Areas of the mind

Let's open today's meditation with a quote from Merlyn Mantle's memoir, A Hero All His Life, on her philandering husband Mickey: "He was married in a very small geographic area of his mind."

Remind you of anything? Yes, sure, you in the back. Of what? Of recent research into music? Can you be more specific? Ah, yes. Yes, there was a 2001 study that claimed that "the gamma band EEG over distributed brain areas while listening to music can be described by a universal and homogenous scaling." But can you put that in your own words? Okay, good. Yes, I saw that study, as well: a 2010 Stanford project that posited a link between listening to "obscure 18th-century composers" and activity in areas of the brain associated with decision-making and with memory.

And would anyone like to go further? Can these observations be applied in other directions? No? Nothing? Well, then, allow me to present my own findings, based on 16 months of research into the geographic areas of the mind of a girl named Cleo. Please observe, and then discuss, in small groups: