Music Dynamics Laboratory

Our Mission

Our work seeks to discover the general principles of neural and ecological dynamics that underlie music perception and cognition. Music is embodied, depending on the interaction of musical sounds with the physical brain and body.  Yet music is also a high-level cognitive ability - a form of communication relying on highly structured temporal sequences similar in complexity to language. Music is found among all human cultures, and musical ‘languages’ vary across cultures with exposure and learning. Our research asks whether a simple set of fundamental principles can explain the basic features of music, including pitch, harmony, tonality, rhythm, meter, groove, performance, anticipation, development, enculturation, and emotion. By exploring fundamental neurodynamic mechanisms, we seek to explain both statistical universals and cultural variations in music within a unified framework.

Featured Publications

Harding, E., Kim, J. C., Demos, A. P., Roman, I. R., Tichko, P., Palmer, C. & Large, E. W. (2025). Musical neurodynamics. Nature Reviews Neuroscience. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41583-025-00915-4.

Di Stefano, N., Large, E., & Spence, C. (2026). Embodied Responses to Harmony and (Poly)Rhythm: An Integrated Ratio‐Based Perception‐Action Framework. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1562(1), e70355. https://doi.org/10.1111/nyas.70355.

Zalta, A., Large, E. W., Schön, D., & Morillon, B. (2024). Neural dynamics of predictive timing and motor engagement in music listening. Science Advances, 10, eadi2525. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adi252