Makiko Sadakata is a lecturer at the musicology department of the University of Amsterdam. She is one of the core research members at the Music Cognition Group (MCG) at the Institute for Logic, Language and Computation. Her research revolves around the question of what music is to our mind and how it differs from other sounds, such as language and environmental sounds. To address this question she uses various methods, but mainly behavioural. Makiko is also involved in different research projects and topics with the keywords: sound learning, rhythm perception, and background music. Besides, Makiko enjoys teaching music cognition. She learns so much from preparing courses but also from supervising students. Currently, she is teaching several courses related to music cognition and research skills at the University of Amsterdam