In the autumn series of the B-AIR Soundings, we continue our reflection on the role of the sound world and the auditory channel for the perception, cognition, communication and socialisation in human development, health and illness. Music is a cross-cultural phenomenon with the power to awaken and channel our emotions. Understanding how the brain perceives it and how it influences our feelings and perceptions is a topic that has attracted tremendous attention in neuroscience over the last decades. The research findings gathered so far provide convincing evidence that music-assisted therapeutic interventions can have positive effects for a variety of diagnoses, such as e.g. dementia, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's or substance abuse disorders, while promoting holistic, lifelong healthy human development.
The B-AIR Soundings broadcasts offer insights into the latest developments, research results, practical examples and open questions and challenges being addressed by different segments of the profession. This week's guest will be prof. Peter Vuust, neuropediatrician and head of the Centre for Music in the Brain, which he initiated as the first European research facility of its kind, in partnership with the Department of Clinical Medicine of the Faculty of Medicine and the Royal Academy of Music in Aarhus. He is an active jazz musician – double bassist, professor of music theory and "listening skills", mathematician and neuroscientist, so he was the right man for the job; and with a bit of luck he succeeded in it, too. In June, he chaired the 7th NeuroMusic Congress also attended by three Slovenian collaborators of the B-AIR project. The event will be discussed in our other radio programs, but today let's get to know prof. Peter Vuust personally, in his interview with head physician, neuropediatrician Igor M. Ravnik. You're kindly invited to tune in.
