Music, Mind, Body and Brain

Interesting in networking and following our research output on LinkedIn? Join us here: www.linkedin.com/company/coe-...

People rafting on a rubber boat, green trees on the shores

This week we had two amazing seminar / research workshop days with the @coe-mmbb.bsky.social team, followed by some extreme water sports.

#musicscience #ilovemyjob

I received some great news during our @coe-mmbb.bsky.social meeting last week: my paper was selected for the Outstanding Paper Award of our Center for the year 2022 🥳 Now I am motivated to produce more 😁 read it here journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...

Lukijalta | Lyhytnäköiset leikkaukset kulttuurista kylmäävät – romuttaa hyvinvointivaltion perustuksia Kulttuurista leikkaaminen on lyhytnäköistä hyvinvointipolitiikkaa.

Prof. Toiviainen and Prof. Särkämö: cutting funding for culture is a short-sighted policy that undermines societal wellbeing, given the crucial role of arts and music in supporting mental health, social cohesion, and human development across all ages

👇 Linkki: www.aamulehti.fi/lukijalta/ar...

New study by @persatz.bsky.social on children's music-making explores empathy & synchrony! Findings show that higher trait empathy helps children synchronize better, especially when their timing is less stable. Female-female pairs also synchronized better. 1/2 #musicscience

Is it known when humans or our ancestors first started to sing? As songs don't fossilise, this is a difficult task, point out our readers – but this doesn't stop them having a go

When did humans first begin to sing, and why?

I had a crack at answering this question as part of @newscientist.com's LastWord series. www.newscientist.com/lastword/mg2...

#musicscience @coe-mmbb.bsky.social

JYU for YOU (S02 E10): Music research, technology and supporting students with Marc Thompson Jyväskylän yliopisto · Episode

Now this is podcasting!
Listen to "JYU for YOU" podcast to hear MMBB researcher Marc Thompson discuss the Centre, the Master's iN Music and Science and how he ended up in Finland.
open.spotify.com/episode/3VV8...

Our very own Dr Andy Danso was recently featured on Yle! Check it out!
Tutkimus: Musiikki vähentää kokemusta liikunnan rasittavuudesta ja auttaa tekemään siitä pysyvän tavan
(Music makes exercise more enjoyable, easier and may increase adherence)

yle.fi/a/74-20152374

Beauty and the brain – Investigating the neural and musical attributes of beauty during naturalistic music listening That music is physical, made of sounds, signs, and embodied practices, is beyond dispute. That music can be beautiful is less straightforward. On the other hand, evaluative processes of appraisal, suc...

A collaboration with Elvira Brattico identified neural & psychological underpinnings of beauty perception in music. fMRI scans show that stunning melodies activate the orbitofrontal cortex, while not-beautiful tunes trigger more basic auditory processing.
www.ibroneuroscience.org/article/S030...

Using music as a mood regulator in everyday life is associated with unfavourable health and fitness outcomes in overweight adults Individual traits and habits have shown to be associated with health and health behaviour. One such habit is how individuals use music. This study aimed to examine if using music as a mood regulator i...

New research from CoE MMBB: Laura Ginström et al. claim using music to boost your mood might be linked to lower fitness levels in overweight adults. Participants who relied on songs for mood regulation had poorer cardiorespiratory fitness. #musicscience
journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...

Finnish Cultural Foundation awards go to Iris Candelaria, Pirkko Saisio and Petri Toiviainen  - Finnish Cultural Foundation Every year, the Finnish Cultural Foundation presents three €40,000 awards for activities in the fields of science, research, art and culture. The winners are some of the most interesting researchers, ...

So proud to share that our own Professor Petri Toiviainen has been honored with a prestigious award from the Finnish Cultural Foundation! 🎉 Thrilled to see his contributions getting the recognition they deserve! #musicscience @phtoiviainen
skr.fi/en/news/finn...

Frontiers | Modeling dynamics on the dance floor with directional swarmalators

What do fireflies, fish schools, and dancers have in common? They self-organize—and now, science has a model to explain it! New study by Petri Toiviainen and colleagues uses swarmalators to reveal the hidden physics of the dance floor.

www.frontiersin.org/journals/beh...

Musiikin parantava voima Keskustelemassa Jyväskylän yliopiston apulaisprofessori ja musiikkiterapeutti Esa Ala-Ruona.

Kiinnostava video musiikin parantavasta voimasta Maikkarilla: VR-konserteista päästään meillä @uniofjyvaskyla.bsky.social @coe-mmbb.bsky.social toteutettavaan musiikkiterapiatutkimukseen, josta kertoo apulaisprofessori, musiikkiterapeutti Esa Ala-Ruona.

#musiikkiterapia #musiikintutkimus

Music sounds better with you? How your listening habits affect your love life Psychologists say that singing, dancing and song preferences play a key role in the viability of romantic relationships

Some of our research from the Centre of Excellence in Music, Mind, Body and Brain in The Guardian today!

www.theguardian.com/science/2025...

Master's Degree Programme in Music and Science The Master's Degree Programme in Music and Science at the University of Jyväskylä aims to help students understand the various functions of music in modern everyday life by examining music through a c...

Come study with us! We are excited to announce the international application period for our Master’s Degree in Music and Science is now open!

You can apply until 22 January 2025. Please distribute to anyone interested!

www.jyu.fi/en/study-wit...

Sage Journals: Discover world-class research Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.

MUSIC PSYCHOLOGISTS OFTEN USE CONVENIENCE SAMPLES, BUT DO UNI STUDENTS REALLY REFLECT EVERYONE!? New study from @CoE_MMBB's Niels Chr. Hansen and colleagues: Non-rep samples overestimate how self-reported musicianship relates to skill: journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

Music and memory: A Finnish rocker teams up with a neuroscientist - thisisFINLAND Musician and songwriter Heikki Salo collaborates with Teppo Särkämö of the University of Helsinki on an unusual project to help people recovering from strokes.

This is Finland: Rock legend turned the words of stroke survivors into songs for @coe_mmbb music-based stroke telerehabilitation study.

finland.fi/business-inn...

18th International Conference on Music Perception and Cognition

Looking forward to the 18th International Conference on Music Perception and Cognition in São Paulo, Brazil next summer!

www.icmpc2025.abcogmus.com

Interested to test out your musical skills? Feel free to take to try out our music perception and musical skills battery test! mmbb.fi

YouTube video by Jyväskylän yliopisto | University of Jyväskylä Musical Boundaries: How our brain navigates musical transitions

What happens in the #brain when one musical phrase ends and another one begins? MMBB researchers from
@uniofjyvaskyla
illustrate the complexity and elegance of #music listening with a 3D visualization of the human brain. www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKdH...

Silent disco: why dancing in sync brings us closer together The synchronisation involved in music and dance may be the “active ingredient” in their social bonding effects.

What is the synchrony-bonding effect, and why did I move to Finland to watch people dancing in silent discos? Find out in my first ever article in @uk.theconversation.com
🎧🎶
#musicscience

theconversation.com/silent-disco...

Interested to test out your musical skills? Feel free to take to try out our music perception and musical skills battery test! mmbb.fi

Frontiers | Editorial: New ideas in Performance Science This Research Topic was launched to serve as a compendium of forward-looking contributions from basic and applied research, outlining recent developments, no...

Post-doc researcher Niels Chr. Hansen guest-edited @FrontPsychol special issue on "New Ideas in Performance Science." In 17 articles sports/music/dance/edu scholars tackle key Qs+chart future directions. www.frontiersin.org/journals/psy...

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