Robert J. Zatorre – From Perception to Pleasure: Music and its neural substrates – Dec. 10th, 2015

UniTrento Psicologia e Scienze Cognitive

University of Trento – Center for Mind/Brain Sciences – CIMEC
Doctoral School Cognitive and Brain Sciences

Phd Commencement Ceremony
From Perception to Pleasure: Music and its neural substrates

Thursday, 10 December 2015 @ 16:30 p.m.
Aula Magna, Palazzo Istruzione, Corso Bettini 84, Rovereto
http://www.polorovereto.unitn.it/services/media/2015/1210/home.html

This year’s scientific talk will be given by Prof. Robert J. Zatorre, James McGill Professor of Neuroscience, Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University, Co-Director, International Laboratory for Brain, Music, and Sound Research (BRAMS).

From Perception to Pleasure: Music and its neural substrates

Music has existed in human societies since prehistory, perhaps in part because it allows expression and regulation of emotion, and evokes pleasure. In this lecture I will present findings from cognitive neuroscience that bear on the question of how we get from perception of sound patterns to pleasurable responses.
Specifically I will discuss evidence from our lab concerning the striatal dopaminergic reward system, and its involvement in musical pleasure. I propose that pleasure in music arises from interactions between cortical loops that enable predictions and expectancies to emerge from sound patterns, and subcortical systems responsible for reward and valuation. This model integrates knowledge derived from basic neuroscience of reward mechanisms with independently derived concepts, such as tension and anticipation, from music theory. It may also serve as a way of thinking more broadly about aesthetic rewards.

University of Trento Officials

prof. Flavio Deflorian – Vice-Rector for International Exchanges of the University of Trento
prof. Massimo Turatto – Director of the Center for Mind/Brain Sciences
prof. Francesco Pavani – Head of the Doctorate in Cognitive and Brain Sciences

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