Subject: CFP: Neural Mechanisms of Music Processing From: Malcolm Slaney <malcolm(at)INTERVAL.COM> Date: Mon, 23 Aug 1999 10:53:30 -0700 X-Web-Page:http://www.interval.com/~malcolm/pubs.htmlHopefully this will be interesting to some of you. This is the call for participants for a NIPS workshop on "Neural Mechanisms of Music Processing." -- Malcolm --------------------------------------------------- Neural Mechanisms of Music Processing Workshop at NIPS*99 December 3 and 4, 1999, Breckenridge, CO --------------------------------------------------- URL: http://bach.ece.jhu.edu/nips99/ The term "music" covers a large variety of signals, from the simple to the complex. It is easy to choose stimuli to study a particular phenomenon, be it pitch detection, harmonic analysis, sequence prediction, or spatial location. However, mixtures of time-varying harmonics, intertwining sequences, resonances and spatial reflections easily make music as complex and difficult to analyze as speech. What makes music especially interesting is the ability to control the complexity of data, allowing independent control over a variety of parameters which are not possible to separate in speech. Reasonably, one may assume that the human brain did not develop different mechanisms for dealing with speech as opposed to music, or other natural sounds. Thus, research on the response of the auditory cortex to music should yield valuable insights on speech processing in the brain. The ever-increasing body of neurophysiological data on the mammalian auditory system will pave the way for a solid understanding of these mechanisms and the creation of accurate models to describe them. Call for Participation ---------------------- We are soliciting participants for the NIPS Neural Mechanisms of Music Processing Workshop. Please send a one-paragraph description of your interests to: nips99(at)bach.ece.jhu.edu Based on these submissions, we will select a small number of speakers, a number of panel members for discussions, and demonstrations. Our goal is to create a stimulating environment for a scientific discussion of the neural mechanisms of music processing. This workshop will concentrate on several key issues which are currently prominent in acoustics research. In particular, the intent of the workshop is to bring together areas of research which appear to be strongly related to the problem of music processing and to each other. We are especially interested in participants that can contribute in the following areas: Music Perception and Analysis Perceptual Attributes (i.e., pitch, rhythm, and timbre) Neural Basis of Audition Psychoacoustics of Music Auditory Modeling Interesting Representations (i.e., ICA) Neural Control Mechanisms Workshop Format --------------- This will be a two-day workshop, combining talks, organized discussions, and demonstrations of models and simulations. NIPS is the premiere conference on neurophysiological mechanisms, machine learning, and applied statistics. The workshops, held at Breckenridge Ski Resort, combine wonderful science and skiing in an informal environment. Organizers ---------- R. Timothy Edwards Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory Laurel, MD email: tim(at)stravinsky.jhuapl.edu Shihab A. Shamma University of Maryland at College Park College Park, MD email: sas(at)glue.umd.edu Malcolm Slaney Interval Research Palo Alto, CA email: malcolm(at)interval.com