Vision of UC MERCI

In the lives of most Californians, music is a seldom examined, little understood but omnipresent force shaping our thoughts, moods, aspirations, and even our purchasing behavior. Whether speeding or creeping on the I-5 freeway at rush hour, attending a social or religious function, or watching a movie or television show, Californians use music to intensify or communicate feelings, to enhance their sense of community. For many Californians, music lifts their mood as they perform uninviting tasks or face difficulties. Evidence is also steadily increasing that musical experience and training in childhood has general cognitive benefits and that music therapy can help those struggling with senility, recovering from brain injury, or attempting to walk normally while living with Parkinsons. Yet much basic research is needed to understand what aspects of musical experience convey these benefits remains to be accomplished.

Better understanding of how we make and experience music, and how music communicates to us so effectively, can provide basic tools to make both music entertainment and therapies more effective, and can also drive innovations in digital technology. Southern California is a long-term hub for use of music in movies and television, while Northern California is a new hub for another highly technical and growing industry: online music selection and recommendation. Nonetheless, we have relatively little basic scientific understanding of or even detailed data about the intimate relationships nearly all of us experience between music itself and our mental and supporting brain and bodily processes, processes that allow music to be such an effective medium for communication and such a strong source of personal and collective comfort and inspiration. New tools and methods for active and detailed recording, analysis, and modeling of these relationships are just now becoming available. Yet, despite widespread recognition of music’s ubiquitous influence on the human mind, brain, and body, there are no American centers for the basic and applied scientific study of musical experience, communication, and behavior.

The MRPI Planning Grant funds will allow us to develop a multi-campus University of California initiative for collaborative research on human musical experience and communication using new, leading- edge tools for brain/body imaging and data mining. UC MERCI will catalyze, combine, and intensify internationally recognized though now geographically-dispersed and institutionally isolated basic research in University of California on the dynamics of brain and body interactions involved in music listening, composing, performance, memory, therapy, and learning. We plan to develop an active research community that makes available cutting-edge scientific resources and methods to both established and student UC researchers, building a UC research community that attracts both outstanding researchers and companies that seek to enhance music’s transformative potential for personal and social good.