Hello!

I am a cross-disciplinary researcher with a primary focus on the cognitive and cultural-evolutionary foundations of music. 

My current research explores the relationship between individual cognition and emerging population-level phenomena. For example, I am interested in how internal representations underlying melodic and harmonic syntax might scale up to form distinct musical "blueprints" across various traditions. In this context, Western cadences, for all their cultural idiosyncrasy, could be viewed as attractors, each specialised in expressing a limited yet universal set of emotions.

More broadly, I am interested in the evolutionary processes that operate on culture. Such processes shape how transmitted forms of communication and meaning-making (language and music prime illustrations thereof) differentiate and give rise to the cross-cultural diversity we observe around us.

I approach such interdisciplinary questions with complementary methodologies:

• • Computational modeling, simulation, and corpus analyses: Test intuitions from music theory using the tools of digital humanities.

  • Neuroimaging and cognitive psychology: Observe behavioral and (neuro)physiological responses to music in light of known mechanisms.

  • Evolutionary and cultural anthropology: Interpret these mechanisms to understand the origins of music and language, thereby developing comprehensive, testable theories.

  • Data science, machine learning, and signal processing: Identify and interpret patterns of variability and their sources.

This multi-faceted approach allows me to build a holistic understanding of how music and language evolve and diversify across cultures.

My work has been published in journals such as Science, Cortex, Neuropsychologia, Scientific Reports, and Behavioural and Brain Sciences; as well as featured in media outlets such as the BBC and the ÖRF.