[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
Reality check
Today we have data showing
similar signs of appreciation of Mozart's music
in rats as in humans.
...and did you know that they also are avid Dostoevski fans; not to
mention admirers of Velazquez?
I checked my calendar, and saw that it was March 1 and not April 1. So I
guess this was meant to be taken seriously.
OK; Since nobody else has risen to the bait, I guess someone has to do
it.
Let's just point out two things. First, if it may be useful for people to
look at Kenneth Steele's paper in Music Perception [(2003), 21, p251] in
which he points out that rats' audiograms are such that they are unlikely
to hear anything below 500 HZ, and their cutoff is probably even higher
than that based on the reported SPL of 65 and considering background
noise. So this means that whatever they were hearing, it was Mozart minus
everything below about C5.
The second point, which I would expect an undergraduate to be able to
point out (or else flunk my course), is that the cited study used no
control group other than no treatment. So the specificity of the
conclusions is, shall we say, a bit suspect.
I could go on, but instead, may I simply suggest that the conclusion that
rats "show similar signs of appreciation of Mozart" is...um...
premature?
Sorry to be such a curmugeon.
cheers
Robert
-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
Robert J. Zatorre, Ph.D.
Montreal Neurological Institute
3801 University St.
Montreal, QC Canada H3A 2B4
phone: 1-514-398-8903
fax: 1-514-398-1338