PhD Studentship: Musical Groove - Exploring the Brain and Body Interactions that Produce Musical Movement and Pleasure in Health and Disease

This is an interdisciplinary CENTRE-UB PhD Studentship hosted in the Department of Music at the University of Birmingham. 

Listening to rhythmic music, produces the urge to move your body to the beat. This phenomenon occurs in infants who are too young to be in complete control of their movements, and in adults with severe memory deficits caused by dementia. As such, this urge, which is sometimes called groove, appears to be a basic, overt expression of musical pleasure. 

However, the nature of the relation between groove, movement and pleasure remains unclear. For example, does music trigger pleasure which in turn causes the urge to move; or conversely, do certain beats trigger movement directly and the movements themselves give us pleasure; or is there a more complex interrelationship? 

We will study the relationship between groove, movement, and pleasure in healthy individual, and also investigate the experience of populations who have deficits in their ability to perceive rhythm. For example, people with Parkinson's disease (PD). A deficit caused by loss of dopamine in the basal ganglia (BG), an area of the brain important for both the perception and production of rhythm and reward/pleasure.  

Another phenomenon seen in PD is that typically disordered movements can be improved with external stimuli. These normalised 'paradoxical movements' can be elicited using regularly patterned auditory stimuli, such as a simple electronic metronome (i.e. a simple rhythmic beat). Such stimuli have been used to help people with PD improve movement. 

Given the utility of rhythmic stimuli, insufficient thought has been given to how people with PD perceive rhythm, how rhythm triggers movement and pleasure, and if these factors are altered in people with PD. Therefore, we propose to investigate how people with Parkinson's perceive and respond to musical rhythm associated with groove, to better understand the relationship between groove, movement and pleasure. 

The study will apply methods from across musicology, cognitive neuroscience, movement science and participatory action research, to explore how rhythmic auditory stimuli with varying degrees of complexity (from low to high) trigger the perception of pleasure, and level of compulsion to move. 

We are looking for a highly talented and dedicated PhD student with a 1^st class or 2:1 degree in the field of musicology, cognitive neuroscience, movement science. An MSc degree in a relevant area is desirable though not necessary. Previous experience with relevant experimental and cognitive neuroscience techniques, such as transcranial magnetic stimulation and computational and analytical skills would be desirable, but again, not necessary. 

To be considered for this PhD, please follow the instructions here: www.birmingham.ac.uk/centre-ub

Application deadline: 12 August 2024

Centre-UB studentships cover tuition fees, a maintenance stipend, support for research training, as well as research activity support grants. Support is available to home applicants. You can find further details www.birmingham.ac.uk/centre-ub

In the first instance, informal enquiries about the project prior to application should be directed to both Maria Witek (Music) m.a.g.witek@bham.ac.uk and Ned Jenkinson (Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation Sciences) n.jenkinson@bham.ac.uk. 

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