Category: Culture

Classical music by composers like Bach, Beethoven, and Mozart is known to impact mood. Scientists are now using brainwave measurements and neural imaging to understand how Western classical music affects the brain positively.

This research could lead to new treatments for patients with treatment-resistant depression. Professor Bomin Sun from Shanghai Jiao Tong University hopes to apply these findings in clinical practice to develop effective music therapy tools.

The study involved 13 patients with treatment-resistant depression who had electrodes implanted in their brains for deep-brain stimulation. These implants are placed in a circuit connecting the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST) and the nucleus accumbens (NAc).

The researchers discovered that music has antidepressant effects by synchronizing neural activity between the auditory cortex and the rewards circuit. This synchronization involves the BNST-NAc circuit, which is closely related to the amygdala, a key structure in emotional processing.

Patients were divided into two groups based on their music appreciation: high or low. Those who appreciated music more showed greater neural synchronization and better antidepressant effects. Conversely, those with lower music appreciation showed less improvement.

The researchers used unfamiliar Western classical music to avoid bias from prior experience. They found that enhancing BNST-NAc oscillatory coupling with theta frequency noise increased music enjoyment in patients with low appreciation.

The next steps include studying how music interacts with deep brain structures in depressive disorders and exploring combined sensory stimuli, like visual images, for potential therapeutic effects. The team plans to develop digital health products, such as smartphone apps and wearable devices, based on their music therapy research.

A 94-year-old Englishman, David Aris, took on the world’s fastest zip line to raise money for his local hospice care. David, a great-grandfather, lost his wife, June, to cancer five years ago. St John’s Hospice, which cared for June in her final months, also provided end-of-life care for a friend of David’s, Mr. Kilby.

David and Narelle, Mr. Kilby’s 70-year-old widow, visited Zip World in Penrhyn Quarry, Wales, where they rode the zip line, reaching speeds of up to 100 mph (160 km/h), to raise funds for the hospice.

“I’d heard of the zip line, but I didn’t consider it until Narelle suggested it,” David told the media. “When I called to book and mentioned I was 94, they said I was likely the oldest person to try it, and it turned out to be true!”

David described the experience as nerve-wracking but exhilarating, noting that the ride was over in less than a minute due to its speed.

David and Narelle have raised over £9,500 through JustGiving to support the hospice that helped them during a difficult time.

Social media can lead to surprising discoveries, like a recent one in the UK where an art consultant and historian noticed a lost work of art in the background of a photo posted on X.

The discovery happened in the judge’s room of the Shire Court in Warwickshire, England, during a soiree hosted by the Lord Lieutenant of Warwickshire.

Dr. Adam Busiakiewicz, an art historian and consultant for Sotheby’s, came across the post on X by Warwickshire Lieutenancy by chance. He noticed a portrait with a distinctive arched top depicting Henry VIII. The painting, showing the king holding a sword and wearing golden chains, reminded Dr. Busiakiewicz of a set of portraits from centuries ago that depicted European royals like Henry, Richard III, and Catherine de Medici.

The painting was created by an anonymous artist known as the Sheldon Master. Ralph Sheldon, either an associate, relative, or descendant, incorporated the works into an architectural frieze at his Warwickshire estate, Weston House, where they were displayed until at least the 18th century.

Today, only a few of these paintings survive in public and private collections, with most disappearing after a 1781 auction. Busiakiewicz visited Warwickshire to inspect the work and noted that it matched the size and style of other known paintings in the set, suggesting it was the work of a skilled artist.

There are over 2,000 bell towers across Catalonia alone, and they all need tolling each half-hour; but it’s actually so much more than that.

To better interweave communities and keep long-practiced traditions alive, Spain is witnessing a class graduate from its first bell-ringing school.

This strange idea is all about reviving a dying art that was recently inscribed on UNESCO’s list of Intangible World Heritage, featuring human activities like baking, dancing, and poetry, that tell the story of our species’ cultural diversity across time and across countries. Over the last 120 years, manual bell-ringing has gradually been replaced by automatic systems in Catholic and Protestant churches, which has flattened their potential and muted their messaging powers.

“We have the utopian goal of a toller in each bell tower. I know it’s a utopian goal because there are over 2,000 bell towers across Catalonia,” admits Xavier Pallas, a bell-ringing instructor at Vall d’en Bas School of Bell Ringers, who just graduated his school’s first class.

He says that despite there being more effective means of communicating than bell-ringing, its function serves as an important method of local communication that binds and unifies communities in times of grief and joy. What will come perhaps as a surprise is that, depending on the order, tone, and number of chimes, churchbells in Spain announced everything from fire alarms and bad weather warnings, to when the fishermen were arriving with the day’s catch, and even how much it was going to cost.

“We need to keep these rituals in both cases,” says Pallas.