THE INSTITUTE FOR
MUSIC & BRAIN SCIENCE

Click above or here to access The Institute's eLibrary of professional publications about music, neuroscience, and medicine, including original contributions by Institute researchers, clinicians, fellows, and students.

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Harvard College
Mind, Brain, & Behavior 91: Music & The Brain
Academic Year 2008-2009, Fall Term

MBB 91: Music & The Brain, now in its 12^th year in the FAS courses of instruction (formerly Psychology 987b), takes a multi-disciplinary approach to understanding neural systems governing music perception, performance, and cognition. The course begins with a series of lectures by Professor Tramo that provides students with diverse backgrounds a common fund of knowledge in functional neuroanatomy, auditory neurophysiology, psychoacoustics, cognitive psychology, and music.  Thereafter, individual seminars focus on specific themes, such as pitch perception, harmony perception, emotion and meaning in music, development, and creativity.  Seminars are designed to help students: 1) understand methodologies currently used to investigate physical-perceptual-neural correlates; 2) cultivate analytical skills through critical appraisals of "primary-source" experimental literature published in peer-reviewed science, medical, music, and education journals; and 3) develop oral presentation skills in a supervised setting.  Semi-weekly reading and homework problem sets from the required text, Rossing's Science of Sound, solidify working knowledge of basic concepts (e.g., resonance, decibels, scales) needed for the advanced readings that are the springboard for each seminar’s provocative discussions of neuroscientific data collection and analysis methods, results, interpretation, and corroboration. By the end of the course, students will have both a broad understanding of empirical research in cognitive neuroscience and specific knowledge about brain mechanisms mediating music perception and performance.

Click HERE for course syllabus

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How does the brain transform sound waves striking our eardrums into sound we hear in our heads?  What parts of the brain are necessary and sufficient to understand speech, groove to music, and recognize your best friend's voice?  When do auditory-perceptual capacities critical to language acquisition develop?  What happens to one’s linguistic and musical abilities if congenital or acquired diseases alter their underlying molecular substrates or neural circuitry?  This lecture course takes an interdisciplinary approach to understanding how the brain and ear process acoustic signals to generate auditory percepts and mental representations of language and music. Current knowledge about the function, physiology, microanatomy, development, and pathology of the central and peripheral auditory systems will be examined from the perspectives of systems neuroscience, molecular neurobiology, cognitive neuroscience, developmental neurobiology, and acquired and genetic disease states commonly encountered in the clinical specialities of neurology, otology, and audiology.

Click here for the course syllabus, sections, homework, and other information.

Harvard University
Mind/Brain/Behavior Interfaculty Initiative
& Undergraduate Concentration

Click above for information about the Harvard Mind/Brain/Behavior Concentration for undergraduates. MBB is an Interfaculty Initiative that allows undergraduates to integrate knowledge from the fields of Anthropology, Biology, Computer Science, History and Science, Linguistics, Philosophy, and Psychology, resulting in Certificates in Mind/Brain/Behavior in addition to AB degrees. MBB also supports post-doctoral fellowships, visiting professorships, a distinguished lecture series, and interdepartmental faculty collaborations involving interdisciplinary research in mind, brain, and behavior. Drs. Verne Caviness and Mark Tramo of The Institute's Executive Board serve on MBB's Steering and Standing Committees.

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Graduate Studies

Harvard-M.I.T.
Division of Health Sciences & Technology
Graduate Program in Speech & Hearing Sciences

Harvard Graduate School of Arts & Sciences,
Division of Medical Sciences
Program in Neuroscience

Massachusetts General Hospital &
Brigham and Women's Hospital
Residency in Neurology & Child Neurology

Massachusetts General Hospital
Residency in Neurosurgery

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A number of professional societies hold meetings each year that often feature presentations on music, neuroscience, and medicine.

Their websites are listed below:

Harvard-M.I.T. Division of Health Sciences and Technology, 1994-2002
     HST 722: Brain Mechanisms of Hearing and Speech
     HST 799: Special Topics Research in the Speech & Hearing Sciences
     Thesis Advisory Committee
     Thesis Qualifying Examination Committee

Harvard Medical School Dept. of Continuing Medical Education, 1997-2002
     Dementia: A Comprehensive Update

Harvard Medical School, 1994-2002
     Human Nervous System and Behavior
     Clinical Clerkship in Neurology
     Physical Diagnosis in Neurology
    
Harvard College, 1993-2002
     Psychology 987b, Music, Mind, & Brain
     Psychology 985, Preparation for the Honors Thesis
     Psychology 990, Honors Thesis
     Psychology 910r, Supervised Reading and Research
     Biology 98r, Introduction to Research
     Biology 99, Honors Thesis
     Special Concentrations 99, Honors Thesis Advisor
     Mind/Brain/Behavior Thesis Workshops

Massachusetts General Hospital, 1992-2002
     Cognitive/Behavioral Neurology Tutor
     General Neurology Tutor
     Neurology Grand Rounds

Auditory: Coding, Tuning and Perception Session.  Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting, San Diego, California, 2001

Music and the Brain Symposium.  Berklee College of Music, Boston, Massachusetts, 2001. 

Music, Mind, and Brain.  A Saturday of Symposia.  The Harvard Club, Boston, Massachusetts, 2001

The Music of Nature and the Nature of Music Symposium.  Smithsonian Institute, National Musical Arts, National Academy of Sciences, Washington, DC, 2000

The Neurons of Music.  Biological Foundations of Music Symposium, New York Academy of Sciences, New York, NY, 2000

Neurobiology of Music.  Harvard University Mind/Brain/Behavior Advisory Committee Dinner, 21 Club, New York, NY

Inner Ear: Normal Structure or Function Session.  Association for Research in Otolaryngology Midwinter Meeting, St. Petersburg, Florida, 2000

Central Auditory Physiology: Spectrotemporal Coding Session.  Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting, Miami, Florida, 1999

Auditory Cortex Session,  Association for Research in Otolaryngology Midwinter Meeting, St. Petersburg, Florida, 1999

Music and the Brain Press Conference (Moderator).  Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting, Los Angeles California, 1998

Auditory Cortex Physiology - Complex Sounds Session.  Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting, Los Angeles, California, 1998

Music and the Brain Symposium.  International Computer Music Conference, Thessalonika, Greece, 1997

Pedagogical Session: Neurobiology.  International Conference on Complex Systems, Nashua, New Hampshire, 1997

Music and the Brain Symposium.  International Congress of Psychology, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, 1996

Auditory Cortex Physiology Session, Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting, Washington, DC, 1996

Central Auditory Physiology Session, Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting, 1994, Miami, Florida

Central Auditory Physiology Session, Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting, Washington, DC, 1993

Music and the Brain Symposium.  Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois, 1992

International Conference on the Psychophysiology & Psychopathology of the Sense of Music.  Munich, Germany, 1992

Central Auditory Physiology Session, Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting, Anaheim, California, 1992

Music and the Brain Session.  Second International Conference on Music Perception and Cognition, Los Angeles, California, 1991

Functional Aspects of Auditory Cortex Symposium.   International Brain Research Organization, Third World Congress of Neuroscience, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Central Auditory Physiology Session.  Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting, New Orleans, Louisiana, 1991

Music and the Brain Session.  Second International Conference on Music and the Cognitive Sciences, Cambridge, England, 1990

Human Behavioral Neurobiology Session.  Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting, St. Louis, Missouri, 1990

Behavioral Neurology Session.  American Neurological Association Annual Meeting, Atlanta, Georgia, 1990

McDonnell Foundation Summer Institute in Cognitive Neuroscience, Hanover, New Hampshire, 1990

Interhemispheric Relations Session.  Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting, Phoenix, Arizona, 1989

Behavioral Neurology Poster Session, American Neurological Association Annual Meeting, New

McDonnell Foundation Summer Institute in Cognitive Neuroscience.  Hanover, New Hampshire, 1989

Cerebral Metabolism Session.  Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Neurology, Washington, DC, 1988