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Caroline Palmer

Academic title(s): 

Professor

Distinguished James McGill Professor in Cognitive Neuroscience of Performance

 

Contact Information:

 

Office: 2001 McGill College, Room 652
Phone: 514.398.5270
Email: caroline.palmer[at]mcgill.ca

 

Mailing Address:
Department of Psychology
2001 McGill College Avenue
7th Floor
Montreal, QC
H3A 1G1

 

Caroline Palmer
Link(s): 
Sequence Production Lab
Biography: 

Dr. Palmer is the Director of the NSERC-CREATE training grant in Complex Dynamics; an Associate Member of the Schulich School of Music; and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.

Research Areas:

Cognition & Cognitive Neuroscience | Behavioral Neuroscience

Research Summary:

From cradle to grave, people across all documented societies use music to soothe, to invigorate, to bond with others, and even to self-medicate. My research program focuses on how and why music moves us by studying how people make music, from simple rhythms to complex ensemble performances. Music, speech, and other auditory behaviors engage attention, intention, memory, motor control, and emotions. My research focuses on the time course of these processes. One theme addresses the nonlinear dynamics underlying the production of auditory sequences. Speech, music, and other human sounds follow predictable patterns or rhythmic regularities that can be modeled in terms of oscillations. We apply principles of nonlinear dynamics to understand how people move in response to sound (such as clapping or tapping their feet) and how they act in response to a partner in a joint task (such as musical ensemble). A second theme addresses the temporal coordination that underlies skilled performance, and properties of goal-directed movement that allow individuals to synchronize their actions with sensory feedback and with other individuals. See our lab website for more information.

Selected References:

Bégel, V., Demos, A.P., & Palmer, C. (2024) Duet synchronization interventions affect social interactions. Scientific Reports, 14(1), 9930. 

Wright, S.E., & Palmer, C. (2023) Auditory rhythm complexity affects cardiac dynamics in perception and synchronization. PLoS One, 18(11): e0293882. 

van Kerrebroeck, B., Wanderley, M.M., Demos, A.P., & Palmer, C. (2024). Human-machine trios show different tempo changes in musical tasks. In L. K. Samuelson, S. L. Frank, M. Toneva, A. Mackey, & E. Hazeltine (Eds.), Proceedings of the 46th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society.

Demos, A.P. & Palmer, C. (2023) Social and nonlinear dynamics unite: Musical group synchrony. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 11, 1008-1018.  

Palmer, C., & Demos, A.P. (2022). Are we in time? How predictive coding and dynamical systems explain musical synchrony. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 31, 147-153.

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