Music Cognition Chat

Seed Magazine, which sponsors ScienceBlogs, has a great discussion between Daniel Levitin and David Byrne (yes, that David Byrne). They discuss the evolution of music, Asperger's and Williams Syndrome, memory, absolute pitch, synthesia, pattern detection, the social aspects of music; running through most of the curriculum I teach in my Psychology of Music course. It is a rather informal discussion, with each of them taking turns talking about things that they are working on. But that very informal nature makes the highly informative discussion that much more impressive. (via)

I've Got Rhythm, I've Got Brains...

A free symposium on "Music, Rhythm, and the Brain" will be held at Stanford University on May 11-13. The keynote speaker is Daniel Levitin, speaking in Clark Center Auditorium at 7:30 on Friday the 11th. This speech, "Music and Flow," is open to the general public. The rest of the symposium does require registration. Here are all of the events in full detail.