Closing in... Tropism

Well, today I will talk about Tropism, the 10th song I have composed.
It is a bit long, so if you only want to listen to the music, please listen to the first half, and if you only want to hear about the brain, please listen to the second half.

Inspiration for the song

Where do you all get your inspiration when you are creating music? In my case (although they are mostly instrumental tracks), I think there are roughly four patterns.

1. A rhythm suddenly comes to mind while walking

2. Finding a good tone while tweaking a sound source and getting inspiration from that

3. Listening to music in the genre you want to create and getting inspiration

4. Hearing an unknown song in a dream and writing it down after waking up

While number 4 only happens once every few years, 1 through 3 are the triggers for my songwriting every time. Tropism is a song that started from number 2.

What is tropism?

It is a phenomenon where a living organism reacts to stimuli such as light or chemical substances and leans toward the direction of the stimulus (positive tropism) or in the opposite direction (negative tropism). It is like how plants lean and grow toward the light. It can also refer to the fact that the cells capable of proliferation are determined by a virus, but I am using it in the former sense here.

This song started because the "cheese organ" tone in the software sound source VSC was interesting, and I thought I would try using it. A phrase that sounded like insects starting to move slowly was created, and I got an image of spring where both insects and plants gradually start to move. The title Tropism comes from this.

Closing-in and constructional impairment - Higher brain dysfunction -

I learned the word "tropism" when I was researching phenomena seen in patients. I sometimes have patients suspected of having brain diseases draw pictures. This is because the characteristics of the illness can sometimes appear in the drawings. There is a "copying" test where the patient is asked to draw a picture as accurately as possible while looking at a sample, and many people with lesions in the parietal lobe of the brain are not good at this.

In particular, a state where one cannot draw simple pictures even though there is no paralysis or hand tremors is called constructional impairment.
In patients with this constructional impairment, a mysterious phenomenon called "closing-in" can sometimes be seen. While they are copying, their hand position naturally gets closer to the sample figure, and sometimes they do not even notice that they are drawing on top of the sample.

This is a phenomenon sometimes seen in people with higher brain dysfunction. When people hear "higher brain dysfunction," they might think of the aftereffects of traffic accidents or subarachnoid hemorrhages, but in a broad sense, it also includes dementia. I have the impression that it is relatively common, especially in people with slightly advanced Alzheimer's-type dementia.

closing-in and tropism

Why does this happen? Currently, there are roughly two hypotheses for the onset mechanism of closing-in.

1) Compensation hypothesis

Research has shown that when we perform actions while looking at something in space, our brains utilize visuospatial cognition and visuospatial working memory. One theory suggests that people with parietal lobe disorders have weakened functions in these areas, and they attempt to compensate by shortening the distance between the model and the drawing they are creating.

2) The Attraction Hypothesis

This is the hypothesis that when performing an action that requires significant visual attention, the action tends to gravitate toward the target of that attention. It is based on the idea that humans have an innate tendency to move toward things that attract their attention, and that we normally suppress this urge. The term 'tropism' was used by Denny-Brown (1958), who proposed this theory.

It is known that 'closing-in' behavior can actually occur in healthy children and adults under certain conditions. The attraction hypothesis is considered a more compelling theory because it can also explain this phenomenon.
For those interested, please see the following (unfortunately, this is not often written about in Japanese papers).

• Denny-Brown D. The nature of apraxia. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 126:9-32, 1958.

• Ambron E, Beschin N, Cerrone C, Della Sala S. Closing-in behavior: compensation or attraction? Neuropsychology, 32:259-268, 2018.

There are also cases where people end up getting closer to other people, and I hope you will remember 'tropism' when something like that happens.

#WhatIs #MusicProduction #OriginalSong #SoftwareInstrument #HigherBrainDysfunction #ConstructionalDisorder #ConstructionalApraxia #Dementia #Alzheimer's #Brain