorrow. This will help clear your mind. According to a new study, Mozart’s music has an anti-epileptic effect on the brain and may become one of the ways to treat seizures in this disease.
We explain quickly, simply, and clearly what happened, why it matters, and what happens next. Episodes The end of the story: Advertising podcasts. The researchers, who presented their report at the Seventh Congress of the European Academy of Neurology, believe that the whole thing lies in the acoustic features of the great Austrian’s music. Listening to the famous Sonata for Two Pianos resulted in a 32% reduction in epileptiform discharges. These electrical waves are commonly associated with epilepsy because they can cause seizures or bursts of electrical activity that temporarily disrupt brain function. A group of scientists led by Professor Ivan Rector from the Epilepsy Center at St. Anne’s Hospital and Masaryk University in Brno compared the effects of Mozart’s Sonata for Two Pianos and Haydn’s Symphony No. 94. Activity was measured with implanted brain electrodes. “To our surprise, the effect of listening to Mozart’s sonata and Haydn’s symphony was very different,” said Professor Rector. “Listening to Mozart led to a 32% decrease in the number of epileptiform discharges, while Haydn caused a 45% increase.” The study showed that men and women responded differently to the two musical compositions. Haydn’s symphony only suppressed epileptiform discharges in women, while it actually increased them in men. Acoustic features of the composition, such as rhythm, dynamics, and tone, were found to affect men and women differently. “We believe that the physical ‘acoustic’ characteristics of Mozart’s music influence the brain oscillations – or brain waves – that are responsible for reducing the number of epileptiform discharges,” says Rector. Researchers have previously hypothesized that the Mozart effect in epilepsy is related to the emotional effects of music, as listening to music releases dopamine (the main neurotransmitter of the brain’s reward system). However, there is no direct evidence for this. “We found that the reduction in epileptiform discharges occurred mainly in the lateral temporal lobe, the part of the brain involved in the transmission of acoustic signals, rather than in the mesiotemporal limbic area, which is responsible for the emotional response to music,” the researchers said. Experts believe that the research findings may help in the development of individualized music therapy to prevent and control epileptic seizures. Epilepsy affects 6 million people in Europe, and 15 million Europeans will experience a seizure at least once in their lifetime.
In fact, it was only a century ago that scientists reached a consensus and the National Geographic Society officially added a fifth ocean – the Southern Ocean – to the existing four, despite its warm-sounding name, which is located around Antarctica. However, although scientists have recognized the fifth ocean, there is still no consensus among them as to what should be considered an ocean in general. Everyone agrees only with the general definition that it is a vast body of water. The term “Southern Ocean” originated in the 16th century, thanks to the Spanish conquistador Vasco Núñez de Balboa, and has been actively used by sailors from military and merchant fleets ever since. The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO), founded in 1921, also initially recognized this term. However, in 1953, “based on numerous expert opinions”, the organization decided to stop referring to this body of water as an ocean. Not everyone followed these recommendations, and not only did the name not disappear, it actually became more common. In 1999, the U.S. Board on Geographic Names officially began using the term Southern Ocean, and the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration followed suit later that year. And just the other day, on World Oceans Day, the National Geographic Society, whose authority has not yet been questioned, announced that from now on it will designate the Southern Ocean on its maps. “Scientists have been talking about the Southern Ocean for a long time, but until there was an international agreement, we couldn’t officially recognize it,” explains Alex Tate, a staff geographer at the National Geographic Society. “It’s such a geographical oddity.” According to Tate, the recognition of the new ocean will have the greatest impact on the process of educating students. “Students receive information about the oceans based on existing data, and if the Southern Ocean has not been included, it means they have not been told about its characteristics and importance – this is a significant omission.” When the National Geographic Society began producing detailed maps of our planet in 1915, geographers identified only four oceans, whose boundaries were the surrounding continents. The boundary of the Southern Ocean is not defined by continents, but by the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC), also known as the West Wind Drift. Scientists believe that this cold surface ocean current, up to 30,000 kilometers long, formed about 34 million years ago, when the future continent of Antarctica was just separating from South America. In our time, the ACC penetrates all of the waters surrounding Antarctica to 60 degrees south latitude, with the exception of the Drake Passage and the Scotia Sea. The waters of the ACC, and thus most of the Southern Ocean, are slightly colder and less salty than the waters extending northward. The Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) draws water from the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans and is part of the global conveyor belt that distributes heat around the planet. In addition, the cold, dense waters of the current, as they sink to the bottom, help trap carbon dioxide in the ocean. The ACC is also home to thousands of marine species.