A woman listens to music. – PureStock / SIPA
- A team of neuroscience researchers from Lyon is currently working on musical perception and the deficit observed in some, known to sing out of tune.
- They are looking for volunteers for two studies to better understand what is played in the brain when we hear music and to test people with music deficiency in training supposed to improve their perception of music.
What if singing out of tune was not inevitable? In Lyon, researchers from the Neuroscience Research Center are currently looking for volunteers to advance their work on musical perception and better understand the deficits in this area observed in some people.
“For some, recognizing a familiar song without the lyrics is complicated, if not impossible. They may have trouble memorizing melodies, nor will they realize when they sing out of tune, or when someone sings out of tune ”, underlines Caliani Hoarau, master’s 2 student in neurosciences and neurosphychology and intern at the center of Lyon research.
Two paid studies to advance science
To better understand what is playing in our brain to perceive music and understand why some have a musical ear when others sing like a foot, the researchers will conduct two paid studies, carried out within the research lab. The first, planned for one year, should make it possible to test on subjects suffering from a deficiency in this matter a musical training program developed by the researchers. “We know that there is a deficit in the fronto temporal connections, which are very important in the perception of music. We want to study if this long-term learning can improve their perception of music and if this is seen at the cerebral and behavioral level ”, adds the young woman.
Researchers will assess the effectiveness of their program through Magnetoencephalography (MEG) sessions. “It is an imaging technique, without danger of course, which makes it possible to record the activity of the brain”, details Caliani Hoarau. The second study, lasting 2h30 for the participants and carried out on a computer or touchscreen tablet, aims to validate a whole series of hearing tests which now make it possible to assess the perception of music.
First answers in a year and a half
Thanks to these studies, the Lyon researchers hope to have a better knowledge of the deficits of musical perception and to be able to improve them with training. Work, the results of which should not be known for at least a year and a half, whose conclusions could be essential for patients with significant hearing disorders. This research could in particular be used for people with hearing implants, according to the researcher.
To participate in one of the studies and advance science, volunteers must first complete a 10-minute test on a website. The profiles deemed interesting by the team of researchers “Auditory Cognition and Psychoacoustics” and “Brain Dynamics and Cognition” will be contacted again.