Скачать или смотреть Neural Networks for Piano: Composed and Performed (Live) by Derek Simon

Neural Networks: The Nucleus Accumbens
Composer: Derek Simon
Pianist: Derek Simon
© Derek Simon 2015
Website: www.drsimonsaysscience.org

Performed live at the National Opera Center in New York, NY on Friday May 29, 2015.

Composers Collective Spring Concert 2015
Website: www.composerscollective.org

This piece is my musical interpretation of the neural activity within the nucleus accumbens (NAc), a region of the brain critical in processing the reward (i.e. pleasure) of a particular stimulus. Neurons in the NAc receive different signals from other neurons that release the neurotransmitter dopamine, represented as various motifs based on the notes D and A. However, the NAc also receives glutamate signals, represented by G, A, and E. Different types of dopamine neurotransmission help to encode the rewarding (either positive or negative) value of the stimulus and this in turn mediates how the glutamate signals are processed by the NAc. The brain can then determine how pleasurable the stimulus is, and how to respond to it. What you’ll hear is a series of DA “signals” and their effect on how the GAE “signals” are “processed”.

Derek P. Simon, PhD, truly exercises both halves of his brain. Since childhood, his two loves have been science and music. Although trained in piano since age seven, Derek made science his official profession, completing his doctorate in Cellular and Molecular Biology from the University of Michigan in 2012. He now researches drug addiction at the Rockefeller University. However, music
has never been far from his heart and he still plays piano daily. He has secretly aspired to be a great composer since high school and now has the opportunity to mature as a composer and bring his ideas to fruition.

Founded in January 2014 by Juilliard students, the Composers Collective is a nurturing community of composers dedicated to creating original musical works to connect with and grow the audience for new music.