Dont be so sure; course classification is based solely on content not on department or title. Content is based on the official college catalog description.
In the catalog it just says "Honors Special Topic" and there's no description because it's a special course not offered often. This is what it says in the syllabus. What do you think?
Short Course Description: Music affects human in many ways and it has been used to control peoples’ mind. This class will explorethe impact of sound and music on the brain function including mood, emotion, pain, cognition, and memory using interdisciplinaryapproach, the cutting-edge knowledge in neuroscience and basic analysis of music structure.
Course Description: Music has been used to control emotion and mood. Music therapy has been used to release stress andproduce calm, meditative states. Music is also known to reduce the level of pain experienced by terminal cancer patients and the symptoms of depression. Recent evidence supports the assertion that listening to music helps improve cognitive and motor deficitsin patients with brain injury or disease. Rats repeatedly exposed to complex music [Mozart Sonata (k. 448)], completed a maze more rapidly and with fewer errors than rats assigned to other music groups [minimalist music (a Philip Glass composition), whitenoise or silence] [Rauscher et al., 1998]. These results suggest that exposure to complex music induces improved spatial-temporallearning in rats, and similar conclusions have been drawn from studies performed with humans. The existence of neurophysiologicalmechanisms for the effects of music on learning, memory, emotion and mood are well accepted. For example, canaries stop singingevery autumn when a population of brain cells responsible for song-generation dies. Over the winter, a whole new population ofneurons grows back and in the spring, the canaries learn their songs all over again. Also, current research indicates mechanism ofatypical antidepressants function increase stem cell population in the brain. Taken together with studies of music-induced neuralplasticity, this fact indicates that music may increase neurogenesis in the brain. This class will explore the impact of sound andmusic on brain function including mood, emotion, pain, cognition, and memory using an interdisciplinary approach. The cutting-edge knowledge in neuroscience will be applied to basic analysis of music structure and music impact.
Goals:
Offer updated neuroscience information related to the effects of music. Understand effects of music on the brain function andhuman behavior. Apply knowledge on music to control mood and ability in human subjects.
