USC Center for Music, Brain and Society

🧠🎶 Applications are now open for our inaugural Music and the Brain Summer Research Program at USC. Join us for three immersive days exploring music, neuroscience, and psychology through interactive sessions, lab tours, and conversations with researchers and musicians. Open to high school students. Applications due March 15, 2026. 🌐 For more information: https://dornsife.usc.edu/cmbs/education-and-training/summer-research-program/ 📩 Apply here: /2026SRP Links also in bio!

[ESP Abajo] Meet the people behind the USC Center for Music, Brain, and Society!🎼🧠🌎 Swipe left to learn more about our mission and who we are 🌟#MusicBrainSociety #USC #MusicScience ---- ¡Conozca a las personas detrás del Centro para la Música, el Cerebro y la Sociedad de USC! 🎼🧠🌎 Desliza hacia la izquierda para obtener más información sobre nuestra misión y quiénes somos 🌟 #MusicaCerebroSociedad #USC #CienciaMusical

How does music shape the brain, and what does that mean for how we learn, connect, and age? In this episode of Trojan Talks, I speak with Dr. Assal Habibi, director of the USC Center for Music, Brain, and Society, about her fascinating research into how music can impact brain function, childhood development, and well-being. Watch now: https://weare.sc/21b33b

📢 Coming up in 2 weeks! Join us on Monday, May 18th! Dr. John Sloboda will explore how musicians leading social music programs shape participant outcomes and reveal that their practices are often grounded in values that challenge traditional, exclusionary approaches to music education 📅 Date: Monday, May 18, 2026 🕒 Time: 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM PST 🔗 RSVP Link: tinyurl.com/SlobodaRSVP This event will be held in-person and virtually. All are welcome to attend. For accurate head counts and to receive email reminders about this event, advanced registration is required (RSVP). ------- Music for Social Impact: Practitioners’ Work, Contexts, and Beliefs. There are an enormous variety of musical projects around the world focused on social as well as musical outcomes for participants.  The majority of research to date has studied individual projects and the value experienced by participants.  Less attention has been given to the musicians who animate these projects. Nonetheless, outcomes for participants will depend on what these musicians do in sessions, the skills, beliefs and motivations they bring to their work, and the conditions and constraints under which they operate.  A recently completed 3-year international comparative research project has studied over 300 individual musicians working in such projects. This presentation will outline the rationale of the project, the way it was conducted, and some key findings. The findings suggest a commonality of professional practice rooted in values which to a greater or lesser extent challenge or disrupt music practices and pedagogies understood to be elitist and exclusionary.   Bio Professor John Sloboda is Emeritus Professor at the Guildhall School, where he was founder of its Institute for Social Impact Research in the Performing Arts. He is Emeritus Professor at Keele and was a staff member of the School of Psychology at Keele. John is internationally known for his work on the psychology of music.

The USC Black Studies Center is thrilled to share that we will host singer/songwriter @aloeblacc on April 15th! Join us for “The Power of Black Popular Culture: A Conversation with Aloe Blacc,” Weds. 4/15 at 7pm. This event is free, and an RSVP is required. See link in our bio. Along with BSC Director @onekalabennett and USC professor, @echilljr , we’ll explore how Black culture shapes global popular culture…From “woke” to “6-7,” from music to social movements, and more! Thanks to our co-sponsors @usc_consortium , @uscbac , and @usc_cmbs ! **Swipe to see a sneak peak of some of the questions we’ll be discussing 😊 #AloeBlacc, #67, #kpop, #hiphop, #Dornsife

📢 Coming up NEXT week! Join us next Thursday, April 16th! Dr. Elizabeth Margulis will explore how spontaneous thoughts during music listening, often vivid memories and imagined scenes, feel personal but are actually widely shared across listeners, unfolding in similar patterns shaped by the music itself. 📅 Date: Thursday, April 16, 2026 🕒 Time: 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM PST 🔗 RSVP Link: tinyurl.com/MargulisRSVP This event will be held in-person and virtually. All are welcome to attend. For accurate head counts and to receive email reminders about this event, advanced registration is required (RSVP). ------- What can we learn from musical daydreams? In recent research, we’ve shown that the spontaneous thought people experience during musical listening consists largely of vivid autobiographical memories and fictional imaginings. People have a sense that their imaginings are idiosyncratic and personal, but analyses of free response descriptions reveal that within a culture, they are in fact broadly shared, even when cued by novel, unfamiliar excerpts. In addition to shared content, these imaginings also unfold with shared temporal structure. Theoretical and methodological advances in studying spontaneous thought during music listening thus offer a unique lens into involuntary mental imaginings that are subjective yet structurally aligned with a stimulus. Bio: Elizabeth Margulis is Professor and Acting Chair of the Department of Music at Princeton University, where she directs the Music Cognition Lab. Her book On Repeat: How Music Plays the Mind won the Wallace Berry Award from the Society for Music Theory, and the ASCAP Virgil Thomson/Deems Taylor Award from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. Her co-edited volume The Science-Music Borderlands won the Ruth A. Solie Award from the American Musicological Society. Her Psychology of Music installment in Oxford’s Very Short Introduction series provides an accessible introduction to the field, and has been translated into seven languages. Her latest book Transported: The Everyday Magic of Musical Daydreams comes out in May.

Don’t forget! 👀 This Sunday (March 15th, 2026) is the due date to apply to our inaugural Music and the Brain Summer Research Program here at USC! 🧠🎶 Be one of the 1st to experience this unique, immersive opportunity to explore music & the brain, make friends with others who share your passion, see how research magic happens, and design your own research proposal. ✨ Open to high school students! 🌐 Learn more: https://dornsife.usc.edu/cmbs/education-and-training/summer-research-program/ 📩 Apply here: /2026SRP Links also in bio 😊

Although this may be our 1st Summer Research Program, it’s certainly not the first time we’ve hosted high school students for events focused on music & the brain. 🎶🧠 Check out highlights attendees called out from our past events! Our 3-day, immersive Music and the Brain Summer Research Program takes place July 8th–10th at the Brain & Creativity Institute on USC’s campus. If you’re a high school student interested in learning more about music & the brain, be sure to apply by March 15th, 2026! ✨ 🌐 Additional information: https://dornsife.usc.edu/cmbs/education-and-training/summer-research-program/ 📩 Application: /2026SRP (Links also in bio)

Don’t forget! 👀 This Sunday (March 15th, 2026) is the due date to apply to our inaugural Music and the Brain Summer Research Program here at USC! 🧠🎶 Be one of the 1st to experience this unique, immersive opportunity to explore music & the brain, make friends with others who share your passion, see how research magic happens, and design your own research proposal. ✨ Open to high school students! 🌐 Learn more: https://dornsife.usc.edu/cmbs/education-and-training/summer-research-program/ 📩 Apply here: /2026SRP Links also in bio 😊

Ready to explore the intersection of music, neuroscience, and psychology this summer? 🎶🧠 Our Summer Research Program offers high school students the chance to dive into hands-on research, connect with experts, and discover how science and the arts come together to better understand the human mind. If you’re a high school student interested in learning more about music & the brain, be sure to apply by March 15th, 2026! ✨ 🌐 Additional information: https://dornsife.usc.edu/cmbs/education-and-training/summer-research-program/ 📩 Application: /2026SRP (Links also in bio)

🧠 🎶Applications are now open for our inaugural Music and the Brain Summer Research Program at USC. Join us for three immersive days exploring music, neuroscience, and psychology through interactive sessions, lab tours, and conversations with researchers and musicians. Open to high school students. Applications due March 15, 2026. 🌐 For more information: https://dornsife.usc.edu/cmbs/education-and-training/summer-research-program/ 📩 Apply here: /2026SRP Links also in bio!

📢 Coming up THIS week! Join us this Thursday, February 26th! Dr. Laura Cirelli will be discussing how infants not only respond to music from birth but actively co-create musical interactions with caregivers, highlighting music as a powerful, reciprocal foundation for early communication and connection. 📅 Date: Thursday, February 26, 2026
 🕒 Time: 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
 🔗 RSVP Link: tinyurl.com/CirelliRSVP
 This event will be held virtually . All are welcome to attend. For accurate head counts and to receive email reminders about this event, advanced registration is required (RSVP). ------- The First Duets: Musical Connections in Infancy Humans invest a surprising amount of time and resources into music. This musical engagement starts early – the auditory system of the newborn makes predictions about unfolding musical sequences, song captures infant attention (often over speech), and most children dance before they walk or talk. Importantly, sharing music with others provides opportunities for communication and connection. In this talk, I will discuss research from my lab exploring how infants share musical moments with parents, siblings, grandparents, and their broader community. This research highlights how infants actively shape their musical environments, highlighting the reciprocal nature of musical engagement in early life. Bio: Dr. Laura Cirelli is an Assistant Professor in the Psychology Department at the University of Toronto Scarborough and the director of the TEMPO lab. Her research explores how infants direct prosociality toward musical partners, how infant-directed singing can influence the caregiver-infant relationship, and how rhythm perception and production develop across infancy and childhood. Her research has been recognized by international awards such as the ICIS Early Researcher Award, and her work has been featured on news outlets such as David Suzuki’s “The Nature of Things”, CBC, and National Public Radio’s “Hidden Brain”.