Music, Mind and Brain Goldsmiths, University of London

Overview

The Music, Mind and Brain programme, offered by Goldsmiths, University of London, is highly interdisciplinary and draws on expertise from leading figures in the field, in areas ranging from music cognition, cognitive neuroscience, computational modelling, music education and music therapy.

As a student on the MSc, you will learn about topics in music psychology (from perception to cognition) and the cognitive neuroscience of music, and will acquire all the necessary skills to pursue your own high-quality research.

The programme benefits from good links with institutions such as the Institute of Education, the Royal College of Music, and the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery.

What kind of project can I do?

We offer a range of research projects, drawing on a variety of approaches: behavioural, computational, neuroscientific. Students are also invited to propose a project of their own choice, providing appropriate supervision can be offered.

If a student has a contact with an external supervisor, it may be possible to arrange for project supervision outside Goldsmiths with the involvement of a faculty member as co-supervisor. Examples of previous projects include:

• Exploring Absolute Pitch in Children and Young People with Visual Impairment
• An fMRI Study Investigating how Music Impacts on the Perception of Emotion
• The Influence of Native Language on Rhythmic Grouping

• Neural Correlates of Melodic Expectancy

Careers

The programme will appeal to you if you are interested in pursuing doctoral research in this area or if you are already a music professional wishing to approach music scientifically. 

Graduates from the Music, Mind and Brain programme have gone on to work in one of the following areas:

• Academia: Either pursuing a PhD, working in research position or engaged with university-level teaching
• Music and media industry
• Music practitioner or performer
• Music teacher

Other careers that would be informed by this programme include music therapy, neuro-rehabilitation, music consultancy and music and adverstising.