Roberta Bianco
@robertabianco.bsky.social
Associate professor Dept. of Translational Research & New Technologies in Medicine and Surgery, University of Pisa | Neuroscience, Audition, Music and Memory
Our new opinion piece with R. Zatorre and @giacomonovembre.bsky.social is out. We discuss four key steps toward understanding the evolutionary origins of human musicality ..🎶
Trends in Cognitive Sciences@cp-trendscognsci.bsky.social · 2w agoOnline Now: Four missing keystones in the evolutionary origins of music
out now in Science: @loganjames.bsky.social collected pairs of sounds in 16 species where we *know* which sound is more attractive (to that species) he played them to ppl on themusiclab.org, asking, in each pair, which was nicer. humans agreed w other animals doi.org/10.1126/science.aea1202
‘Part of our biological toolkit’: newborn babies can anticipate rhythm in music, researchers find
‘Part of our biological toolkit’: newborn babies can anticipate rhythm in music, researchers find
Brain activity suggests newborns can detect and predict patterns relating to rhythm, study says Newborn babies can anticipate rhythm in pieces of music, researchers have discovered, offering insights into a fundamental human trait. Babies in the womb begin to respond to music by about eight or nine months, as shown by changes in their heart rate and body movements, said Dr Roberta Bianco, the first author of the research who is based at the Italian Institute of Technology in Rome. Continue reading...
theguardian.com
Here is our latest work on newborns and music perception!
PLOS Biology@plosbiology.org · 6mo agoDoes our very human ability to anticipate #musical structure exist at birth? @robertabianco.bsky.social @giacomonovembre.bsky.social &co show that #newborns encode #rhythmic (but not melodic) expectations based on statistical regularities in real #music @plosbiology.org plos.io/4kqKVWg
The University of Pisa (PI Paola Binda) is recruiting two PhD candidates in the MSCA network indibrain.eu. Neuroscience students with an interest for the sensory brain are particularly encouraged to apply (webform: apply.workable.com/umcg1/j/5CA7...). .
Characterizing individual brain differences to advance personalized diagnosis, treatment, and sustainable healthcare
indibrain.eu
How does the brain track patterns 🎶 in a noisy world 🔊? How does it choose when to reset its memory and when to carry it forward? We provide some answers in this new work by @kahomagami.bsky.social that I co-authored with @mariachait.bsky.social, Marcus Pearce and Edward Hall!
Kaho Magami@kahomagami.bsky.social · 8mo agoDoes the brain always rely on all past information when predicting what comes next? My first first-author paper is out! 🎉 A work with @robertabianco.bsky.social @EdwardHall @MarcusPearce and @mariachait.bsky.social onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
We are remarkably good at recognizing natural auditory “textures”, such as the soothing sound of a running brook or fire crackling in a chimney. But do you think you could remember the exact rain texture that opens “Riders on the Storm”?
Do you think you could remember the exact rain texture that opens “Riders on the Storm”? We showed that the answer may be a surprising “yes” – at least in some circumstances. Check our new work with @Bastug, @Rajendran, @Agus @Chait @Pressnitzer doi.org/10.1016/j.co...
a painting of rain drops falling on a tiled floor by duc-koolh
ALT: a painting of rain drops falling on a tiled floor by duc-koolh
media.tenor.com
What happens in the brain when we manipulate our thoughts? We asked 30 epilepsy patients to mentally invert short melodies. Intracerebral #iEEG recordings suggest brain synchrony and sensory inhibition are key for mental manipulation: doi.org/10.1101/2025... #neuroskyence #musicscience
Brain Dynamics of Mental Manipulation
Humans effortlessly juggle their internal thoughts, but the neuronal dynamics that support mental manipulation are largely unknown. Leveraging the high spatiotemporal fidelity of intracranial recordin...
doi.org
Postdoc position on multi brain stimulation in Rome in an amazing lab!! Do apply!!!
Giacomo Novembre@giacomonovembre.bsky.social · 10mo agoI’m looking for a postdoc to join my lab and work on Multi-Brain Stimulation (MBS). Learn more about the project and how to apply below 👇 This position is funded by the @erc.europa.eu Reposts are very welcome 🙏 #Postdoc #Neuroscience #BrainStimulation #EEG #SocialNeuroscience
Check out our new preprint on how infants respond to music over the first year of life! 👶🧠💃🎶 While neural responses are pretty much ready to go in the youngest, moving to music takes a bit longer, becoming more complex and potentially more dance-like by 12 months. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Development of Auditory and Spontaneous Movement Responses to Music over the First Year of Life
Humans across cultures not only share the ability to recognise music but also respond to it through movement. While the sensory encoding of music is well-studied, when and how infants naturally start ...
biorxiv.org
Our new MEG preprint on Building&Updating Predictive Models in auditory sequences 🧠🔊 ✅ auditory-frontal areas & #hippocampus drive adaptive perception with Maria Chait, M Pearce, K Magami @UCL #Neuroscience #PredictiveProcessing #StatisticalLearning #BrainResearch #AuditoryPerception #musicscience
bioRxiv Neuroscience@biorxiv-neursci.bsky.social · last yr.Discovery, Interruption, and Updating of Auditory Regularities in Memory: Evidence from Low-Frequency Brain Dynamics in Human MEG https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.28.645906v1
Flexible tapping synchronization in macaques: dynamic switching of timing strategies within rhythmic sequences https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.27.645824v1
Here it is our new preprint on neural encoding of musical expectations in newborns! in collaboration with B. Toth & I. Winkler's hungrain team and @giacomonovembre.bsky.social 's NPAlab check it out 👇 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... #musicscience #Neuroscience #MusicCognition #Neurodevelopment
Fantastic opportunity to work on music and the brain!
Giacomo Novembre@giacomonovembre.bsky.social · last yr.🚨 We’re hiring! 🚨 A postdoc position is available at my lab (npa.iit.it) in Rome! Join us to explore: 🎵 Neural bases of musicality (humans, infants, macaques) 💃🕺 Dance & joint music-making 🤝 Spontaneous social behavior ⬇️ Apply through the link below! ⬇️
🚨 We’re hiring! 🚨 A postdoc position is available at my lab (npa.iit.it) in Rome! Join us to explore: 🎵 Neural bases of musicality (humans, infants, macaques) 💃🕺 Dance & joint music-making 🤝 Spontaneous social behavior ⬇️ Apply through the link below! ⬇️
How well can video-based methods estimate body kinematics? In my recent paper with @giacomonovembre.bsky.social, we show that accuracy of one such method (OpenPose) varied substantially across subjects & body parts. Interestingly, this accuracy strongly depended on the movement amplitude. t.ly/4Tlnc
How accurately can we estimate spontaneous body kinematics from video recordings? Effect of movement amplitude on OpenPose accuracy - Behavior Research Methods
Estimating how the human body moves in space and time—body kinematics—has important applications for industry, healthcare, and several research fields. Gold-standard methodologies capturing body kinem...
t.ly
New paper from our lab, by Mark Saddler, using machine learning to test the role of temporal coding in hearing. Here is a quick summary. (1/n) www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Models optimized for real-world tasks reveal the task-dependent necessity of precise temporal coding in hearing - Nature Communications
Ears encode sound with precisely timed spikes, but the perceptual role of this temporal coding remains uncertain. Here, the authors report that high-fidelity temporal coding is necessary for neural ne...
nature.com
Open-source software allows the calibration of eye trackers for subjects who can't follow instructions (infants, primates). Extension to Titta toolbox uses attention-grabbing videos for calibration, tested successfully with chimps, baboons & macaques link.springer.com/article/10.3...
Enhancing eye tracking for nonhuman primates and other subjects unable to follow instructions: Adaptive calibration and validation of Tobii eye trackers with the Titta toolbox - Behavior Research Meth...
Accurate eye tracking is crucial for gaze-dependent research, but calibrating eye trackers in subjects who cannot follow instructions, such as human infants and nonhuman primates, presents a challenge...
link.springer.com
Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews Emotions in multi-brain dynamics: A promising research frontier www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Emotions in multi-brain dynamics: A promising research frontier
Emotions drive and influence social interactions. Actions and reactions driven by emotions are dynamically modulated by continuous feedback loops betw…
sciencedirect.com
Fascinating work from Andrea Migliano’s group, out in Science, on cultural evolution, showing how population connectivity shapes the distribution and complexity of chimpanzee cumulative culture (Congrats @ceciliapad.bsky.social & colleagues not yet on this platform) www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Population connectivity shapes the distribution and complexity of chimpanzee cumulative culture
Although cumulative culture is a hallmark of hominin evolution, its origins can be traced back to our common ancestor with chimpanzees. Here, we investigated the evolutionary origins of chimpanzee cum...
science.org
We are recruiting postdocs! Want to grow your own social networks to study creativity, cultural evolution & decision-making? We are hiring an NSF-funded postdoc at Cornell in collaboration with UC Davis, CUNY, & Princeton. Apply here : academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/28959
Great musicians have a unique style and, with training, humans can learn to distinguish between these styles. What is this based on? royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/... Also see huwcheston.github.io/Jazz-Trio-Da...
Join the #musicscience community here #musicskyence !!!
David R. Quiroga-Martinez 🧠👂🎵🎸🇨🇴🕺@dquiroga.bsky.social · 2y agoFor all the newcomers, here is a starter pack of people to follow on #musicscience, music cognition and related topics. just comment below if you want to be added! go.bsky.app/4oZbDpj #musicskyence
Done with Twitter. Just hopped onto #Bluesky🌤️ —find me and I’ll follow back. 🎶💡 #MusicScience, #auditoryscience, #neuroscience
