Meet professor, brain researcher and jazz musician Peter Vuust, as he talks about the neuro-music research that has made the Center for Music in the Brain – one of the faculty's two basic research centres – world famous. And enjoy a little double bass at the same time.

2020.09.16 | Sabina Bjerre Hansen (tekst) og Jonathan Bjerg Møller (video)

Peter Vuust is a brain researcher, mathematics nerd and professional jazz musician. This special cross-disciplinary combination is one reason why the research that he and his colleagues carry out is internationally recognised. Photo: Jonathan Bjerg Møller/Health Communication.

Not so long ago, community singing brought Danes together around their televisions Friday after Friday. Music became one of the focal points for a sense of national togetherness, and despite the pandemic and its serious consequences, brain researcher Peter Vuust takes note that the corona crisis had at least one positive effect.

Music brings us together

"The corona crisis has given us a new awareness of our relationship to music. Music brings us together, creates a sense of community and gives us a feeling of being part of something bigger. Our research into how music affects our brains has hardly been more topical or relevant than it is now," he says.

Peter Vuust has just received grant number two, this time for DKK 46 million, for his pet project, the Center for Music in the Brain (MIB). He does not find it at all surprising that music can do something special – also in a time of crisis.

"Historically, we’ve used music to create a sense of community. This was the case during World War II, and it’s the same again with the corona pandemic. That's what music can do, and it may be the biological reason for why we have music. Music gives us a sense of togetherness, of not being alone in the world," he says.

We can stimulate motor function, emotions and thoughts via music

"We’ve known for a long time that music has an effect on our brains. But its only now that we’re finding out why. That is, why our brains do what they do. This is very interesting in relation to e.g. helping patients with better pain relief by stimulating specific areas of the brain using music and thereby shifting focus from the pain," says Peter Vuust.

The DKK 46 million from the Danish National Research Foundation secures the continuation of the Center for Music in the Brain at Aarhus University and the Royal Academy of Music for another five years. With the new grant, the researchers at MIB, including musicians, psychologists, medical doctors and natural science researchers, now have the opportunity to expand the research field from an individual to a collective level.

Do brains become synchronized when musicians play together? If so, how does this take place in practice? To find out, the researchers plan to scan the brains of musicians while they are playing together to discover whether their brains become 'socially harmonised', and whether musicians think and feel the same while playing.

Research with great potential for patients

Peter Vuust has spent almost two decades carrying out research into how music is processed in the brain and attempting to convert this into new knowledge about brain function that medical doctors can use to develop and optimise the treatment of a number of diseases.

The research is e.g. relevant for rehabilitation after strokes, stimulating movement for patients with Parkinson’s disease, pain management, improving sleep quality and in connection with autism or ADHD.

Read more about Music in the Brain’s new grant in the article “Professor with music on the brain receives DKK 46 million towards basic research”.

Contact

Centre Director, Professor and PhD Peter Vuust
Aarhus University, Department of Clinical Medicine - Center for Music in the Brain and
The Royal Academy of Music
Mobile: (+45) 27 11 94 71
Email: pv@musikkons.dk