What can music tell us about social interaction?

Alessandro D'Ausilio; Giacomo Novembre; Luciano Fadiga; Peter E Keller

doi:10.1016/j.tics.2015.01.005

What can music tell us about social interaction?

Trends Cogn Sci. 2015 Mar;19(3):111-4. doi: 10.1016/j.tics.2015.01.005. Epub 2015 Jan 29.

Authors

Alessandro D'Ausilio¹, Giacomo Novembre², Luciano Fadiga³, Peter E Keller²

Affiliations

¹ Italian Institute of Technology (IIT), Robotics, Brain and Cognitive Sciences (RBCS), Genova, Italy. Electronic address: alessandro.dausilio@iit.it.
² The MARCS Institute, University of Western Sydney, Australia.
³ Italian Institute of Technology (IIT), Robotics, Brain and Cognitive Sciences (RBCS), Genova, Italy; University of Ferrara, Section of Human Physiology, Ferrara, Italy.

PMID: 25641075
DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2015.01.005

Abstract

Humans are innately social creatures, but cognitive neuroscience, that has traditionally focused on individual brains, is only now beginning to investigate social cognition through realistic interpersonal interaction. Music provides an ideal domain for doing so because it offers a promising solution for balancing the trade-off between ecological validity and experimental control when testing cognitive and brain functions. Musical ensembles constitute a microcosm that provides a platform for parametrically modeling the complexity of human social interaction.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Brain / physiology
Humans
Interpersonal Relations*
Music / psychology*