Join us at the Stellar Hog for an evening of brain science. All accompanied by great food and drinks.
Amy Belfi
Assistant Professor of Psychological Science at Missouri University of Science and Technology
Music and the brain: Understanding the listener experience
Music is a ubiquitous part of the human experience. While it was once thought of as ‘auditory cheesecake,’ we now know that music influences, and can help us understand, diverse cognitive functions such as language, memory, emotion, and decision-making. In my research, I examine how music affects us by studying its relationship with these cognitive domains. Here, I will discuss research on how we make judgments about music and why listening to music induces strong emotions and vivid memories.
Dov Lerman-Sinkoff
Graduate Student at Washington University in St Louis
Data mining for psychosis: brain scans and the future of mental illness
Psychosis is the loosening of contact with reality. We currently diagnose and treat psychosis using fixed categories of symptoms and behavior. New data suggest psychosis is a spectrum, although much remains to be learned about the biology of psychosis. To address this, I data-mine brain scans to find interrelated patterns of brain structure and function that predict how our brains coordinate thoughts and actions across the psychosis spectrum to improve understanding of these diseases.