Аnalyzing the phenomenon of musicality through the lens of modern neuroscience

In: Vestnik Sankt-Peterburgskogo universiteta: Vestnik of Saint-Petersburg University. Filosofija i konfliktologija = Philosophy and conflict studies, Band 37, Heft 2, S. 296-309

Abstract

From the standpoint of biocultural co-constructivism methodology, the article analyzes the phenomenon of musicality, which is understood as a set of intonation-rhythmic patterns that can act as predictors of a number of cognitive traits already in the process of neurogenesis. The authors claim that this phenomenon has the status of a universal of human existence, which is an integral neurophysiological factor in the formation of analytical, verbal-logical and linguistic components of reasoning. Analysis of the numerical nature of the rhythmic component of innate ontogenetic structures makes it possible to show the general points of growth of artistic, proto-mathematical and mathematical cognitive abilities in the process of ontogenesis. It is shown that synchronization, expressed in resonance (or asynchronization) of mental processes at the level of neural systems in which ideas about beauty are genetically "tuned", is associated with the status of the golden ratio and Fibonacci numbers. The processes of synchronization can be assessed as indicators of the harmonious relationships of nature, humans, and particular features of cognitive potential, aesthetic perception, and the formation of musical tastes. This may be considered as an argument in favor of the numerical nature of music being a relatively autonomous cognitive activity in the process of self-organization of mental systems, in the field of which the functional and structural patterns of the golden ratio play the role of the fundamental creative and hedonistic components. The article substantiates the correlative relationship between harmony and the golden ration in the context of the search for factors of optimality for the functioning of physiological parameters of living systems. The nature of this relationship speaks in favor of the conceptual enrichment of methodology in the field of modern cognitive research, which is associated with a revision of the reductionist type of fundamental concepts and attitudes towards holism, the ratio of the intuitive and discursive components of the cognitive process.