Understanding the neurocognitive mechanisms of learning culturally unfamiliar music

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We aim to understand the brain mechanisms that support learning unfamiliar musical rhythms and how those mechanisms and group music-making can support intercultural cooperation and attitudes. Past research shows making music with others enhances trust, cooperation and bonds, but these effects have not been studied in cross-cultural contexts. Like a foreign language, music from an unfamiliar culture is often misperceived but instruction and active engagement with unfamiliar music can improve perception. Our objective is to uncover neural mechanisms of learning complex unfamiliar music and test whether intercultural music-making increases intercultural prosociality. Our interdisciplinary team integrates traditional Indigenous musicians and knowledge-holders (collaborators Hill and Buck), expertise in Indigenous well-being, culture & intercultural relationships (co-applicants Freeman and Monture), expertise in Indigenous musicology (collaborator Cronk), and in the cognitive neuroscience of music in children (PI Trainor, postdoc Cameron).We will bring together children from the Six Nations of the Grand River territory and non-Indigenous children from the Hamilton area to learn to sing and play traditional Haudenosaunee music in 6 weekly workshops. As a control, other children from the same communities will attend cultural workshops with listening-only exposure to this music. We will use a between-groups, pre-post design to test whether changes in neural oscillations (using EEG) and performance on three rhythm tasks (indexing music learning) predict changes in prosocial intercultural cooperation, attitudes, and mental health.Our interdisciplinary approach relies on neuroscience and Indigenous knowledge to test neural mechanisms of learning an unfamiliar musical system and how it relates to building intercultural prosociality. We expect to impact fields including cognitive neuroscience (mechanisms of learning), social development (effects of music-making on intercultural prosociality in children), education and Indigenous studies (using traditional Indigenous music in reconciliation) and music education (the role of active vs. passive education). Our unique approach of using music learning as a tool of reconciliation has the potential to impact Canadian society by enhancing understanding between Indigenous and non-Indigenous children. We expect the results to inform new cross-cultural music programs and policies across Canada and internationally.