Colloquium: From Sensory-Motor to Social Influences on Musical Interaction

The Center for Lifespan Psychology at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, led by Prof. Ulman Lindenberger, cordially invites all interested to attend its colloquium:

Peter Keller, Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, Institute for Advanced Study and MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour & Development, Western Sydney University

From Sensory-Motor to Social Influences on Musical Interaction

Group music making, as in musical ensemble performance, showcases the remarkable human capacity for precise yet flexible interpersonal coordination. While this capacity is widespread and fundamental to daily life, it is nevertheless characterized by large individual differences. In this colloquium, Peter Keller will present a series of studies that investigate the behavioural and brain bases of these individual differences using controlled laboratory paradigms and naturalistic musical tasks, as well as related computational modelling, neuroimaging, and brain stimulation approaches. Results delineate links between basic sensory-motor mechanisms that enable co-performers to anticipate and adapt to each other’s actions, aspects of personality including empathy, and social-cognitive processes that regulate the balance between psychological representations of ‘self’ and ‘other’.