Studies related to music

The neural mechanisms of rhythm and music perception

map-marker.pngWestern 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.

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Both male and female

18 years old to 35 years old

Normal vision and hearing

 

Walking at different speeds

map-marker.pngWestern Interdisciplinary Research Building (WIRB)

Auditory cues such as music or a metronome can alter walking speed in both healthy and clinical populations. However, it is unclear what characteristics of music alter walking speed. We are interested in how people walk to music to better understand music preferences and individual differences in beat perception in the general population.

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Both male and female

18 years old to 40 years old

Healthy Volunteers

 

OMMABA: The Open Multimodal Music and Auditory Brain Archive

map-marker.pngWestern 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.

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Both male and female

18 years old to 35 years old

Healthy Volunteers

 

Effects of brain stimulation on beat perception and motor performance

map-marker.pngWestern 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).

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Both male and female

18 years old to 45 years old

Healthy Volunteers

 

Perceptual organization of music

map-marker.pngWestern 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.

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Both male and female

18 years old to 55 years old

Healthy Volunteers

 

Cognitive and Physical Functioning of Dancers, Musicians, and Athletes

map-marker.pngElborn College (EC)

Previous research has shown that dance training may be useful in enhancing both physical and cognitive functions; situating it well to preserve these functions and serve as an intervention or therapy. Although it appears promising, dance has yet to be thoroughly compared to other activities shown to benefit function, such as sports or musical training. Therefore, this study will explore the differences between the functions of dancers, musicians, and athletes, and may help us determine whether dance training has the potential to protect against a wide range of age-related cognitive and physical declines.

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Both male and female

50+ 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

map-marker.pngWestern 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.

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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

map-marker.pngWestern 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.

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Both male and female

17+ years old

Healthy Volunteers