Labs

The mission of our lab is to explore the human brain's remarkable ability to adapt in response to changes in the environment, particularly in response to learning and practicing musical instruments and singing. Similar adaptations can also occur in the brain's response to recover from focal brain injuries, e.g., partially-adapted neighboring brain regions or functionally-related brain systems can either substitute for some of the lost function or develop alternative strategies to overcome a disability.

The Music and Neuroimaging Lab's focus is to (1) reveal the behavioral/cognitive and neural aspects of music perception and music making; (2) investigate the use of musical stimuli as an interventional tool for educational and therapeutic purposes, particularly in the recovery of speech and motor functions in patients with aphasia and motor deficits and in children with a nonverbal forms of autism; (3) reveal the behavioral and neural correlates of learning, skill acquisition, and brain adaptation in response to changes in the environment or brain injury in the developing and adult brain; and (4) explore the behavioral, neural, and genetic basis of musical disorders such as tonedeafness and beatdeafness and exceptional skills such as absolute pitch and synesthesia.

JUSTIN LONDON is Professor of Music at Carleton College in Northfield, MN, where he teaches courses in Music Theory, The Philosophy of Music, Music Perception and Cognition, and American Popular Music. He received his B.M. degree in Classical Guitar and his M.M. degree in Music Theory from the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, and he holds a Ph.D. in Music History and Theory from the University of Pennsylvania, where he worked with Leonard Meyer.

His research interests include rhythm and meter, music perception and cognition, the history of the Delta blues, and musical aesthetics. He is the author of several articles in the recent revision of the New Grove Dictionary of Musicand the Cambridge History of Western Music Theory. His book, Hearing in Time, (Oxford University Press, 2004) is a cross-cultural exploration of the perception and cognition of musical meter. He is currently involved in joint research on the perception of complex meters with Bruno Repp and Peter Keller, on the perception of anacruses with Ian Cross and Tommi Himberg, and on dynamic systems modelling for complex meters with Edward Large.

Professor London has served on the editorial boards of Music Theory Online and the Music Theory Spectrum, and on the executive board of Music Theory Midwest, the Society for Music Perception and Cognition and The Society for Music Theory . He was co-director of the 2005 Mannes Institute for Advanced Studies in Music Theory on Rhythm and Temporality and in 2005-2006 he was a visiting scholar at the Centre for Music and Science of Cambridge University under the auspices of a Fulbright Foundation grant. In April 2007 he was a Guest Professor at the International Orpheus Academy for Music & Theory (on "Tempo, Meter, Rhythm: Time in Music after 1950") in Ghent, Belgium, and in 2009 and 2010 he served on the faculty of the Interdisciplinary College (IK) for cognitive science in Günne, Germany. He served as President of the Society for Music Theory in 2007-2009.

Interview on BBC4s "Questions, Questions"

Music is a high-level cognitive capacity, a form of communication that relies on highly structured temporal sequences comparable in complexity to language. Music is found among all human cultures, and musical ‘languages’ vary across cultures with learning. Unlike language, however, music rarely refers to the external world. It consists of self contained patterns of sound, and certain aspects these patterns are found universally among musical cultures.

Researchers at the Music Dynamics Laboratory are working to uncover the general principles of neural dynamics that underlie music perception and cognition. We are investigating the neural processes underlying pitch, rhythm and tonality, as well as the perception of song and the experience of emotion in music.

Our research is uncovering fundamental mechanisms of hearing, communication, and auditory system development. We are identifying innate constraints that shape musical communication, with potentially important implications for language learning. Our research has implications for understanding a wide range of hearing and communication disorders, and it has applicability to improving the design of neural prostheses, enhancing the perception of music and other sounds in cochlear implant patients.

IPEM, the institute for Psychoacoustics and Electronic Music, is the research center for Systematic Musicology of the Ghent University, Belgium. Formerly a center for electronic production of music, IPEM now provides a scientific base for the cultural and creative sector, mainly music and performing arts, and does pioneering research work on the relationship between music, body movement and new technologies. Due to an extended network of international collaboration, the institute has proven to be an attractive place for visiting researchers from all over the world.

Our group explores the cognitive and neural basis of aspects of musical behaviour and experience, using a variety of psychological and neuroscientific techniques. Recent projects concern congenital amusia, involuntary musical imagery (earworms), musical memory, music in advertising and therapeutic uses of music.