The Neuroscience of Music with Dr Marcus Pearce

Ever wondered why music can be so powerful, causing deep emotional responses? Or why you can’t seem to get that song out of your head? In this talk, we will delve deep into the neuroscience of music, discovering how elements such as rhythm, pitch and timbre interact with our brains. A fascinating, yet often understated area of research, the neuroscience of music broadens our understanding of what music actually is, questioning why we respond to sounds in certain ways, and for what reason music is found in every society, across all corners of the globe. We will look at the many parts of the brain involved with music, from our memory to our speech processing and to our emotion and reward systems. We will explore the role of music in evolution, considering questions such as why we make and listen to music.

Doors open at 7pm, talk starts at 7.30pm - come down early to grab a good seat!

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Marcus is Reader in Cognitive Science at Queen Mary University of London, where he leads the Music Cognition Laboratory, and honorary Professor of Neuroscience at Aarhus University, Denmark, where he is part of the Centre for Music in the Brain. His research aims to understand the cognitive and brain mechanisms that underlie perception and appreciation of complex auditory phenomena such as music. He has given presentations at the Wellcome Collection and Royal Institution, run a Live Science residency at the Science Museum, and collaborated with the London Sinfonietta to produce a free iOS app for developing rhythm skills called Steve Reich's Clapping Music, described by the New York Times as "maddeningly addictive".

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