Using music to push boundaries in brain research

Brains predict the future

You would be hard-pressed to find anyone who says music has no effect on them –doesn’t make them feel happier, more energetic, calm or want to move. But what happens in the brain when tones and rhythms flow through the ear canal and trigger neurons?

It’s a big question, and Music in the Brain, a basic research center, addresses it by focusing on the ‘predictive coding of music’ theory, which posits that the brain isn’t just a passive recipient of sensory information, but spends all its time predicting what it expects to happen and comparing it with what does happen. In other words, the brain keeps trying to guess what the future will bring and only makes adjustments when it has guessed wrong.

“And that’s smart,” Professor Vuust explains, “because we’d be overwhelmed if we took in every sensory impression all the time. According to predictive coding, what we sense is mainly that which the brain didn’t anticipate.

“It sounds abstract, but imagine you cross the road at the same spot daily. Your brain knows what to expect. But one day, there’s a new crosswalk, and your brain sounds the alarm: Hey! Something’s different.

“At that point, we recode our model to predict the future.” The professor goes on to explain that the same happens when we listen to music –our brains predict the next note in the tune. If it’s not the one we expect, a ‘prediction error’ occurs, and we adjust our expectations, which can release dopamine in the brain as a reward or form of pleasure and motivation for learning and adapting to new patterns.

A name in music

“At the Center, we use predictive coding as a key to understanding music,” Vuust continues, adding that we often find music affects us – in all sorts of ways –without us knowing what machinery in the brain has made it happen.

“We also use music to learn about predictive coding in the human brain.”

When writing his PhD, Professor Vuust thought he would be lucky if Nature magazine published it. When he set up MIB ten years ago, he didn’t think anybody else would be interested in the theory or would fully grasp what he was up to. But his innovative idea soon bore fruit.

“People now find it natural to talk about predictive coding of music. They see the Center as a place that takes its work deeply seriously. When we turn up at conferences, we are a name in the music world. We fill conference halls, win awards and our research is published in major journals.

“Several of our scientific tracks have been incredibly successful. Like the one looking at why people move rhythmically and what happens in the brain when we move to music. We have made a lot of progress with that. Everybody now uses the model we devised for it,” he explains, adding that other researchers all over the world regularly hold conferences based on MIB’s research without directly involving the Center.

Media voice

A professional musician since he was 16, Peter Vuust is used to being in the spotlight and is in great demand in jazz and research circles.

“It’s really cool to have a center that does so many interesting things that I can talk about,” says the professor, who is happy to give interviews because it provides an opportunity to influence public debate and showcase MIB’s research.

“I can always link what I say to specific experiments because we’ve conducted so many over the years. And that adds impact to my words.”

He also underlines the importance of the MIB rule of never mentioning unpublished research.

“We don’t talk about what we’re working on or think we’ll find.”

That said, although the professor acknowledges that his frequent media appearances can lead to negative feedback, he also stresses that reaching out to people beyond the research community is all part of the game.

Happy to inspire but rarely collaborates

MIB has taken research in music and neuroscience forward by several steps. As mentioned, other scientists also use its findings as know-how and inspiration.

“For example, it’s used in music and movement classes for Parkinson’s patients. We were also involved in a trial with a choir for patients with COPD who find exercise difficult but train their lungs by singing. We helped show it was just as effective as physiotherapy.”

The professor then mentions the number of inquiries about collaborations MIB receives but points out that the partnership with the COPD choir came about because a PhD student was writing about the topic.

“I always make it quite clear that the Center sticks to basic research. The questions may well have to do with pain, autism or something else, but I don’t want to be involved in the practical applications because they are so problematic and become unscientific incredibly quickly. I try to keep to the straight and narrow and stick to studying the mechanisms behind the effects music has.”

Vuust explains that MiB used language deliberately designed to help others understand the theses and outcomes in a white paper reviewing all the known clinical applications of music.

“That’s the kind of interface we want to see for practical applications. Others can take it from there.”

A productive sanctuary

In addition to MIB’s visionary research, Peter Vuust is also proud to have built a center that focuses on respect and allows time for immersion.

“We have created an environment where we have fun together, and we’ve given the students something they won’t find anywhere else. We train amazingly good researchers, but some also go on to be schoolteachers or take jobs in industry.

The professor adds that he wishes everyone could have the opportunity to be part of a basic research center because they function as a kind of sanctuary for students and researchers, one where they can concentrate on learning to be good at what they do.

“It’s been great.”

Overall, the head of MIB is very satisfied despite DNRF funding for the Center ending in June. He finds himself in the fortunate situation that grants from the Lundbeck and Salling foundations mean he can continue his work. Human creativity and inventiveness will be among the topics the Center will study for the next three years.

“In my opinion, improvising and being creative are the hardest things you can ask a brain scientist to do, and I probably won’t come anywhere close to understanding them. But we are doing all sorts of experiments, so let’s see how far we get.”