The Music Cognition Lab

​Our research is dedicated to understanding how music can structure our perception and influence our experience of ourselves and others. 

Here are some themes we explored:

• What is the relationship between music theory and music cognition? Are we sensitive to the scale structure and to tonal hierarchies? To the Circle of fifths (REF), to global musical structure? (REFS)
• Musical surprises – what can they tell us about music? what can they tell us about the brain? (REFS)
• How can music/sound elicit non-auditory percepts such as a sense of motion? visual size, brightness and sharpness (also known as cross modal associations? (REFS)
• Can we identify genes that contribute to melodic memory? Are these specific to music? (REFS)
• How can music contribute to our well-being? (REFS)

We use both controlled musical materials (e.g., single tones or chords), as well as rich ones (entire phrases or pieces). We also use a multitude of methods ranging from questionnaires to fMRI, depending on the question at hand. We have many wonderful collaborators (LIST with LINKS?)