Event Description

Musical rhythm has a remarkable capacity to move our minds and bodies. When we listen to “Blame it on the Boogie” by The Jacksons, it is difficult to refrain from tapping a foot or bobbing the head to the beat. This event will illustrate how the theory of predictive processing can help us understand how rhythm is processed and why we move to certain kinds of music more than others. Importantly, music is fundamentally a social phenomenon, in that we listen to, synchronize to, and make music together. This music interaction is typically based on agreeing on predictive structures such as meter or tonality. The speaker will discuss new studies showing how predictive coding can be applied to understand the dynamics involved in interpersonal synchronization using a minimal tapping paradigm, where two individuals are placed in separate rooms with headphones and EEG equipment and asked to tap together in different conditions. 

Event Speakers

Peter Vuust, Professor of Neuroscience, Aarhus University; Professor of Music, Royal Academy of Music, Aarhus 

Moderated by Jessie Cox, PhD Student in Music, Columbia University

Event Information

Free and open to the public. Columbia University ID holders and invited guests may attend in person; others may attend on Zoom. Registration is required via Eventbrite. This event is part of the Comparing Domains of Improvisation series and sponsored by the Presidential Scholars in Society and Neuroscience program at Columbia University.

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