Wednesday, August 21st 14:00
Sølvberget – Møteplassen (1st floor)
Free- duration 1h
Please register using our contact form! Thanks!
We all experience emotions when listening to music, but do we understand its multiple powers on our brain and thus our health? This is what neuroscientists and psychologists are beginning to discover and demonstrate… Don’t miss this unique conference with Professor Stefan Kölsch from University of Bergen: the internationally renowned researcher also provides concrete tips on how we can all improve our well-being with music in our everyday lives.
Stefan Kölsch is the festival Reconciliation featured scientist and also an incarnation of the festival vision as he is himself a musician and a scientist. He will also intervene in the “Music and mind” concert on Saturday 24th August at Sankt Petri kirke and the closing concert, Saturday 24th August at 19.30.
Stefan Kölsch is a world leading brain scientist recruited by University of Bergen as Toppforsk (excellence research) Professor. His main research fields are neuroscience and experimental psychology. He is known for highly interdisciplinary work, co-authoring publications with neurologists, immunologists, psychiatrists, physicists, philosophers, musicologists, literary scholars, and psycholinguists. His bestseller book ” Good vibrations: the healing power of music” is available in german, french and norwegian…and soon in english.
Prof. Kölsch describes his research interests as follows: “I am interested in which brain processes make us happy and healthy, and unhappy and sick. I have a powerful personal connection to music (being a former musician myself), and I am particularly interested in how music can support mood-regulation, social connection, and self-motivation. I am also interested in the therapeutic effects of music on disorders and diseases, especially neurological diseases and psychiatric disorders. My group is currently running a large study funded by the Norwegian Research Council (Forskningsradet) investigating the therapeutic effects of music therapy and physical exercise in patients with Alzheimer’s disease, Mild Cognitive Impairment, and Subjective Cognitive Decline. Other neuroscience projects in my group investigate neural correlates of emotion, learning, and predictive processes.”
Stefan Kölsch is also a research fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig (Germany), and at the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics.
Stefan Kölsch studied instrumental and vocal music at the University of Arts Bremen, and then psychology as well as sociology at Leipzig University.