Studies related to music

The neural mechanisms of rhythm and music perception

Western Interdisciplinary Research Building (WIRB) & Robarts Research Institute (RRI)

Have you ever wondered if how you experience a song or a movie is the same way someone else experiences that song or movie? That is what we are interested in understanding! We will use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to identify and examine the brain areas that examine what happens in your brain when you listen to music.

Both male and female

18 years old to 35 years old

Normal vision and hearing

OMMABA: The Open Multimodal Music and Auditory Brain Archive

Western Interdisciplinary Research Building (WIRB)

We are searching for both musicians and non-musicians to participate in a behavioural and brain-imaging study about auditory abilities and the brain. This would help create a database focused on auditory cognition, allowing researchers to ask novel questions and understand in the links between neural responses and auditory perception of sound, music, and speech in health and disease.

Both male and female

18 years old to 35 years old

Healthy Volunteers

Effects of brain stimulation on beat perception and motor performance

Western Interdisciplinary Research Building (WIRB)

Music is often associated with a desire to move. The goal of the study is to understand how different brain areas contribute to different aspects of rhythm perception in music and motor performance using transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS).

Both male and female

18 years old to 45 years old

Healthy Volunteers

Perceptual organization of music

Western Interdisciplinary Research Building (WIRB)

The “auditory scene” is the term used to refer to the heard environment, by analogy with the “visual scene”. It usually refers to a situation in which multiple auditory objects (sources of sound) are simultaneously present, like holding a conversation with a friend at a crowded party. We are interested to understand how musical training affects the forming of auditory perception in such auditory scenes.

Both male and female

18 years old to 55 years old

Healthy Volunteers

The effects of beat and non-beat factors on gait and the neural mechanisms of beat perception in patients with Parkinson’s disease

Western Interdisciplinary Research Building (WIRB)

The purpose of this study is to understand how the areas of the brain that control movement process certain kinds of music. In this study, you will be asked to listen to and rate some music clips, do some rhythm-related behavioral tasks, and walk along to music.

Both male and female

18 years old to 70 years old

Healthy Volunteers & Volunteers with Parkinson's disease

Behavioural studies of rhythm and music perception

Western Interdisciplinary Research Building (WIRB), Social Science Centre (SSC), or Robarts Research Institute (RRI)

Music is an important part of human experience that can affect, memory, mood, and our movement. In turn, moving with a rhythm can change the way we hear or see it relative to when we do not move. The purpose of this study is to investigate how humans perceive rhythm and music, and how rhythm and music might change our experience of or memory for other sights and sounds.

Both male and female

17+ years old

Healthy Volunteers