Multimodal Cortical Plasticity and Musical Training

Dr. Christo Pantev is Head of the Institute for Biomagnetism and Biosignalanalysis, University of Münster, Germany. Prof. Pantev’s scientific research, aimed at three major topics, address vital theoretical and clinical issues. The majority of this research has been done with international collaborators.

1. The functional organization and plasticity of cortical structures, with the objective of understanding organizational and re-organizational cortical and sub-cortical mechanisms in the auditory and somatosensory systems in humans, induced by deafferentation (amputees, blind people, and patients with cochlear implants) as well as very intense skill training (musicians).

2. Oscillatory (evoked, induced and steady-state) brain dynamics in the visual, auditory and somatosensory modalities with respect to cognitive processes.

3. Analysis of temporal structures in the central auditory system with respect to language and music

Expertise

Neurophysiology
EEG and MEG
Event-related transient and steady state potentials and fields
Functional organization and reorganization of cortical structures
Induced brain activity and oscillatory brain dynamics
Perception of spectral and virtual pitch
Time processing in the central auditory system
Neurophysiological basics of music
Cortical plasticity and music
Multimodal cortical plasticity
MEG-fMRI integration

RELATED EVENT:

Prof. Christo Pantev will also be giving a lecture at the MNI on Thursday, April 23rd at 1:30 pm.

Title: “Lateral Inhibition and Spectral vs. Temporal Coding in the Human Auditory Cortex”

Where: Montreal Neurological Institute (MNI)

3801 University Street (north of Pine Avenue)

McGill University campus

Room: Webster 201