Ed Large
The Dynamics of Music: 2. Tonality

Ed Large writes: I will introduce a theory of tonality that predicts tonal stability, attraction, and categorization based on the principles of nonlinear resonance. I will argue that perception of tonality is the natural consequence of neural resonance, arising from central auditory nonlinearities. I will describe a network of weakly connected nonlinear oscillators, in which each oscillator is each tuned to a different resonant frequency. Such networks produce nonlinear time-frequency transformations of incoming stimuli. When when stimulated with musical sounds, the result is a tonal percept.

Dr. Edward W. Large is an Associate Professor of Psychology and Director of the NIMH training program in Complex Systems and Brain Sciences at Florida Atlantic University. Prior to coming to Florida, Dr. Large was a faculty member at the University of Pennsylvania, and he has also conducted research at Toshiba's Artificial Intelligence Research Laboratory in Kawasaki, Japan, and at the Air Force's Armstrong Laboratories. His scientific research addresses questions of how the brain responds to complex, temporally structured sequences of events, such as music and speech. His research employs a synergy of techniques, including dynamical systems modeling, perceptual experiments, neurophysiology (EEG & MEG) and neuroimaging (fMRI). He has authored over forty papers in the area of music perception and cognition, publishing in journals such as Psychological Review, Cognitive Science, Music Perception, Journal of Computational Neuroscience, Cognitive Brain Research and Physica. His research is funded by a is National Science Foundation CAREER Award, and he was recently awarded and Fulbright Scholar Grant.

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Friday, May 12, 2006, 8:00pm to 10:00pm