Music Auditory-Motor Skill Learning and New Technologies

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The objective of The Canada Research Chair in Music Auditory-Motor Skill Learning and New Technologies is to gain a better understanding of the variability of motor response to musical stimuli (e.g., moving to the beat), and its effects on the learning of auditory-motor skills. Fine coordination of perception and action is key to performing everyday tasks such as speaking, walking, or playing a musical instrument. The program of this Chair focuses on rhythm perception in music and the ability to move to it (i.e., beat perception and synchronization) as a model of auditory-motor skills and their learning. One goal is to define individual profiles in people's ability to couple movements (e.g., by finger taps, steps) to the beat, and identify the underlying mechanisms. A second goal is to test to what extent these profiles foster auditory-motor skill learning and brain plasticity. To this aim the Chair program harnesses methods spanning behavioral testing, massive online data collection, machine learning, and neurophysiology. The results will generate novel and original insights about individual differences in auditory-motor skills, and pave the way to theory-driven innovative technological solutions for improving learning.