Science Talks: Dance, Brain & Music saturday 11:00-12:00 @domen

domen
Inge Lehmanns Gade 22, 8000 Aarhus C

The event will take place on september 27th

Have you ever wondered what makes you dance? What are the benefits of dancing? How does your brain perceive the music and how your body adapts on the fly to allow this wonderful experience of dancing? In this exciting event we will curiously delve into the scientific mysteries of the music and dance. Researchers will give short talks on their current research work in music and dance.

MEET THE RESEARCHERS

JAN STUPACHER: why do we move to music

Rhythms in music have a remarkable impact on our brains, bodies, and social interactions. Once we figure out how a rhythm is organized, it draws us in and compels us to move, from casual foot tapping to wild dancing. In music psychology, this engaging and pleasurable experience is known as ‘groove’.

Our research shows that the most groove-inducing rhythms strike a delicate balance: They give us a steady beat to follow, while also surprising us with unexpected twists, like the syncopations found in swing or funk. These little surprises keep us engaged and on our toes.

But groove isn’t just about moving on our own – it’s also about moving together. When we move in synchrony, such as during dance, the shared rhythm can boost our feelings of connection and togetherness. The song “One Nation Under a Groove” by Funkadelic (1978) powerfully illustrates this effect of social bonding. The band promotes social progress through musical rhythm: “With the groove our only guide, we shall all be moved.”

Jan is an assistant professor at the Center for Music in the Brain at Aarhus University. His research interests include rhythm perception and production, sensorimotor synchronization, social interaction in musical contexts, the experience of flow in musical activities, and the pleasurable urge to move to music, also known as the experience of groove. He has received an Erwin Schrödinger postdoctoral fellowship from the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) and a DOC doctoral fellowship from the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW).

mattis appelqvist dalton: What dancing animals? rhythm, evolution & time perception

Why can some animals dance to a beat while others can’t—and what does that tell us about the brain? This talk dives into the mystery of beat perception and synchronization (BPS) across species, & recent challenges to the long-standing “vocal learning hypothesis”. We’ll look at which animals can keep a beat (and why), what this means for the evolution of rhythm processing, and how neuroscience is revising our assumptions about timing, music & musicality. I’ll close by shifting from beat to duration perception, sharing my own research on how music influences our sense of time in film. During the talk, you can expect some groovy videos of monkeys, parrots, and maybe even some sea lions!

Danish filmmaker Mattis Appelqvist Dalton is also musician and composer, a jazz double bassist who was classically trained at the Conservatoire National de Musicque et Dance in his native Aurillac, France. He furthered his studies at the Reid School of Music, University of Edinburgh, Scotland. In 2020, he received his ScB in the Cognitive Neuroscience of Music from Brown University, writing his thesis on “Aberrations in time: The effects of music-elicited emotions on time perception in film.

Let´s meet and talk about the things we love!

The talks event is open for the general public.

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HOW TO GEt TO LOCATIONS?

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