EJN: Earlier, you talked a little bit about the boom of
neuroscience, especially music and neuroscience, over the last couple of
decades. Looking forward, what do you think will be different about
either the field of neuroscience in 10-15 years?
TRAINOR: One direction I think the field is going is toward conducting
research in more naturalistic settings to better understand human
behaviour. Another is to understand not just individuals, but how
individuals interact with each other. And both of these directions will
be fueled by advances in, and miniaturization of, mobile wearable
sensors, as well as advances in real-time machine learning (AI)
processing. One thing I haven’t mentioned yet is that I direct the
McMaster Institute for Music in the Mind. Ten years ago, I led the
opening of the LIVELab, which is a 106-seat concert hall equipped with
tools for measuring all kinds of responses, in which we are trying to
embody these new directions. First, it is totally sound isolated from
the outside and has a naturally dead acoustic. We have virtual sound
system of 76 loudspeakers 28 microphones, that can instantaneously
change the acoustics from, for example, simulating a concert hall, a
subway station, a noisy restaurant, or an outdoor space. We can make
sounds appear to be localized anywhere in space. We do studies examining
at how musicians and audiences of over 100 are interacting through their
movements using our motion capture system. We can measure brainwaves in
multiple people at the same time to see when their brains synchronize
and under what conditions. We can measure heart rates and other
physiological responses. We have mobile eye-tracking glasses that attach
to a cell phone, and can measure where audiences are attending during
performances. In the future, I think we’ll see more research of this
type.
I also think we’re only at the beginning of how we can use music for
health and wellbeing. For example, using music with children with
autism, using music to treat depression, studies in the elderly with
hearing impairment to see how we can better help them so they’re less
socially isolated, using auditory rhythms to improve motor performance.
I think there’s so many ways in which music can make a huge difference,
and we’re really just starting to explore them.