Michael Shadlen

“If I ask you to tap your finger to copy a one-second interval, you'll probably be out by one to two-tenths of a second,” he says. “Now if I ask you to copy a two-second interval, your margin of error will be double that.” Shadlen thinks music might hold some clues to the neural basis of that temporal wobble. “In a band, everyone comes together,” he says, “What is going on there?” Humans might have invented dancing for a similar reason, he speculates: to marshal a sloppy timing mechanism by imposing rhythm on it.

		Jazz It Up Listen in as HHMI investigator Michael Shadlen plays guitar with a band at The Cricketers Pub in Cambridge, UK. The song is "Simone" by Frank Foster. (mp3, running time: 8:02)

Which brings us back to jazz. Shadlen is excited because tonight he might get to play John Coltrane's modern classic “Giant Steps.” He considers the piece a beautiful rite of passage for all jazz lovers. The challenging number jumps between three different keys, and it's very fast. In the end, the band opts for “Summertime” instead. Shadlen will have to wait for another day to play Coltrane and his own composition, “No Say.” He doesn't seem to mind, though, and he's still on a high when he leaves the pub. “You get this communication thing going through the music,” he says.

Photo: Charles Peterson

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