science talk with
Director of the Institute for Music Physiology and Musicians' Medicine
at the Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media
The connection between people and music is profound and manifests itself on various levels. From a biological perspective, music triggers physiological reactions, releases happiness hormones and influences the heartbeat.
On a psychological level, music can evoke strong emotional reactions: it can influence moods, provide comfort, reduce stress and reinforce positive emotions.
Music also contributes to cognitive development, especially in children. Even infants begin to "sing", explore and mould their voice, create neurophysiological auditory-sensory-motor connections and thus acquire control over breathing and the vocal tract.
In the Science Talk, Prof Dr Altenmüller will approach the significance of music from an evolutionary and comparative perspective. He will present the audience with music-psychological and neurobiological findings on the emotions involved in listening to music and making music and establish a link to the history of human development.
The events will be offered hybrid in presence and as a YouTube livestream to make them accessible to a wider interested audience outside the region.
Prof Dr Altenmüller studied medicine in Tübingen and Paris from 1974 to 1981 and music at the Freiburg University of Music from 1979 to 1985 (majoring in flute). After gaining his doctorate in medicine at the University of Freiburg, he also trained there as a specialist in neurology.
Since 1994, Prof. Dr Altenmüller has been a university professor and director of the "Institute for Music Physiology and Musicians' Medicine" (IMMM) at the Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media.
He was honoured with the Lower Saxony Science Prize in 2013.
From 2005 to 2011 he was President and since 2011 Vice President of the German Society for Music Physiology and Musicians' Medicine.
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