Principal Investigator
Robert Zatorre, Ph.D.
Robert Zatorre is a full professor in the department of neurology and neurosurgery, and holds a Canada Research Chair in Auditory Cognitive Neuroscience at the Montreal Neurological Institute of McGill University. His laboratory studies the neural substrates of auditory cognition, with special emphasis on the most complex and characteristically human uses of sound: speech and music. His group has published over 350 scientific papers which have been very highly cited (>86,000 citations; h-index 145). His work takes advantage of a wide range of complementary neuroimaging techniques (PET, fMRI, MEG, EEG), along with brain stimulation and behavioral paradigms including psychophysics.
Among his major contributions is work on hemispheric specialization, where his team developed an important model of how temporal and spectral features of sound explain lateralization for speech and for musical processing. He has also made major contributions to understanding the neural substrates of auditory imagery. His team also discovered the existence of voice-sensitive auditory cortical areas. In addition he and his students have carried out important work on music production, which required the development of innovative devices, such as the world’s only MRI-compatible cello. He has also contributed to understanding the anatomical and functional plasticity of auditory pathways in relation to training or sensory loss. Finally, in a series of major papers over the past two decades his group was the first to discover the role of the reward system in mediating musical pleasure, and further demonstrated that it relies on dopaminergic neurotransmission; these findings have had a major impact in the scientific community and have raised considerable interest outside academia as well.
Current work in his lab emphasizes novel methodologies, including machine learning and network analysis, to better understand the mechanisms behind the phenomena. With his collaborators he has also been developing more active interventional protocols to modify, not just measure brain function. For instance a series of recent papers showed how auditory working memory and musical reward reward responses can be enhanced with brain stimulation. Another collaboration focuses on using music neurofeedback to improve regulation of reward activity. Yet another uses vibrotactile stimulation to enhance auditory perception in hearing-impaired listeners.
In 2006, with Prof Isabelle Peretz he co-founded the international laboratory for Brain, Music, and Sound research (BRAMS), a unique multi-university consortium dedicated to the cognitive neuroscience of music, which he continues to co-direct and which has received over 20M C$ in funding. The establishment of BRAMS, together with his contributions to organizing regular international meetings on music and neuroscience in collaboration with the Mariani Foundation of Italy have created a thriving environment for this research.
One of Dr Zatorre’s most important contributions has been the training of over 50 PhD students and postdocs, many of whom have now established independent careers of their own at prestigious institutions throughout the world (Canada, USA, China, Japan, Denmark, France, Austria, Germany, Spain, Israel, etc).
Postdoctoral Researchers
Etienne Abassi, Ph.D.
Etienne holds an M.Sc. degree in Neurosciences and Behavioral Sciences from the University of Caen, as well as a B.Sc. degree in Psychology and Neuropsychology from the University of Montpellier. Following that, he pursued a Ph.D. at the Institute of Cognitive Neurosciences Marc Jeannerod ( University of Lyon). In December 2022, he joined the Auditory Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory as a Postdoctoral Fellow, where his research focuses on the processing of verbal and musical social exchanges in the auditory cortex. His research methods encompass fMRI and behavioral approaches, complemented by the application of machine learning tools. In his free time, he is also an accordion player and an electronic music producer.
Graduate Students
Isabelle Arseneau-Bruneau
Isabelle investigates the neuroplasticity mechanisms related to musical training from the fundamental level of auditory processing. A particular benefit occurs in the frequency following response (FFR), an electrophysiological measure that indexes the quality of the neural representation of auditory inputs (e.g., speech or music). This neural signal provides insights into how accurately the brain encodes key features of sounds, and can thus serve as a biomarker of enhanced or disturbed processing. Isabelle’s research at the lab examines the influence of sensory-motor and predictive mechanisms on the FFR. She uses several neuroimaging methods (EEG, MEG, MRI, TMS) as well as behavioral measures, although she has been focusing on machine learning technique since the COVID-19 pandemic. Isabelle’s work is supported by the Fonds Québécois de Recherche en Santé (FQRS), the Center for Research on the Brain, Language and Music (CRBLM), and the Center for Interdisciplinary Research on Music, Media and Technology (CIRMMT). Previously, Isabelle completed a Master’s in Music & Human Learning at the University of Texas at Austin (2017) and worked as a research assistant at the SoundBrain Lab supervised by Dr. Bharath Chandrasekaran. Classically trained on the trumpet, she earned Music degrees from the Conservatoires de musique et d’art dramatique du Québec (2009), Laval University (2015), and pursued graduate studies in performance at The Glenn Gould School of the Royal Conservatory of Music of Toronto (2009–2010).
Miyoung Chung
Miyoung obtained her Bachelor’s Degree in Electrical Engineering (2020), and Master’s degree in Biomedical Engineering (2022) at Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) in South Korea. She joined the lab as a Ph.D. student in September 2022. Her thesis for her Master’s degree was about decoding individual musical pitch imagery from a human scalp Electroencephalogram (EEG) and the development of a real-time neurofeedback system, conducted at the Brain-Computer Interface Lab (BCILAB). Currently, her study is focused on inducing pure musical pitch imagery signal from EEG and MEG recording, finding a component that encodes individual pitch information for both perception and imagery and eventually studying the training effect in musical pitch ability using the real-time neurofeedback system.
Marcel Farrés Franch
Marcel completed his bachelor’s degree in Audiovisual Systems Engineering (2014) and a master’s degree in Brain and Cognition (2015) at Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Barcelona, Spain). In his bachelor’s thesis he explored the link between mood and music emotional content using an interface that gave real-time visual feedback of EEG activity and song dynamics while playing personal selected music previously classified by mood. His master’s thesis was conducted at the Multisensory Research Group (part of the Center for Brain and Cognition) where he studied the on-line alpha phase/power direct influence on the perception of a visual stimulus at threshold level using EEG signals. To achieve it, he implemented real-time brain analysis and stimulus synchronization framework. Now he is creating the Open Multimodal Music and Auditory Brain Archive (OMMABA) for his PhD thesis in a joint project with Western University. OMMABA is a multimodal behavioural and neuroimaging dataset characterizing healthy human auditory processing. This open dataset will allow researchers to address individual differences in auditory cognitive skills across brain functions and structures. This dataset will also serve as a baseline for comparison with clinical populations. Outside the university he likes to play the tenor saxophone, enjoys woodworking, and does castells, traditional Catalan human towers. He also loves letting innovative ideas come to life by participating in hackathons and other events.
Alumni
Graduate Students
Oscar Bedford (2026)
Arielle Rabinowitz (2025)
Niels Disbergen (2020); Maastricht University, The Netherlands, co-supervised by Dr. Elia Formisano
Software Engineer, Private sector, Eindhoven, The Netherlands
Website
Reiko Matsushita (2020)
Research Technician, Okinawa Institute of Technology, Japan
ResearchGate
Melanie Segado (2019)
Research Officer, National Research Council of Canada
LinkedIn
Benjamin Gold (2019)
Postdoctoral Fellow, Vanderbilt University, Memphis TN, USA
Website
Emily Coffey (2016)
Assistant Professor of Psychology, Concordia University, Canada
Website
Kuwook Cha (2016)
Martha Shiell (2015)
Staff Scientist, Oticon Foundation, Copenhagen, Denmark
Website
Michael Klein (2014)
Data Analyst, Private sector, Seattle WA, USA
LinkedIn
Mary Elizabeth Sutherland (2014)
Editor, Nature, New York, USA
Website
Valorie Salimpoor (2012)
Neuroscience Consultant, Cignition
LinkedIn
Jung-Kyong Kim (2010)
Clinical Research Coordinator, Ottawa Hospital, Canada
LinkedIn
Nicholas E. V. Foster (2010)
Research Associate, Université de Montréal, Canada
ResearchGate
Jean Mary Zarate (2009)
Senior Editor, Nature Neuroscience, New York, USA
ResearchGate
Patrick Bermudez (2008)
Research Associate, Montreal Neurological Institute, Canada
ResearchGate
Joyce L. Chen (2008)
Assistant Professor of Kinesiology, University of Toronto, Canada
Website
Frédéric Gougoux (2007)l Université de Montréal, co-supervised by Dr. Franco Lepore
Psychologist, Institut de réadaptation de Montréal, Canada
ResearchGate
Jennifer A Johnson (2006)
Professor of Psychology, Bloomsburg University, Pennsylvania, USA
LinkedIn
E. J. Nikelski (2005)
Raquel Dorsaint-Pierre (2005)
Narly Golestani (2001)
Associate Professor, University of Geneva, Switzerland
Website
Catherine Warrier (2000)
Séverine Samson (1989)
Professor of Psychology, Université de Lille III, France
Website
Postdoctoral Fellows
Alberto Ara Romero (2022-2026)
Jaume I University, Castellón, Spain
Mor Regev (2016-2019)
Private sector, London UK
Andréanne Sharpe, Ph.D. (2019-2020)
Assistant Professor, Laval University, Québec, Canada
LinkedIn
Neomi Singer, Ph.D. (2018-2020)
Research Associate, Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, Israel
Estrid Jakobsen, Ph.D. (2016-2019)
RBIQ Communications Director, Montreal, Canada
LinkedIn
Sebastian Puschmann, Ph.D. (2015)
Research Associate, Carl von Ossietzky University, Oldenburg, Germany
Google Scholar
Ernest Mas-Herrero, Ph.D. (2015-2019)
Research Fellow, University of Barcelona, Spain
Google Scholar
Philippe Albouy, Ph.D. (2014-2019)
Assistant Professor of Psychology, Laval University, Québec, Canada
Website
Vesa Putkinen, Ph.D. (2016)
Assistant Professor, University of Jyvaskyla, Finland
Indiana Wollman, Ph.D. (2015-2017)
Director of Research, Philharmonie de Paris, France
Yi Du, Ph.D. (2015 – 2016)
Research Professor, Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing, China
ResearchGate
Serin Atiani, Ph.D. (2011-2015)
Assistant Professor, King Hussein School of Computing Sciences, Amman, Jordan
Website
Krystyna Grabski, Ph.D. (2013-2014)
Private Sector, Norkopping, Sweden
LinkedIn
Patrice Voss, Ph.D. (2008-2014)
Research Associate, Montreal Neurological Institute, Canada
LinkedIn
Sibylle Herholz, Ph.D. (2010-2012)
Research Fellow, German Center for Rehabilitation, Bonn, Germany
Google Scholar
Jamila Andoh, Ph.D. (2009-2011)
Deputy Head of Research Group, Hector Institute for Translational Brain Research, Mannheim University, Germany
Website
François Champoux, Ph.D. (2008- 2010)
Associate Professor of Audiology, Université de Montréal, Canada
Website
Boris Kleber, Ph.D. (2009-2011)
Assistant Professor, Aarhus University, Denmark
Website
Shahin Zangenehpour, Ph.D. (2004-2008)
Staff Software Engineer, Walmart Labs
LinkedIn
Marc Schönwiesner, Ph.D. (2005-2008)
Associate Professor, University of Leipzig, Germany
Website
Karine Delhommeau, Ph.D. (2003-2005)
Chef de projet, L’Oréal, Paris, France
LinkedIn
Caroline Bey, Ph.D. (2000-2001)
Enseignant-Chercheure, Université de Aix-en-Provence, France
Anne J. Blood, Ph.D. (2000)
Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard University Medical School, Boston MA, USA
Google Scholar
Pascal Belin, Ph.D. (1997-2001)
Professor of Psychology, Université Aix-Marseille, France
ResearchGate
Véronique Bohbot, Ph.D. (1997-1998); co-supervised by Dr. Michael Petrides
Professor of Psychiatry, Douglas Hospital Research Center, Montreal, Canada
Website
Chris Westbury, Ph.D.(1995-1996)
Professor of Psychology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada
Website
Punita Singh, Ph.D. (1993-1994); co-supervised by Dr. Albert Bregman
Researcher in Private Sector, India
David Perry, Ph.D. (1991-1996)
Clinical Neuropsychology, University of California San Francisco Medical Centre, USA
ResearchGate
Todd Mondor, Ph.D. (1992-1994)
Professor of Psychology, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada
Website