Feature Headline Workshops

Radcliffe Exploratory Seminar on Music and the Heart: From Mathematics to the Mind

The Exploratory Seminar on Music and the Heart: From Mathematics to the Mind took place 17-18 November 2019 at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard. The seminar was led by Elaine Chew, former Radcliffe Fellow and PI of the ERC project COSMOS at the CNRS – UMR9912/STMS (IRCAM), and Pier Lambiase, Professor of Cardiology at UCL and Co-Director of Research and Director of Electrophysiology Research at Barts Heart Hospital. Details of the seminar can be found at the seminar’s companion website: projects.iq.harvard.edu/musicheart.

Participants engaged in a two mind-stretching days of riveting discussions and deep learning (not the machine kind) at the intersection between music, the brain, and the heart amongst brilliant, kind, and open-minded colleagues from cardiology, neuroscience, psychology, music therapy, music composition and performance, art, and music technology.

“… this was a fruitful, novel and extremely stimulating experience for me.”
“It was truly a peak intellectual experience for me, and one that will carry with me for quite some time.”
“I found that so much of what was discussed in the truly wonderful Radcliffe meeting deeply effected me (talk about ‘reverberation!’). I greatly look forward to continuing the discussions and emerging collaborations.”
I haven’t been so engaged in a meeting topic in a long while.
“I, like the others, have been transformed by this conference – thank you”

See photos at bit.ly/radcliffe-music-heart-seminar-photos

Topics presented and discussed:
• physiology of the heart
• autonomic nervous system function
• mathematical models and data visualization
• heart rate variability and neuro-imaging studies
• perception of flow and rhythm perception
• cardiac changes in response to music
• cardiorespiratory synchronization and optimization through music
• modulation of heartbeat evoked potential
• effect of mental stress on dynamic electrophysiology
• effect of mental challenge on action potential duration
• cardiac respiratory differentiation in music-induced emotion
• statistical analysis of autonomic response to induced emotions
• neuro-anatomical model of music and reward
• generalized unsafety theory of stress
• brain response to music (and film)
• evidence-based music therapy
• history of heart pulse measurements

Participants:
• Daniel Bedoya, PhD candidate, STMS Laboratory, IRCAM
• Jonathan Berger, Denning Family Provostial Professor in Music at Stanford University
• Nicolò Francesco Bernardi, Coach and Organizational Development Consultant
• Michael A Casey, James Wright Professor of Music and Computer Science, Dartmouth University
• Elaine Chew, Principal Investigator, ERC Project COSMOS, CNRS-UMR9912/STMS
• Suzanne B. Hanser, Professor, Music Therapy / Chair Emerita, Berklee College of Music
• Pier D Lambiase, Professor of Cardiology, University College London & Barts Heart Centre
• Edward Large, Professor of Psychological Sciences & Physics at University of Connecticut
• Grace Leslie, Assistant Professor of Music at Georgia Institute of Technology
• Psyche Loui, Assistant Professor Creativity and Creative Practice, Director of MIND Lab, Northeastern
• Caroline Palmer, Canada Research Chair in Cognitive Neuroscience of Performance, McGill University
• Dario Robleto, Artist and Visiting Scholar at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study
• Julian Thayer, Distinguished Professor of Psychological Science at UC Irvine
• Lisa M Wong, Assistant Co-Director, Arts and Humanities Initiative, Harvard Medical School