Sonification Algorithms for Biological Data Analysis

A special issue of Biology (ISSN 2079-7737). This special issue belongs to the section "Bioinformatics".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 January 2023) | Viewed by 1958

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Department of Pediatrics, Martin Luther University, 4006120 Halle-Wittenberg, Germany
Interests: HERV; protein; data analysis

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The conversion of data into sounds makes it possible to represent a wide variety of primary data acoustically and at the same time enables new ways of data analysis. In addition to purely mathematical and visual methods of analysis and representation, these approaches can facilitate the understanding of complex interconnections. In the field of biology and biomedicine, "sonification" or "data-to-music" algorithms are used for various questions. These algorithms are particularly interesting for the analysis of multidimensional data sets, such as those generated by modern high-throughput methods in the field of nucleic acid and proteome analysis. The range of applications includes, for example, the representation of nucleic acid and protein sequences and structures, the analysis of electrophysiological, ecological, epigenetic or gene expression data. Furthermore, this research area offers an interesting example of the connection of science and art, insofar as the sounds generated by sonification algorithms can certainly bear the character of real music. There are different strategies for converting data into sounds, and different solutions are plausible depending on the underlying research question.

For this Special Issue, we particularly encourage the submission of manuscripts dealing with sonification of biological and biomedical data. We welcome manuscripts in the form of original research, reviews, short communications, perspectives, and commentaries of the aforementioned topics and domains.

Prof. Dr. Martin S. Staege
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • data analysis
  • bioinformatics
  • sonification
  • music

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

12 pages, 1732 KiB  
Article
Parameter Mapping Sonification of Human Olfactory Thresholds
by Jean-Luc Boevé and Rudi Giot
Biology 2023, 12(5), 670; https://doi.org/10.3390/biology12050670 - 28 Apr 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1208
Abstract
An objective of chemical ecology is to understand the chemical diversity across and within species, as well as the bioactivity of chemical compounds. We previously studied defensive volatiles from phytophagous insects that were subjected to parameter mapping sonification. The created sounds contained information [...] Read more.
An objective of chemical ecology is to understand the chemical diversity across and within species, as well as the bioactivity of chemical compounds. We previously studied defensive volatiles from phytophagous insects that were subjected to parameter mapping sonification. The created sounds contained information about the repellent bioactivity of the volatiles, such as the repellence from the volatiles themselves when tested against live predators. Here, we applied a similar sonification process to data about human olfactory thresholds. Randomized mapping conditions were used and a peak sound pressure, Lpeak, was calculated from each audio file. The results indicate that Lpeak values were significantly correlated with the olfactory threshold values (e.g., rS = 0.72, t = 10.19, p < 0.001, Spearman rank-order correlation; standardized olfactory thresholds of 100 volatiles). Furthermore, multiple linear regressions used the olfactory threshold as a dependent variable. The regressions revealed that the molecular weight, the number of carbon and oxygen atoms, as well as the functional groups aldehyde, acid, and (remaining) double bond were significant determinants of the bioactivity, while the functional groups ester, ketone, and alcohol were not. We conclude that the presented sonification methodology that converts chemicals into sound data allows for the study of their bioactivities by integrating compound characteristics that are easily accessible. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sonification Algorithms for Biological Data Analysis)
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