Symposium: Interfacing Brain, Music, and Emotions

This symposium is aimed at discussing the state of the art in field of brain-computer music interfacing (BCMI). Scientists from the EPSRC-funded project ‘Brain-Computer Music Interface for Monitoring and Inducing Affective States’ join musicians and invited experts to review methods for analysis and monitoring of bioinformation associated with emotions, and techniques for generating music with a BCMI system aimed at inducing specific emotions on listeners.

The symposium forms part of the programme of the prestigious Peninsula Arts Contemporary Music Festival, now in its 10th year:


Peninsula Arts Contemporary Music Festival - 2015 from PACMF-2015 on Vimeo.

The full symposium program is available to view here. Tickets for the symposium are free but must be booked in advance.

Note: The symposium is now fully booked. No further tickets are available.

New journal article - Automated identification of neural correlates of continuous variables (Journal of Neuroscience Methods, Elsevier)

The BCMI-MIdAS team present a new paper in the current contents of Journal of Neuroscience Methods (Elsevier), discussing the development of a new method for identifying EEG correlates of continuous independent variables which outperforms canonical correlation analysis and common spatial patterns. 

The full paper can be viewed online first as of December 26th 2014 here.

Demonstration files accompanying the paper, including code and examples, can be downloaded under a GNU general public license from first author Ian Daly's personal website, here.

New journal article - Investigating music tempo as a feedback mechanism for closed-loop BCI control (Brain Computer Interfaces, Taylor & Francis)

The BCMI-MIdAS team present a new paper in the current contents of Brain Computer Interfaces (Taylor & Francis), discussing the use of tempo as a feedback mechanism for closed-loop BCI control.

The full paper can be viewed online first as of November 17th 2014 here.

New journal article - Investigating Affect in Algorithmic Composition Systems (Psychology of Music, SAGE)

The BCMI-MIdAS team present a new paper in the current contents of Psychology of Music (SAGE), discussing the use of affectively-driven algorithmic composition systems for induction and communication of emotions via music.

The full paper can be viewed by SAGE subscribers as of August 15th in the Online First section here.

New journal article – Neural correlates of emotional responses to music: An EEG study (Neuroscience Letters, Elsevier)

The BCMI-MIdAS team present a new paper in the current volume of Neuroscience Letters (Elsevier), revealing neural correlates of music-induced emotions.

The full paper can be viewed via Science Direct now.

Groundbreaking Music Neurotechnology project featured on BBC News Channel and BBC World News

Prof Eduardo Miranda and ICCMR engineer Joel Eaton demonstrate the Brain-Computer Music Interfacing system behind the composition "Activating Memory" for string quartet and BCMI quartet. Read more on the BBC webpages here

Project meeting, update, and first experiments

Below are some photos from the recent joint project meeting, where experimental work using synchronised fMRI and EEG brain scanning was used to evaluate music at the Reading laboratory. The photos show Plymouth research fellow, Dr Alexis Kirke, under the watchful eye of Dr Etienne Roesch and Dr Ian Daly from the Reading team:

- Dr Roesch and Dr Daly preparing the 64 channel EEG system

- Dr Kirke entering the scanner

- experiment in progress as participant evaluates music excerpts inside the fMRI scanner

Watch this space for more updates and results soon!