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NEWS & RESOURCES

Read our latest findings on physiological predictors of mental coping during COVID-19

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Inspired by creative efforts of people around the world to reproduce music-making together while social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers from Bar-Ilan University in Israel and the University of Chicago fused the latest advances in social neuroscience and the field of music, including evolutionary theory, and highlighted five key functions and mechanisms of the brain that contribute to social connection through music.

Background artwork: Bryan Christie Design Overlay design: Dr. David M. Greenberg

Read our latest paper on "The social neuroscience of music" published in American Psychologist

Music is a tool that has accompanied our evolutionary journey and provided a sense of comfort and social connection for millennia. New research p provides a neuroscientific understanding of the social connection with a new map of the brain when playing music.

Electronic Drum Set

Physiological and Behavioral Synchrony Predict Group Cohesion and Performance

Our latest research on the consequences of physiological synchrony during group drumming has just been published with @SpringerNature in @Scientific Reports:

  https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-65670-1#citeas

Our research article "Physiological and Behavioral Synchrony Predict Group Cohesion and Performance" received 4,129 article downloads in 2020, placing it as one of the top 100 downloaded neuroscience papers for Scientific Reports in 2020.


The Social Neuroscience
 
of Music

Have you wondered why people all around the world are singing together online during social distancing?

 

Well we’ve got some answers.

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My colleague David M. Greenberg and I wrote an article published in The Conversation about the social neuroscience of singing. Enjoy!

Watch us online

Scientific lectures and  media appearances 

ENTWINE 
The European Training Network on Informal Care

Our lab is a part of a network studying the psychological and technological challenges of informal care

OXYTOCIN MODULATES BRAIN FUNCTION IN CHILDREN WITH AUTISM

A single dose of the hormone oxytocin, delivered via nasal spray, has been shown to enhance brain activity while processing social information in children with autism spectrum disorders, Yale School and Bar-Ilan researchers report in two studies published in 2013 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and 2016 in Scientific Reports.

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http://www.pnas.org/content/110/52/20953.long

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https://www.nature.com/articles/srep35054

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THE PHYSIOLOGICAL BASIS OF GROUP INTERACTIONS - PRESENTATION AT THE KAVLI FRONTIERS OF SCIENCE MEETING, 2017 - CA, USA

Bonds are a cornerstone of the human experience. People are fundamentally social creatures, highly motivated to be with others and to create affiliations. Inter-connections are also a fundamental feature of the brain’s structure and function  Neuroscientists are also calling to examine neurophysiological systems during interactive states in order to better identify and accurately describe networks that activate in naturalistic shared settings.

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Sparklers

OXYTOCIN IN PARENTING

Biological Psychiatry, 2010- The hormone oxytocin has come under intensive study in light of emerging evidence that its release contributes to the social bonding that occurs between lovers, friends, and colleagues. Oxytocin also plays an important role in birth and maternal behavior, but until now, research had never addressed the involvement of oxytocin in the transition to fatherhood.

Baby Holding Parent

WORKSHOP REPORT ON BIOMARKERS FOR AUTISM; SIMONS FOUNDATION OCTOBER 2011

Researchers can use biomarkers as measures to test the efficacy of therapies in early-stage trials. During July 2011, SFARI held an informal meeting of minds at Stony Brook University in New York to discuss early-efficacy biomarkers for autism. The goal was to provoke discussion about potential biomarkers and to build and strengthen collaborations among attendees.

Robotic Lab Assistant

OXYTOCIN MODULATES CHARISMATIC INFLUENCE IN GROUPS

Published in Journal of Experimental Psychology: General , October 2017 in collaboration with Prof. Yair Berson, this paper describes how oxytocin enhanced the effects of three common manifestations of charismatic signaling—verbal behaviors, nonverbal behaviors, and followers’ perceptions of the confederate’s charisma—on classic outcomes of charismatic influence.

Pencil Bunch
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