Here because of our recent Current Biology paper on birds that can dance? Click here to find out more and see example videos.

I am interested in the developmental and evolutionary origins of the human music capacity. My research is driven by the general questions of domain-specificity, innateness, and uniqueness of music -- Why is music a fundamental and universal part of human nature, and yet absent in other primate species?

In particular, I focus on how the music capacity interacts with other cognitive domains, such as social reasoning, emotion, and the motor system. My recent work has focused on the origins, cognitive mechanisms, and social consequences of entrainment to a musical beat.