“Singin’ in the Brain”

Ron Hoy, Emeritus Professor

Thursday, May 14th from 10:30-11:30am- In Person & Zoom

Description: Who doesn’t love music? Why is music so important to so many of us? In fact, for many people, especially in their youth, music is part of their self-identity. We use music to comfort, console, and arouse ourselves—whether in workout classes or playing in background while we go about our everyday lives. Have you ever wondered what’s going on in your mind and brain while tunes play on in your mind’s ear? Why do you feel the way you do when you hear, unbidden, a song from your deep past? Music is a portal to “time travel” back to our past selves. What causes musical “earworms”? Research in Cognitive Neuroscience has revealed a lot about what the brain is doing while we listen to music as well as while we play or sing our music. Why is it that we can remember so MUCH music from our past? In the realm of complementary medicine, music has been applied to help troubled bodies and minds—indeed, music has the power to heal, as well as comfort. I’ll try to address these questions and yours in my talk.

Bio: Ron Hoy is the Merksamer Professor of Biology (Emeritus) and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor (Emeritus) in the Department of Neurobiology and Behavior at Cornell, where he taught and did research on bioacoustics and animal communication, for over 40 years. His laboratory studied the miniscule hearing organs of insects and spiders which have inspired engineers to design novel nanoscale microphones for electronic devices like phones and hearing aids. Since 2017 he and Annie Lewandowski, a Senior Lecturer and composer in the Music Department, have co-taught “Music on the Brain” for freshmen and sophomores.