Music and the Mind

In this edition of "Grey Matters," Aniruddh Patel, of the Neurosciences Institute, discusses what music can teach us about the brain, and what brain science, in turn, can reveal about music.


According to the neuroscientic sciences website (www.nsi.edu), Dr. Patel’s work focuses on music and the brain. A primary area of interest is the relationship between music and language, and on how the comparative study of these uniquely human abilities can shed light on their underlying cognitive and neural mechanisms. Another research area concerns rhythm and the processes by which humans extract rhythmic information from auditory signals. In addition, Dr. Patel conducts research on how the auditory cortex processes sound sequences, using magnetoencephalography (MEG) to explore brain dynamics during the perception of musical sequences.

Education:

* B.A., Biology, University of Virginia
* Ph.D., Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University
* Postdoctoral Fellow, The Neurosciences Institute



Awards and Honors:

* 2008, ASCAP Deems Taylor award for Music, Language, and the Brain
* 1997, McDonnell-Pew Fellowship, Summer Institute in Cognitive Neuroscience
* 1988-92, National Science Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship
* 1987-88, Henry Luce Foundation: Luce Scholar
* 1983-87, University of Virginia: Jefferson Scholar