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From "The Man how Could taste Shapes" by Richard Cytowic, M.D. originally published in 1993 revised in 1997 about synesthesia>
" All other mammals I including humans) dream, and when we do we emit an electroencephalographic signal in REM sleep called the Theta rhythm...When any sensory signal comes into the human cortex, the hippocampal theta rhythm becomes active if the stimulus is evaluated as relevant and you attend to it."
Since the Schumann generator is essential producing theta type rhythms, it could be prepping the brain for further sensory inputs by placing it, through entrainment, into the "proper " mode.
Further "The limbic system performs calculations at an internal cycles per second rate of 400Hz, but is governed by a much slower outer clock of 5Hz, the rate of the theta rhythm." (Cytowic takes the theta rhythm as being 5 Hz , although many other sources claim that it is slightly higher at about the Schumann frequency of about 7.8 Hz, although, some Schumann generators have an adjustable frequency rate. Not that this tantalizing data bit has any bearing on the Schumann frequencies, but I did find it interesting.
The book goes on further to say "The cortex also performs high speed modular calculations governed by a low clock speed of 10 Hz, the frequency of alpha rhythm. This 2:1 ration is what engineers require to adapt a critic. You need to hold , store, and reevaluate in a a way that makes the cycle time of the critic twice as long as the model's cycle."
It is also interesting that the author states that the mind responds to a stimulus.010 seconds after the initiation of the of the stimulus. He also points to a study which determined the mind actually initiates brain activity up to a full second before the action is initiated. "The point is that subjective experience has a discrepant time base from the neuronal activity that produces it." Since music is constantly changing and is occurring at rates far faster than one second, it is easy to understand why analysis of music is so complex, diverse, and often at odds with other listeners.
I find this fact to be quite illuminating and perhaps the explanation as to why some listeners perceive certain aspect of music while other do not. If you have never consciously perceived a certain aspect of musical reproduction, your mind may never be "prepared" to receive it and thus may never "hear" it. I do notice that much of aural training in music departments consists of sheer practice, listening to a particular attribute and it it is only with much repetition that recognition becomes apparent.
The same has been applicable in my three decades of working in an audio store. Much of the time I spend simply "educating" the listener, doing A-B demonstrations and carefully coaching the listener to hear certain aspects of music. Wasn't it Descartes who said that chance favors the prepared mind? The same may apply to listeners, and since the 'net brings together many people with rather diverse experiences, many may not be cognizant of certain aspects which may be favored by others.
Stu
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