{"@context":"http://iiif.io/api/presentation/3/context.json","id":"https://ualberta.aviaryplatform.com/iiif/js9h41mk02/manifest","type":"Manifest","label":{"en":["Thunderstorms and Symphonies of the Brain"]},"logo":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/organizations/logo_images/000/000/128/original/UA_Logo_WHT_RGB_%281%29.png?1725471982","metadata":[{"label":{"en":["Agent"]},"value":{"en":["Prostebby, Mitch (Creator)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Date"]},"value":{"en":["2026-01-12 (Published)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Description"]},"value":{"en":["\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eMitch Prostebby (he/him)\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eDoctoral student, \u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eFaculty of Medicine and Dentistry, Department of Neuroscience\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e1st place\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eArtist Statement\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eOur brains are constantly producing a silent symphony of electrical waves which work together to form our thoughts, feelings, actions, and dreams. But what exactly are the patterns of activity which make up our conscious and unconscious experience? In this piece, I use an algorithm I developed here at the U of A to demonstrate that these questions can be answered if we bring these waves into the domain of sound. The process works by identifying and assigning brain waves of different frequencies to distinct musical notes, and maintaining the timing and volume of individual tones matched to the individual electrical waves we recorded. Here, I guide you through how I applied this approach to a recording I made of unconscious brain activity within the hippocampal region of a rat as part of my thesis. Overall, the resulting music yields important insight into how brain rhythms form harmonies and melodies which frequently cooperate across neural inputs to process internalized experiences.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMedia \u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eRat brainwaves recorded by creator; vocals of creator\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCreative Process\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eNeural recordings used for this project were gathered by me using specialized multichannel electrodes implanted into the CA1 region of the hippocampus of rats. Data preprocessing was performed to extract the signals of different neural connections in this area. The following algorithms were created and written by me in MATLAB to produce the sounds in this piece: the first algorithm resamples the activity recorded from a given neural connection to 44100Hz which was exported to Audacity to produce sounds. The second algorithm begins by identifying the timing and amplitude of individual brain waves occurring at frequencies ranging from 0.75Hz to 145Hz. Each frequency was then assigned to a tone such that every occurrence of a given brain wave (say 12Hz) is represented by a specific tone (say middle C). Tones were chosen so that 0.75Hz brainwaves corresponded to 65.406Hz tones (also known as “C2”), covering 5 equally spaced tones every octave, up to a maximum frequency of 911.028Hz. Thus, the resulting musical tones have a timing, volume, and relative tonal relationship which is completely determined by recorded data. Voiceover written and recorded by me.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e"]}},{"label":{"en":["Rights Statement"]},"value":{"en":["\u003cp\u003eThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons licence, Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0): see \u003ca href=\"creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/\"\u003ecreativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/\u003c/a\u003e. To obtain permission for uses beyond those outlined in the Creative Commons licence, please contact: \u003ca href=\"mailto:aviary@ualberta.ca\"\u003eaviary@ualberta.ca\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e"]}}],"summary":{"en":["\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif;\"\u003eMitch Prostebby (he/him)\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eDoctoral student,\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eFaculty of Medicine and Dentistry, Department of Neuroscience\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e1st place\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eArtist Statement\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eOur brains are constantly producing a silent symphony of electrical waves which work together to form our thoughts, feelings, actions, and dreams. But what exactly are the patterns of activity which make up our conscious and unconscious experience? In this piece, I use an algorithm I developed here at the U of A to demonstrate that these questions can be answered if we bring these waves into the domain of sound. The process works by identifying and assigning brain waves of different frequencies to distinct musical notes, and maintaining the timing and volume of individual tones matched to the individual electrical waves we recorded. Here, I guide you through how I applied this approach to a recording I made of unconscious brain activity within the hippocampal region of a rat as part of my thesis. Overall, the resulting music yields important insight into how brain rhythms form harmonies and melodies which frequently cooperate across neural inputs to process internalized experiences.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMedia\u0026nbsp;\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eRat brainwaves recorded by creator; vocals of creator\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCreative Process\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eNeural recordings used for this project were gathered by me using specialized multichannel electrodes implanted into the CA1 region of the hippocampus of rats. Data preprocessing was performed to extract the signals of different neural connections in this area. The following algorithms were created and written by me in MATLAB to produce the sounds in this piece: the first algorithm resamples the activity recorded from a given neural connection to 44100Hz which was exported to Audacity to produce sounds. The second algorithm begins by identifying the timing and amplitude of individual brain waves occurring at frequencies ranging from 0.75Hz to 145Hz. Each frequency was then assigned to a tone such that every occurrence of a given brain wave (say 12Hz) is represented by a specific tone (say middle C). Tones were chosen so that 0.75Hz brainwaves corresponded to 65.406Hz tones (also known as \u0026ldquo;C2\u0026rdquo;), covering 5 equally spaced tones every octave, up to a maximum frequency of 911.028Hz. Thus, the resulting musical tones have a timing, volume, and relative tonal relationship which is completely determined by recorded data. Voiceover written and recorded by me.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e"]},"requiredStatement":{"label":{"en":["Attribution"]},"value":{"en":["\u003cp\u003eThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons licence, Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0): see \u003ca href=\"creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/\"\u003ecreativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/\u003c/a\u003e. To obtain permission for uses beyond those outlined in the Creative Commons licence, please contact: \u003ca href=\"mailto:aviary@ualberta.ca\"\u003eaviary@ualberta.ca\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e"]}},"provider":[{"id":"https://ualberta.aviaryplatform.com/aboutus","type":"Agent","label":{"en":["University of Alberta Library"]},"homepage":[{"id":"https://ualberta.aviaryplatform.com/","type":"Text","label":{"en":["University of Alberta Library"]},"format":"text/html"}],"logo":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/organizations/logo_images/000/000/128/original/UA_Logo_WHT_RGB_%281%29.png?1725471982","type":"Image"}]}],"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/collection_resource_files/thumbnails/000/299/409/small/thumbnail-1-Mitch.png?1767773397","type":"Image","format":"image/png"}],"items":[{"id":"https://ualberta.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3560/collection_resources/164342/file/299409","type":"Canvas","label":{"en":["Media File 1 of 1 - Thunderstorms and Symphonies of the Brain.wav"]},"duration":302.65372,"width":640,"height":40,"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/collection_resource_files/thumbnails/000/299/409/small/thumbnail-1-Mitch.png?1767773397","type":"Image","format":"image/png"}],"items":[{"id":"https://ualberta.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3560/collection_resources/164342/file/299409/content/1","type":"AnnotationPage","items":[{"id":"https://ualberta.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3560/collection_resources/164342/file/299409/content/1/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"painting","body":{"id":"https://aviary-p-ualberta.s3.wasabisys.com/collection_resource_files/resource_files/000/299/409/original/Thunderstorms%20and%20Symphonies%20of%20the%20Brain.wav?1767591975","type":"Audio","format":"audio/wav","duration":302.65372,"width":640,"height":40},"target":"https://ualberta.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3560/collection_resources/164342/file/299409","metadata":[]}]}],"annotations":[]}]}