Auditory and music skill development
We study the development of auditory and music skills starting from birth and continuing through childhood and youth. In infants, we use neuroscientific methods to assess questions related to the innate capabilities of infants in processing sounds related to music and speech, in learning, and in adapting to sound environments. In children, we are interested in questions related to the role of the environment and extracurricular musical activities in the development of these skills, as well as in the development of language, attentive skills, and personality and temperament. In addition, we aim at developing new research paradigms for neuroscientific and behavioural experiments in order to study children's auditory and musical skills. All these approaches are also used in investigating the neurocognitive profiles of adult musicians with specializations in rock, jazz, classical and folk music.
Music rehabilitation
Musical leisure activities, such as music listening or singing, are common ways to energize or relax us, to help us focus or distract us, to help us remember or forget, and to isolate us from the environment or unite us with others. Besides making us feel good, they also engage the brain extensively involving widespread neural activity in regions controlling many emotional, cognitive, and motor functions. By using a combination of research methods, such as neuropsychological tests, questionnaires and interviews, and structural and functional neuroimaging, we study how music works in the damaged brain and how it could be used in the rehabilitation of elderly neurological patients. Specifically, our aim is to determine how daily music listening influences recovery from stroke, as well as how listening to and singing familiar songs could be used to enhance the wellbeing of dementia patients and their caregivers. In addition, we are interested in the relationships between music and speech (amusia and aphasia)in neurological disorders.
Music aesthetics, preferences, and emotions
Music benefits our health and wellbeing. But why has music such a deep impact on our emotional and aesthetic life? What are the biological determinants of music enjoyment? Why are some people more touched by music than others? With the aid of methods such as event-related potentials, neuroimaging, functional connectivity, brain oscillations, and questionnaires, we aim at revealing the psychological mechanisms and brain functions enabling us to enjoy a piece of music, feel the emotions expressed by it, judge it as beautiful, and finally prefer it over others. We study children, adolescents, adults, and patients with affective disorders. In parallel, we are investigating the neural bases for the beneficial effects of pleasurable music on mood and neurological disorders.
Research methods
In addition to various behavioural methods, such as psychoacoustics, similarity ratings, musicality tests, and neuropsychological tests, we also utilise the modern means of brain research.
These methods include electroencephalography (EEG), magnetoencephalography (MEG), and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The studies are conducted at the Institute of Behavioural Sciences, in Helsinki University Central Hospital (Biomag laboratory), and at the AMI Center, Helsinki University of Technology, Espoo.
For more information on our laboratories, see Facilities at CBRU.
