How sounds become music and music becomes emotions

Music is an integral part of every culture and occupies an important place in everyone’s life. Whether we like it or not, music affects our mood and emotional state, helps us to fulfil ourselves and is a way of self-identification. The language of music is universal, but what does it consist of and why does it need no translation?

What happens in our minds when we listen to our favourite song? Music is a combination of many different components that are processed by different parts of the brain: there is no one specific area for its perception and evaluation. This lecture will focus on research findings that show: how different areas of the brain are activated while listening to music and what processes they are linked to; and how music can be used to manage moods, treat mental disorders or rehabilitate people after a stroke.

Lecturer‍

Daria Podvigina graduated from the Faculty of Psychology at St Petersburg University in 2002 and started working at Pavlov Institute of Physiology of the Russian Academy of Sciences in the same year. Since 2015, she has been Senior Research Associate at the Laboratory for Cognitive Studies at St Petersburg University (since 2020 — the Institute for Cognitive Studies at the University). Her main research interests are neurophysiological and psychophysiological mechanisms of visual perception and recognition of complex images. She is the author of more than 40 scholarly papers. In addition to her research activities, she teaches a number of courses at the Institute for Cognitive Studies and at the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences at St Petersburg University: lecture courses "Introduction to Life Sciences", "Human: Evolution, Culture, Behaviour", and others.

The meeting will be held online in Russian with simultaneous interpreting into Spanish.

Registration