THE SENSORY MUSIC PROJECT

Through my research at Stanford and Dartmouth I founded the Sensory Music Project. Approximately 1 in 200 people in the US alone have the multi-sensory condition known as Synesthesia. Synesthesia is described by Richard Cytowic as a “neurological quirk” that allows a trigger in one sense to be felt in another.  One of the most common forms of synesthesia is sound or music related. The current Synesthesia battery created in David Eagleman’s lab detects only one kind of sound related Synesthesia. There can be over 10 different kinds of sound related Synesthesias. The Sensory Music Project Test can detect all 10. 

 

I created a free software that is not only for synesthetes but for EVERYONE. Neuroscientists know that humans have specific associations to sound, whether its a memory or a dance move. The portions of the brain which enable hearing and sound processing are vastly interconnected and far-reaching thus, music and sound induce specific affects in humans. The Sensory Music Project is a software designed to allow everyone to explore their reactions to sound!

 

"THE SENSORY MUSIC PROJECT GIVES RESEARCHERS, STUDENTS AND ARTISTS THE TOOLS TO UNCOVER THEIR INNATE SENSORY ASSOCIATIONS TO MUSIC."

-JONATHAN BERGER, STANFORD

 

"Music is the code we can use to speak directly to our minds."

Music relays multi-modal information capable of transferring visual, motoric and auditory information to an information-plexus of the mind: the  fronto-temporo-parietal regions of the brain. In fact “One can think of music as a cognitive brain language, as it allows us to engage components of the mirror neuron system.”[Gottfried Schlaug]. The formulaic reputation accuracy protocols combined with a self-diagnostic formula, gives people the power to learn about music’s effect upon their own brains.