Curiosity Daily

Irrational Fear of Robots; Mozart’s Epilepsy-Reducing Sonata

Episode Summary

Robotics researcher Ruth Aylett explains why some people fear robots. Plus: how a sonata can reduce epilepsy seizures. More from Ruth Aylett, professor of computer science at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh: Pick up "Living with Robots: What Every Anxious Human Needs to Know": https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/living-robots  Follow @ruthaylett on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ruthaylett  University website: http://www.macs.hw.ac.uk/~ruth/  Edinburgh Centre for Robotics: https://www.edinburgh-robotics.org/academics/ruth-aylett  Mozart's Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major may be able to treat refractory focal epilepsy by reducing seizures... somehow by Grant Currin Berezow, A. (2021, October 4). How Mozart’s music treats epilepsy. Big Think; Big Think. https://bigthink.com/health/mozart-k448-effect-music-treats-epilepsy/  Quon, R. J., Casey, M. A., Camp, E. J., Meisenhelter, S., Steimel, S. A., Song, Y., Testorf, M. E., Leslie, G. A., Bujarski, K. A., Ettinger, A. B., & Jobst, B. C. (2021). Musical components important for the Mozart K448 effect in epilepsy. Scientific Reports, 11(1). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-95922-7  AFP. (2021). One Mozart Song Calms The Brains of People With Epilepsy, And We May Finally Know Why. ScienceAlert. https://www.sciencealert.com/listening-to-mozart-somehow-helped-people-with-epilepsy?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencealert-latestnews+%28ScienceAlert-Latest%29  Follow Curiosity Daily on your favorite podcast app to learn something new every day withCody Gough andAshley Hamer. Still curious? Get exclusive science shows, nature documentaries, and more real-life entertainment on discovery+! Go to https://discoveryplus.com/curiosity to start your 7-day free trial. discovery+ is currently only available for US subscribers.

Episode Notes

Robotics researcher Ruth Aylett explains why some people fear robots. Plus: how a sonata can reduce epilepsy seizures.

More from Ruth Aylett, professor of computer science at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh:

Mozart's Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major may be able to treat refractory focal epilepsy by reducing seizures... somehow by Grant Currin

Follow Curiosity Daily on your favorite podcast app to learn something new every day with Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer. Still curious? Get exclusive science shows, nature documentaries, and more real-life entertainment on discovery+! Go to https://discoveryplus.com/curiosity to start your 7-day free trial. discovery+ is currently only available for US subscribers.

 

Find episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/irrational-fear-of-robots-mozarts-epilepsy-reducing-sonata

Episode Transcription

CODY: Hi! You’re about to get smarter in just a few minutes with Curiosity Daily from Discovery. I’m Cody Gough.

ASHLEY: And I’m Ashley Hamer. Today, you’ll learn about why some people are afraid of robots, with robotics researcher Ruth Aylett [AY-lett]; and one specific piece of music that can reduce epilepsy seizures... although researchers have no idea why.

CODY: Let’s satisfy some curiosity.

Ruth Aylett - Fear of robots comes down to culture (Ashley)

From 2001's HAL 9000 to Terminator's Skynet, Western pop culture is full of terrifying robots. So it's no wonder that the people who consume that media kinda fear them too. But according to today's guest, it doesn't have to be this way — and it's not in every culture. Ruth Aylett [AY-lett] is a professor of computer science at Heriot-Watt [HARE-ee-it WATT] University in Edinburgh. She’s been a robotics researcher for thirty years, and co-authored a recent book that touches on why people are so afraid of robots. So we asked her: why ARE people afraid of robots?

[CLIP 6:02]

Good to know that a robot who can take over the world isn't coming down the pike any time soon. Again, that was Ruth Aylett [AY-lett] is a professor of computer science at Heriot-Watt [HARE-ee-it WATT] University in Edinburgh. She's also the co-author of a new book "Living with Robots: What Every Anxious Human Needs to Know." You can find links to the book and more from Ruth in today’s show notes. And she'll be back tomorrow to explain why designing robots that look like humans is the wrong approach.

Mozart's Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major can reduce epilepsy seizures... somehow by Grant Currin (Cody)

You’ve probably heard of the Mozart Effect: that’s the idea that listening to classical music makes babies smarter. Unfortunately, the Mozart Effect isn’t real. But it turns out that one of Mozart’s sonatas does have an effect: it appears to help people with epilepsy. 

Epilepsy is a serious condition where the brain occasionally sparks seizures. A lot of people manage epilepsy with drugs or surgery. But there’s a form of the condition called refractory focal epilepsy that doctors haven’t figured out how to treat. That’s where Mozart comes in.

Mozart's Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major is a driving, spirited piece featuring two pianos that chase each other through complex musical phrases. It’s full of surprises, and the researchers think it might create moments of anticipation so powerful that they can prevent seizures.

When people with epilepsy are in between seizures, their brains occasionally show unusual patterns of activity called interictal epileptiform [IN-ter-ICK-tull EPP-ee-LEP-tih-form] discharges, or IEDs. The frequency of IEDs is associated with the frequency of seizures, so researchers think reducing the number of IEDs a person experiences will reduce the number of seizures they have to endure. 

For a recent study, researchers brought 16 people with refractory focal epilepsy into the lab. These volunteers already had electrodes implanted in their brains to monitor seizure activity, and those let the researchers track what was going on in their brains as they listened to different music.

Every participant listened to the Mozart sonata and a few other classical pieces. Then each participant listened to music they liked. We’re talking Judas Priest, Buddy Holly, and Nickelback. They found that after 30 seconds of listening to the Mozart sonata, the frequency of IEDs fell, on average. But get this: it was the only piece of music that had this effect. Nothing else worked — not even Nickelback. 

If you’re asking yourself what’s going on here, then you’re not alone; the researchers are, too. And they do have some ideas. The effect appears to be stronger after longer segments within the piece than shorter ones — segments lasting 10 seconds or more. It could be that a longer period of musical anticipation is better at reducing seizure activity. 

It’s important to note that this was a small study, and the effects didn’t last after the piece was over. But the researchers have big plans for the future. Once they understand what’s so special about this piece, they might be able to create music that has the same effect. With that information, it could be possible to create a whole genre of “anti-epileptic” music that people with epilepsy might turn to for relief. And I think it’s safe to say that that would be music to everyone’s ears.

RECAP

Let’s do a quick recap of what we learned today

  1. ASHLEY: A fear of robots basically comes down to culture. The idea that our technology will escape from our control is prominent in Western media, but you don’t see it in other places like Japan. People also tend to apply “intentionality” to things that aren’t human, from your copy machine to beliefs about vengeful gods. And, of course, there’s a lot of money to be made by making movies and TV shows that play off of our fears about technology. And that all adds up to a pretty irrational fear.
  2. CODY: Right. And the robots we have in our head are a LOT different from the robots that exist in the real world. Like we’ve talked about on the show before, the robots and AI we’ve developed work best doing highly specialized tasks, not in general purpose environments. And that’s not going to change any time soon. So don’t be afraid of robots!
  3. ASHLEY: Certain music might help people with epilepsy reduce their seizure frequency. Certain music, in this case, being Mozart's Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major, which reduced seizure activity in 16 patients. The researchers think something about the long periods of anticipation in the music is what does it. Once they figure out exactly what the magic ingredient is, they might be able to create “anti-epileptic” music that could help people with epilepsy find relief.

[ad lib optional] 

ASHLEY: The writer for today’s Mozart story was Grant Currin. 

CODY: Our managing editor is Ashley Hamer, who was also an audio editor on today’s episode.

ASHLEY: Our producer and lead audio editor is Cody Gough.

CODY: [AD LIB SOMETHING FUNNY] Join us again tomorrow to learn something new in just a few minutes.

ASHLEY: And until then, stay curious!