Dennett's Brain

A Brainmusic video, transcribing Dan Dennett's brain as music.
Visualization/Sonification of fMRI of 5 min of "rest state" (aka "default mode") of Daniel Dennett, recorded December 16, 2015.
The data were preprocessed via Independent Component Analysis, separating ten temporally coherent networks, that is, regions of the brain that activate/deactivate together. In the movie the ten networks are rendered as ten bands of varying intensity over time. As activity in a network increases the brain areas depicted brighten. At the same time, each of the ten components is assigned a musical tone. The loudness of the tone also varies with component intensity. This plays in real time. Images taken every .475 seconds were smoothed into the movie you see. Does Dennett's brain really move with such elegiac slowness? No. fMRI images, and cerebral blood flow, blur the staccato activity of billions of neurons into the waves of sound you hear