Schizophrenia as Sound: Listening to the Dynamic Brain

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data is converted to musical sound. Brain images are preprocessed into 20 distributed ensembles, “Independent Components,” and each is assigned a tone on a pentatonic scale.

The loudness of each note corresponds to the intensity of activity in the corresponding regions of the brain. In this video, you can listen to soundtracks of healthy subjects alternating with schizophrenia patients.

At the end, there are a few comments about statistical differences that may explain some of the audible variation.

What did a normal persons brain image sound like as opposed to a schizophrenic patient? How has dopamines activity been linked with schizophrenia? What controversies exist about this relationship?