Researcher Making Music From Brain Waves

Dan Lloyd, Brownell Professor of Philosophy at Trinity College, is using fMRI data from scans of the brain to synthesize “music”, and has found that different brains make very different melodies.

Lloyd created software which translates data from a brain scan to Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) data. This lets him use the information to control a synthesizer, resulting in brain-driven synthesis. According to Lloyd, this technology that may give new insights into the differences and similarities between normal and dysfunctional brains.

“The sounds work in unison and create melodies,” he said. “Different parts harmonize with each other to make not just sounds, but music.”

Lloyd used this technology to compare brain scans from people with dementia and schizophrenia to healthy subjects and found a noticeable difference in the music they created.

For more videos on Lloyd’s research, check his YouTube channel.

Do you think this qualifies as music, or is it just translating information from one timeline based form to another? Leave a comment with your thoughts!

3 thoughts on “Researcher Making Music From Brain Waves

  1. Is it possible for you to post a recording of your Brain Wave Music somewhere besides YouTube? I teach music in Libya, and my high school music class is researching Brain Wave music. The Libyan government has blocked YouTube, so we can't go to your channel!

  2. Is it possible for you to post a recording of your Brain Wave Music somewhere besides YouTube? I teach music in Libya, and my high school music class is researching Brain Wave music. The Libyan government has blocked YouTube, so we can't go to your channel!

  3. I am putting things together for a musical instruments and pro audio business training and came to your site. I met a Russian guy at NAMM Show many years back and talked with him about this musical instrument he gave demo with head band connected to a computer and a sound module. I am working as the product specialist manager for http://www.citraintirama.com joining since 1990. I was also an activist of AISB when I was in UK. Hope could get in touch with people into things like this. I have some theory which I don’t know with whom I could share here since back home to Indonesia. Thanks!

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