The Cognitive Aspect of Sustained and Varying Auditory Stimuli

This project's aim is to investigate sustained sound with slowly varying timbres, and their possible uses in therapy, learning and music. Inspired by Braeunig (2011), we will identify a number of auditory stimuli and assess the cognitive aspects through EEG measures and subsequent interpretation of these with the Global Descriptors (Wackermann and Allefeld 2007). This study will investigate many auditory stimuli, including instruments such as the tampura that is used as the steady drone sound in Indian ragas, classical instruments with vibrato and/or beatings, algorithmic sound with slowly varying amplitudes and frequencies (Jensen 2005) and the drums and rhythmic section in popular music. Preliminary investigation into the use of such stimuli and such descriptors in learning and therapy is believed to open up new fields of study.