Clarifying assumptions behind the empirical testing of a physiologically plausible computational model of rhythm perception [PhD Probation Report]

Angelis, Vassilis (2011). Clarifying assumptions behind the empirical testing of a physiologically plausible computational model of rhythm perception [PhD Probation Report]. Technical Report 2011/08; Department of Computing, The Open University.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.21954/ou.ro.000160b3

Abstract

The paper "Empirical testing of a physiologically plausible computational model of rhythm perception” (Angelis, 2010) proposed an examination of the accuracy of Edward Large’s computational model to simulate aspects of human’s rhythm perception. In that paper, a series of experiments were proposed to address the above proposition. A detailed description of these experiments can be found in the methodology section of the above document. The present paper seeks to clarify various cross‐disciplinary issues from the different disciplines involved, such as musicology, neurophysiology and mathematics. The issues to be clarified are the following: a) The musical reality or realities that the computational model addresses or attempts to account for. b) The physiological realities the model presumes (for instance details concerning the network of neural oscillators, the relationships between oscillators, and what happens when the brain confronts the musical situations documented in (a) above. c) An explanation of the distinctions between linear systems and nonlinear systems and the relevance of this to how we understand firstly, the ‘brain on music’ and secondly, the computational model. d) The ways in which these inform the mathematical model (the mathematics of the model need not to be explained fully, but the musical and physiological elements folded into that model do).