Centre for Research on Brain, Language and Music

Sex Differences and Alzheimer's Risk

Mehrgol Tiv — Tue, 29 Jul 2025 17:27:12 +0000

According to the Alzheimer’s Association, one in nine people aged 65 years and older has Alzheimer’s dementia. What factors predict whether someone is likely to get Alzheimer’s in older age? Researchers at 91˿��Ƶ, the Douglas Institute Research Centre, University of Toronto, Rotman Research Institute, Linköping University, and the Center for Research on Brain, Language, and Music found that among people with a certain gene form and family history of Alzheimer’s, women may be more at risk than men with similar profiles.

Official and Family Language Policy in Quebec

Mehrgol Tiv — Tue, 29 Jul 2025 17:29:19 +0000

How do parents raise their children with more than one language in Montréal, Québec? Through a series of interviews, researchers at 91˿��Ƶ, Concordia University, Fryske Akademy, and the Center for Research on Brain, Language, and Music found that some household language practices and beliefs align with Québec’s language policies whereas others differ.

How Do Students Learn a Second Language in the Classroom?

Mehrgol Tiv — Tue, 29 Jul 2025 17:08:10 +0000

How do students learn a second language in the classroom? Researchers at l’Université du Québec à Montréal and the Centre for Research on Brain, Language and Music found that English second language students do not make many spontaneous, conscious connections from their first language, French, when completing a language task in English.

Learning to Read, Autism Spectrum Disorder, and Hyperlexia

Mehrgol Tiv — Tue, 29 Jul 2025 17:14:39 +0000

For many, learning to read opens an endless world of possibilities. But how do children pick up this skill, particularly for those who have a developmental disorder? Researchers at 91˿��Ƶ and the Center for Research on Brain, Language, and Music found that some children with autism spectrum disorder who demonstrate exceptionally strong word readings skills early in life may be using a different process for reading than neurotypical children.

Music and Language Training

Mehrgol Tiv — Tue, 29 Jul 2025 17:38:48 +0000

The structure of a person’s brain is determined by their genes before they are born. However, as a person interacts with their environment throughout life, the brain can form new connections between critical regions to adapt to those experiences. Researchers at Concordia University, 91˿��Ƶ, the Center for Research on Brain, Language, and Music, and the International Laboratory for Brain, Music, and Sound Research, found that long-term musical training and using two languages can lead to such rewiring in the brain.

New Methods in Auditory Neuroscience

Anastasia Sares — Fri, 30 Jan 2026 17:25:58 +0000

Every scientist needs tools to make their discoveries. Better telescopes let us see more galaxies, mass spectrometers reveal the chemical makeup of substances, particle colliders let us observe matter in extreme situations, and gene-editing allows us to see what happens when an organism lacks a specific gene. What, then, are the methods that scientists use to study subjects like hearing, music, and speech? What new tools are being created or refined? We interviewed CRBLM members who have recently created or used new methods.

Singing Birds And Signing Apes: What Animals Can Tell Us About Hearing, Speech, And Music

Anastasia Sares — Thu, 05 Feb 2026 16:00:53 +0000

Often, research about auditory processing here at the CRBLM focuses on humans. But for this article, we will highlight research about other animals and how they compare!

Speech and music are themselves collections of many auditory and motor abilities. To better understand the evolution of speech and music, we need to compare a number of species, and see which ones have these separate abilities, and which ones don’t. This is called the comparative approach.

Turning Down The Noise: Recent Research On How Our Brains Filter Auditory Information

Anastasia Sares — Thu, 05 Feb 2026 16:05:35 +0000

As the holidays approach, many of us are exposed to noisy situations: cocktail parties for work, the business of a shopping mall, or large family gatherings. Our brains are hard at work filtering out the things we don’t want to hear so we can focus on what matters. How does this work, and what happens when the noise is just too much?

How Can We Tell That A Violin Is Afraid? Interpreting Emotional Cues In Language And Music

Anastasia Sares — Thu, 05 Feb 2026 16:25:31 +0000

If you’re looking for the perfect Halloween mood music, check out the piece In Vain by Georg Friedrich Haas. Even if you’re sitting in a comfortable chair with a cup of tea, you can feel the shivers going down your spine as you listen. How does this piece communicate fear so well?