Robert Zatorre: “From Perception to Pleasure: The Neuroscience of Music”

Robert Zatorre, McGill University (Canada):

“From Perception to Pleasure: The Neuroscience of Music”

Why do we love music? What enables us to create it, perceive it, and enjoy it? In this talk, Professor Robert Zatorre provides answers to these questions from the perspective of cognitive neuroscience, explaining how we get from perception of sound patterns to pleasurable responses. The talk is organized around a central thesis: that pleasure in music arises from interactions between cortical loops that enable processing of sound patterns, and subcortical circuits responsible for reward and valuation. This model integrates knowledge derived from basic neuroscience of the auditory system and of reward mechanisms with the concept that perception and pleasure depend on mechanisms of prediction, anticipation, and valuation.

Robert Zatorre was born and raised in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He studied music and psychology at Boston University, and obtained his PhD at Brown University, followed by postdoctoral work at the Montreal Neurological Institute of McGill University, where he currently holds a Canada Research Chair. His laboratory studies the neural substrates of auditory cognition, focusing on two characteristically human abilities: speech and music. Together with his many students and collaborators he has published more than 300 scientific papers on topics including pitch perception, musical imagery, music production, brain plasticity, hemispheric specialization, and the role of the reward system in musical pleasure. In 2006 he co-founded the International Laboratory for Brain, Music and Sound Research (BRAMS). His work has been recognized by numerous international prizes, including the C.L. de Carvalho-Heineken Prize for Cognitive Science and the Grand Prix Scientifique from the Institute for Hearing in Paris. He tries to keep up his baroque repertoire on the organ whenever he gets a chance.