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JIm Aiston;s recent Stereophile article: fundamental question

129.244.120.71
Posted on May 25, 2004 at 06:55:06
abajaj11


 
HI Jim,
This post is re: Your recent stereophile article on how 30% of people react to watching a movie in a similar way.
I don't think the study is really applicable to the point you are trying to make. Basically, the study simply says that people who watch the GOOD the BAD & the UGLY showed similar brain patterns (At least 30% did). This deals with the CONTENT, not the presentation.
In other words, one can extrapolate from the study to say that people who listen to Beethoven's eigth will show similar brain patterns (say 30% of them will again). However, one CANNOT say that people who listen to Beethoven's eighth presented slightly better than another group listening to beethoven's eighth presented slightly worse, will show different brain patterns. The study you are citing dealt with how people react similarly to CONTENT, not to PRESENTATION. Getting a component to "sound right" is a totally different phenomenon, dealing with PRESENTATION.
hope this makes sense. Would be interested to hear your thoughts.
-akhilesh

 

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Re: Jim Austen's recent articel (sorry for misspelling your name) (NT), posted on May 25, 2004 at 06:56:08
abajaj11


 
(NT)

 

Re: Jim Austin's (sorry for misspelling your name AGAIN) (NT), posted on May 25, 2004 at 06:56:56
abajaj11


 
nt

 

Neuroscience update, posted on May 25, 2004 at 07:44:13
Jim Austin
 akhilesh,

I was addressing a much deeper, almost philosophical question than the one you ask: is there ANY REASON AT ALL to have confidence that when we experience the same thing, that we EXPERIENCE THE SAME THING, if you get my meaning. And the answer presented by that Science article is, in my view, that, yes, there is reason to believe that we experience things in substantially the same way, to the tune of about 30%. My response can predict your response to a confidence of about 30%.

Indeed, there is a lot left over that's not the same (about 70%) and there's a lot of work to be done before fNMR could begin to detect small differences reliably. It may never happen. But now, at least, we know--rigorously--that we're all more or less on the same page when we have a common experience. That's something we didn't know before, though most of us assumed it.

Best Regards,
Jim Austin

 

Re: Neuroscience update, posted on May 25, 2004 at 09:30:10
abajaj11


 
HI Jim,
Thanx for your response. Essentially, i understand you to say you wanted to see if all of us experience the same thing IN GENERAL. My point in the earlier post was that that may be TOO much of a generalization. We need to consider each phenomenon separately (or each class of phenomenon spearately) to see if people experience it the same way.
For example: If I put a lot of habanero chiles in SAlsa, and feed it to 5 people, I can reasonably expect them on average to share feelings of a certain type of discomfort...i.e. eating food laced with a lot o f chile will cause similar brain patterns in these people (on average). Simialry, I am sure ther eare other extreme phenomena that do cause similar patterns.

Unfortulantely the phenomenon we are capturing with minute differences in stereo sound presentation are so subtle and ephemeral that I fear we cannot lump them in the same category as the more obviously experienced phenomena, such as too muc chiles.

Anyway, just my 2 cents. I enjoyed reading your article. At one point, a few years ago, i briefly considered using fMRI for my own research (As a tool) and then gave up on it, since i did not think i would learn much from it. However, it is very useful in many ways.
thanx
-akhilesh

 

Re: Neuroscience update, posted on May 25, 2004 at 11:15:16
Jim Austin
 >>My point in the earlier post was that that may be TOO much of a generalization.<<

That's certainly a possibility. But at least we now know--and we didn't know it before--that in general, at a neurological level people who eat chiles, or watch Clint Eastwood movies, are having approximately the same experience. That's something. I tend to think they probably won't be able to get the kind of resolution that would be required to distinguish between, say, SS and tubes. But who knows?

Cheers
Jim

 

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