Klarinet Archive - Posting 001092.txt from 2000/05

From: Bilwright@-----.net (William Wright)
Subj: [kl] More neurology + embouchure
Date: Wed, 24 May 2000 11:22:56 -0400

According to this book that I'm reading (Descartes' Error), if a
person's smile is caused by actual 'happy' or 'friendly' emotions, then
the mouth muscles are controlled by a certain part of the person's
brain. But if the same person decides to 'fake' a smile -- perhaps just
because it's the polite thing to do -- then the mouth muscles are
controlled by some other part of the brain.
These two parts of the brain do not communicate with each other
(according to data from PET scans, brain injuries, etc). In fact,
neurologists have different medical names for two types of brain injury,
both of which damage the ability to express emotions with the facial
muscles, but each version is caused by injury to a different brain area.
One of the brain areas is under conscious control, and the other is not.
A 'true' smile also involves some muscles around the eyes, and
these eye muscles are controlled by the 'true smile' area in the brain,
not by the 'conscious fake smile' area. The book goes on to discuss (at
some length) the neurology of how actors manage to 'fake' a smile as
part of their art, and also why a well-trained investigator can usually
distinguish between a 'fake' smile and a 'true' smile.

After reading all of this, my thought was that apparently, when you
make a rational (conscious) (voluntary) decision to put your face
muscles into a specific configuration -- as in embouchure -- you are not
using (can not use) the part of your brain that responds with
uncontrived emotions.
When someone says, "I express my feelings in my music", well....
this statement appears not to be entirely true for musicians who use an
embouchure to play (when judged by PET scans and neural anatomy).

Fascinating stuff.......

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