Participants: |
Avrum Hollinger Marcelo M. Wanderley (supervisor) Christopher Steele Virginia Penhune (Concordia University) Robert Zatorre (Montreal Neurological Institute) |
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Funding: |
Concordia University (Penhune) Canadian Foundation for Innovation (Zatorre & Wanderley) NSERC Discovery Grant (Wanderley) CIRMMT student funds (Hollinger) 2007-2008 |
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Project Type: | Collaborative project (CIRMMT, BRAMS - Laboratory for Brain, Music and Sound). | |
Time Period: | 2006– (Ongoing.) |
This project focuses on the development of electronic piano keyboards that can be used inside MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scanners. The piano controller allows neuroscientists studying motor learning of musical tasks to perform functional scans of a subject's brain while synchronizing the scanner, auditory and visual stimuli, and auditory feedback with the onset, offset, and velocity of the piano keys. Two versions of the piano have now been built with two full-fledged MRI-studies completed and more in development.