BVA EVENT
Page updated: 19th January 2012
"Voice and the Brain"
Sunday January 15th, 2012
Park Crescent Conference Centre, 229 Great Portland Street, London W1W 5PN
Speakers- Prof Sophie Scott (Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience, UCL)
- Dr Katie Overy (Senior Lecturer in Music Psychology, University of Edinburgh)
- Prof John Rothwell (Professor of Neurophysiology, UCL)
- Dr David Reby (Senior Lecturer in Psychology, University of Sussex)
Provisional Programme
| 9.30am | Registration |
| 10.00am | Introduction |
| 10.05am | Sophie Scott: Speech and voices on the brain: the neural processing of the human voice |
| Prof Sophie Scott (Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience, UCL) will outline evidence from functional neuro-imaging about the ways the human voice is processed cortically. She will show important differences between the processing of speech and other sounds, and will demonstrate asymmetries between the ways that the left and right cortical hemispheres process the information in voices. (1 hour talk + 15 minutes questions) | |
| 11.20am | Coffee |
| 11.45am | Katie Overy: An overview of the neural basis of singing |
| Dr Katie Overy (Senior Lecturer in Music Psychology, University of Edinburgh) will introduce us to the neural processing of singing. Singing is a fascinating human behaviour, and yet has received relatively little scientific attention to date. She will first discuss the nature of singing and then review recent research on the neural basis of singing perception and production, including a discussion of the experimental challenges as well as findings. This will lead to an assessment of the potential role of singing to support language skills, such as with dyslexic children or with aphasic patients. (1 hour talk + 15 mins questions) | |
| 1.00pm | Lunch |
| 2.00pm | John Rothwell: Understanding and influencing brain plasticity: interactions in learning and rehabilitation |
| Prof John Rothwell (Professor of Neurophysiology, UCL) will show how the adult brain is no longer seen as a static set of connections formed in infancy and fixed in adulthood. Training and rehabilitation can make use of this state of dynamic change. We are all familiar with the idea that different types of brain scanning can visualise patterns of activity in the brain. More recently a new set of techniques has been developed that allows us to interact with activity in the brain in healthy individuals. These non-invasive methods can stimulate neurones in the brain in the same way as an electrical stimulus can activate a nerve in the arm and make the hand twitch. More importantly we can now use them to interact with the changes in organisation that accompany learning, potentially, for example, speeding up the response to retraining therapies for aphasic patients after stroke. (1 hour talk + 15 mins questions) | |
| 3.15pm | Tea |
| 3.45pm | David Reby: Expression of gender in the human voice: is there a "sex code"? |
| Dr David Reby (Senior Lecturer in Psychology, University of Sussex) will discuss expression of gender in the human voice: is there a "sex code"? Why are men's voices lower-pitched and more baritone than women's? He will be looking at the anatomical bases and evolutionary origins of the sex differences in the human voice; how gender, and related attributes, are expressed in children's and adult's voices. (1 hour talk + 15 mins questions) | |
| 5.00pm | Thanks and goodbye |
