Music Cognition Group

The Music Cognition Group (MCG) is part of the Department of Musicology, the Institute for Logic, Language and Computation (ILLC), and Amsterdam Brain and Cognition (ABC) of the University of Amsterdam (UvA) and is housed at LAB42, Science Park Amsterdam.

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Our research offers interdisciplinary perspectives on the capacity to perceive, make, and appreciate music (‘musicality’ for short). It asks what music is for and why every human culture has it, whether musicality is a uniquely human capacity, and what biological and cognitive mechanisms underlie it.

The current research program aims to identify the basic mechanisms that constitute the cognitive and biological basis of musicality, as well as developing theoretical, computational and empirical methods for analyzing various musicality phenotypes.

Meet our researchersResearch agendaMedia attention
Universiteit van AmsterdamAmsterdam Music LabMusic Cognition Reading GroupMusicality Genomics ConsortiumToontjeHoger

What is music cognition?

We are all born with a predisposition for music, a predisposition that develops spontaneously and is refined by listening to music. Nearly everyone possesses the musical skills essential to experiencing and appreciating music. Think of “relative pitch,” recognizing a melody separately from the exact pitch or tempo at which it is sung, and “beat perception,” hearing regularity in a varying rhythm. Even human newborns turn out to be sensitive to intonation or melody, rhythm, and the dynamics of the sounds in their surroundings. Everything suggests that human biology is already primed for music at birth with respect to both the perception and enjoyment of listening.

Human musicality is clearly special; Musicality being a set of natural, spontaneously developing traits based on, and constrained by, our cognitive abilities (attention, memory, expectation) and our biological predisposition. But what makes it special? Is it because we appear to be the only animals with such a vast musical repertoire? Is our musical predisposition unique, like our linguistic ability? Or is musicality something with a long evolutionary history that we share with other animals? (Honing, 2019).

Latest news

Lecture by Rakhat-Bi Abdyssagin (organised by ILLC , MCG and Vossius Center)
Lecture by Rakhat-Bi Abdyssagin (organised by ILLC , MCG and Vossius Center)
9 Oct 2024
Henkjan Honing receives SMPC Lifetime Achievement Award
Henkjan Honing receives SMPC Lifetime Achievement Award
31 Jul 2024
Do you know a parrot that talks or sings?
Do you know a parrot that talks or sings?
13 Jul 2024
Workshop on the Evolution of Musicality
Workshop on the Evolution of Musicality
22 Mar 2024
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Latest publications

Corcoran, K., du Mérac, T. R., Johnson, F., Burgoyne, J. A., Honing, H., Ruderfer, D. M., Lense, M., & Gordon, R. L. (2024). Linking a musical memory gamified task to large-scale health data via electronic health records: A feasibility study in a clinic waiting room. https://neuromusic.fondazione-mariani.org
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Media attention

Henkjan Honing ontvangt Lifetime Achievement AwardNPO Radio 4
Onderzoek naar popmuziek, melodieën zijn in afgelopen zeventig jaar steeds simpeler gewordenVolkskrant
Why do humans sing? ヒトはなぜ歌うのかNHK | Frontiers
We Were Born to Groove - narrated by Fat TonyNautilus
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Music Matters

Latest posts from Henkjan Honing’s blog Music Matters

Musical Animals: Are We? Can There Be?
Musical Animals: Are We? Can There Be?
29 Sep 2024
Do you know a parrot that talks or sings?
Do you know a parrot that talks or sings?
13 Jul 2024
Ben jij muzikaal? [Dutch]
Ben jij muzikaal? [Dutch]
15 Jun 2024
Why do humans sing? |ヒトはなぜ歌うのか
Why do humans sing? |ヒトはなぜ歌うのか
12 Jun 2024
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