The Department of Music and the Cognitive Science Initiative are jointly sponsoring a visit by Psyche Loui of Wesleyan University, who will speak on “Emotion and Creativity in the Musical Brain” in ILC N400 from 1:15 to 2:15 on Friday Feb. 3. The abstract is below. This will be followed by the CogSci Workshop from 2:30 – 5 (poster submission deadline this Friday Jan. 27th).

Abstract. How does music, as patterns of intentional sounds, come to embody human creativity, to express emotions, and to encourage social bonding? In this talk I argue that statistical properties of the sound environment interact with biological constraints of the human brain, specifically its structural and functional connectivity, to give rise to multiple aspects of musical experiences. I will describe recent studies in my lab in which we identify the brain networks that enable strong emotional responses to music, and observe the effects of training in musical improvisation on brain and cognitive structure and function.